WHEN it comes to sugar, not everything in Scotland is sweet right now.
With two thirds of adults overweight and 30 per cent obese, health experts are calling on the Scottish Government to take action.
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On average, 10 per cent of our daily calories come from sugar — a big reason for some serious health issues.
Whether it’s tooth decay, obesity or cardiovascular disease, some folk may feel the effects without even realising it. And with so many different types of sugars — healthy and unhealthy ones — it’s hard to keep track of what goes in and how it comes out.
Expert nutritionist Sonnda Catto hopes Sugar Awareness Week, which runs until today, can play a part in educating Scots.
The former researcher and Michelin-starred chef, from Glasgow, says: “It’s one of the biggest health problems Scotland and the UK is facing.
“We add sugar to our foods, but people forget it’s already there to begin with in a lot of the foods we eat, especially what we call ‘ultra-processed foods’ (UPFs).
“UPFs are highly-processed, industrially-made formulations that contain little real food.
“They’re easy to spot, in attractive packaging intended to entice people. Think of all the brightly packaged stuff you see in supermarkets. Flip over to the back of the packet and they have two defining hallmarks.
“One, they contain ingredients you’d never find in a domestic kitchen. The list reads more like things from a chemistry lab.
“Two, they contain a whole host of cosmetic additives to make them look, smell and taste better.
“Our consumption of UPFs is the second highest in the world, second only to the US.
“UPFs make up over half the UK diet — we get 56 per cent of our calories from them. And that’s a problem because they’re typically high in sugar. Eating too much sugar increases your risk of tooth decay, type two diabetes and makes us put on weight.
“But you might be surprised to know it also increases your risk of cardiovascular disease.
“In Scotland, on average, we get ten per cent of our calories from sugar. Sugar intake at this level makes us overweight, which increases our risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) over the long term.
“Intakes above 20 per cent of calories are associated with a 50 per cent increase in the risk of death from CVD, while intakes above 25 per cent double the risk.”
Sonnda reckons our problem with sugar stems from a lack of knowledge.
Previous generations were taught how to cook healthy meals from scratch, and not to rely on grub you shove in the oven or microwave.
She explains: “The root problem is that we’re ‘time poor’ and not all of us have the skills to cook food from scratch anymore.
“In the UK, we started to see processed foods in the 1960s, when it became more common for both parents to work and our need for convenience rose.
“With each successive generation eating more and more processed food, you get skill loss. Three generations on, lack of cooking skills is another barrier to us eating more healthily.
“The greatest difference we can make to diet quality is for people to eat less ultra-processed foods and make more meals from scratch.”
But Sonnda insists not all sugars are bad for you.
She adds: “Sugar occurs naturally in foods like fruit, vegetables, grains, pulses and dairy products.
“If we eat an apple, its natural sugars are bound up with fibre and the body has to work to release them.
“When you take the same apple and stick it in a juicer, you’re releasing all the sugars and taking out the fibre, the one substance that slows the release of those sugars into your bloodstream, so you have a double whammy effect — freed sugars and nothing to slow how quickly they hit your bloodstream.”
Sonnda has called on the Scottish Government to intervene and educate people about the dangers.
She added: “We are stacking up problems for the future. Those in the healthy weight range are now in the minority — two thirds of adults are overweight and 30 per cent are obese. Reducing the amount of sugar in the food chain could reduce those statistics dramatically.
“Part of the solution is for the government to get much tougher on Big Food businesses, to cut down the amount of sugary, ultra-processed foods in our shops, homes, schools, hospitals and restaurants.
“I think government needs to step in and educate people on how to make quick, simple meals from real foods.
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“It should be a bigger part of the school curriculum.”
For more info on Sonnda, log onto sonndacatto.co.uk.
SWEET ENOUGH
SONNDA’S recipe for sugar free, flourless salted chocolate mousse cake.
INGREDIENTS:
100g 85% dark chocolate
88g salted, grass-fed, cultured butter, cubed and cold
1 tbsp honey
½ tsp vanilla paste
¼ teaspoon finely ground sea salt
Three organic, free-range medium eggs, at room temperature
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 150°C and line the base of a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
Break the chocolate and melt in a microwave.
Add the butter, honey, vanilla and salt and stir. Return to the microwave and heat until butter has completely melted.
While mix cools, break eggs into a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed then add the chocolate mix a third at a time.
Pour the mix into the prepared baking tin and level the surface with a spatula. Bake for between 17 and 20 minutes.
Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes then remove and dust with cocoa powder and turn out on to a serving plate.
Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry room where it will keep for up to 5 or 6 days.