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Diet Many parents underestimate sugar content in food
Many children consume too much sugar. The problem is that there is hidden sugar in many food products. A majority of parents underestimate how much of the sweetener really is in food. This has an impact on the health of their offspring.
High sugar consumption endangers the health
Too much sugar makes you fat and sick - this has been proven in numerous studies. For example, it has long been known that high sugar intake can lead to overweight or obesity, dental diseases or diabetes, among other things. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a maximum of 50 grams of free sugar a day. On average, the Germans absorb almost twice the amount. This also has to do with the hidden sugar in food.
Many people eat too much sugar, also because they are unaware of how much of the sweetener is hidden in finished foods. This has dramatic health effects. (Image: Sebastian Studio / fotolia.com) Hidden sugar in ready-to-eat foods
Health experts are always in favor of lower sugar intake. Many Germans assume that they are withhold the sweetener anyway.
A Forsa study by the AOK Baden-Württemberg showed that two-thirds of people in this country believe that they consume no more than 50 grams of sugar per day, according to an audio contribution.
31 percent even said it was even less. In reality, the Germans eat but 90 grams daily.
The problem is often the hidden sugar in finished foods. Many are unaware of how much of it is contained in each of the different products.
Potential risk factor for overweight
As the health insurance AOK reported in a release, 92 percent of parents underestimate the sugar content in a commercial 250-gram fruit yoghurt.
On average, they go from just four instead of the actual eleven sugar cubes in such a yogurt cup. This misjudgment is noticeable in the health of the children.
Because the more the parents underestimate the sugar content, the higher is the body mass index (BMI) of the children. This is the result of a recent scientific study by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in cooperation with the University of Mannheim.
"As a significant finding in the context of the effort to reduce sugar", sees Prof. dr. Ralph Hertwig, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the fact "that parents tend to underestimate the sugar in various foods often".
Prof. Dr. Jutta Mata, a health psychologist at the University of Mannheim, emphasized "that parents have a significant influence on the food choices of their children and therefore the frequent underestimation of sugar is a potential risk factor for overweight children".
More and more fat children
Obesity in children has increased dramatically in recent years. 18 percent of eleven to 17-year-olds are overweight or even obese.
The chairman of the board of the AOK-Bundesverband, Martin Litsch, demands from politics and food industry much more efforts for the effective sugar reduction:
"We just need more transparency about hidden sugar. In order to make appropriate nutritional choices, parents need to be able to estimate how much sugar is in food and drinks. But the food industry has been resisting patronizing food labeling for years. "
Meanwhile, they continue to process unnecessary sugar in the products and advertise nationwide with targeted child marketing.
AOK launches sugar reduction campaign
Therefore, the AOK launches a national campaign for sugar reduction under the motto "Sweet was yesterday": "We are far ahead in the European sugar ranking, and that can be a huge problem if we do not take countermeasures."
The Health Insurance Fund is not alone in that opinion, Litsch emphasized, that is why it will set up an alliance for sugar reduction with other partners in order to finally come to binding agreements and effective measures following the example of Great Britain.
Also Dr. Dietrich Garlichs, Managing Director of the German Diabetes Association, which also wants to get involved in the Action Alliance, sees sugar consumption in Germany as critical:
"The policy of encouraging individuals to eat healthily and avoid being overweight has been ineffective," said the expert.
"Our environment has changed too much: fast food and snacks are available around the clock on every corner. The industry spends a hundred times more advertising money on confectionery than on fruit and vegetables. "
And: "For information and education, not even one percent of confectionery advertising alone is available. But while we easily accept seat belts and helmets in road traffic, we still find it difficult to adopt security rules for common diseases such as obesity and diabetes. "
Unhealthy food to fight
AOK executive committee Litsch sees beside the food manufacturers above all the politics in the obligation. The recently submitted by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture draft of a "National Strategy for the reduction of sugar, fats and salt in finished products" he is skeptical:
"It is gratifying that our nutrition minister wants to use a national strategy to finally declare war on unhealthy foods. But shortly before the end of the legislature, this announcement comes late and remains essentially unbinding. "
At least one can not rely on voluntary commitments of the food industry.
"We have recently found this at EU level. Here, the commitment of the food companies to voluntarily renounce child marketing measures, completely ineffective. Therefore it would be negligent to ignore this experience in the national strategy and again only rely on trust. "(Ad)