The Added Sugar Repository
Laurent Adamowicz
Founder & President at EChO - Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation, Inc.
74% of the food and beverages we consume in the United States contain some form of added sugar, unbeknown to most consumers because over half of that sugar comes in savory foods such as chicken, hamburgers, bread, salad dressing, pasta sauce, soup, meat, vegetables, and prepared foods, fresh, frozen, and packaged.
The US government agencies responsible for our food labels and safety (USDA, FDA) list only 17 to 20 added sugars. EChO – Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation believes a Repository of all added sugars is necessary as a measure of prevention for public health, to inform the public and promote healthy diets to all populations, starting with those who need it the most, the underserved low-income minorities. EChO Foundation’s Added Sugar Repository currently has over 100 names of added sugars, the most extensive list created so far, with examples of actual products containing those sugars.
For instance, Cup Noodle Instant Ramen contains several forms of added sugar: Maltodextrin, Dextrose, Sugar, and Lactose. They total 2 grams per cup, that is only half a teaspoon but it adds up, especially with the world now consuming nearly 100 billion cups of instant ramen annually. That amounts to 200,000 tons of added sugar in just that single product. One way to illustrate the quantity of sugar it represents is to imagine 27 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. That is approximately 200,000 tons!
It is encouraging to see the efforts of the American Heart Association to educate the public and promote the consumption of no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar by children ages 2 to 18. However, the reality is the average population in the United States consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar per day and teens even 30 teaspoons daily.
Identifying all added sugars in our food and beverages is an important step towards better protection of the public and prevention of childhood obesity.
On the Added Sugar Repository, EChO Foundation invites the public to participate and crowd-source the names of added sugar and products containing them. Anyone can send their product shots and ingredients to [email protected]
Sources:
Added Sugar Repository: https://echoforgood.org/blog/92-names-for-added-sugar
Use of caloric and non-caloric sweeteners in US consumer packaged foods, 2005–9: