Hidden Sugars in Sweetened Foods: Impact, Identification, Solutions

This report focuses on the pervasive issue of 'hidden sugars' in sweetened foods and their detrimental effects on health, particularly oral health. It emphasizes the importance of checking sugar intake, even the hidden sources, and replacing high-sugar items with healthier alternatives. The target audience includes patients of all ages, especially children, highlighting the objectives of understanding what hidden sugars are, identifying foods containing them, and making healthier dietary choices. The report details how sugar contributes to tooth decay, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and worsened diabetes, as well as joint pain. It provides guidance on identifying hidden sugars by carefully reading food labels and recognizing terms ending in 'ose.' Recommendations include checking food labels, opting for fresh foods, tracking calorie intake, advertising balanced diets, restricting meal timings, ensuring proper dental hygiene, and substituting sugary drinks with water. Specific foods containing hidden sugars, such as soft drinks, sweets, cereal bars, and canned goods, are listed. The report also includes a list of references. Desklib provides this and many other solved assignments for students.

Target audience
•Patients of all age groups,
especially the children who are
very fond of sweetened food.
•5-6 % of 5 years old children in
England suffers from tooth
decay.
•Tooth decay has been found to
be the most common reason for
the hospital admissions in
children aged between 5-9
years old between the years 5-
9.
Three main objectives for the public viewing this poster are asThree main objectives for the public viewing this poster are as
follows:-follows:-
•The viewers/patients will be able to understand what the hidden sugars are?
•The viewers/patients will be able to identify the food containing hidden sugars.
•The viewers/patients will be able to make choices for healthier diet and will be
able to avoid sweetened food as much as possible.
Food that contains “Hidden Sugars”Food that contains “Hidden Sugars”
•Added sugars are found in normal soft drinks, sweets candies, cookies and
cakes.
•Added sugars are common in cereal bars, fruit flakes/bars and even in juices
labelled “non-added sugar”.
•Pasta, canned vegetables, condiments and dressings.
•Canned vegetables, branded sushi rice and dried fruits and smoothies.
•Food products like Energise, Ribena, Skittles, Raisins, Blueberries, Trek, Eat
natural and Coca-Cola has been found to contain 34-46 grams of sugar per
package or can , which is about 12oz (Stevens et al. 2015).
•Canned soup - 14.9g per 300g portion
•Bread- 1.4g in one medium-sized slice
•flavored water- 27.5g per 500ml
Ill effects of “hidden sugar” in sweetenedIll effects of “hidden sugar” in sweetened
foodfood
•Sugar intake is bad for the teeth and causes tooth decay.
•The bacterial flora residing inside the mouth reacts with the
sugar to form acid that causes mineral loss in the tooth
enamel (Watt and Rouxel 2012). Over the time, time, the
enamel is weakened and a cavity is formed. Cavity might
give rise to bad breath, tooth ache, yellowing of the enamel
and bleeding of gums (Ahmadi-Motamayel et al. 2014).
•The two bacteria residing inside the mouth and is
responsible for the decaying of tooth are Streptococcus
sorbrinus and Streptococcus mutans.
•According to Public health England., (2016), consuming free
sugar increases death out of chronic diseases by 38 %.
•Consumption of sugar increases the risk of cardiovascular
diseases, increases the chance of obesity and overweight.
•Excessive consumption of sugar worsens diabetes.
•Sugar consumption has also been found to be associated
with worsening of the joint pain and increases the risk of
rheumatoid arthritis (McLennan et al. 2013).
Recommendations
•Intake of “hidden sugars” can be controlled by checking the food labels before buying them.
•Opting for healthier, nutritious and fresh food and vegetables, other than sweetened food and beverages.
•Keeping a track of the total calories intake in a day.
•Advertising for a better and balanced diets.
•Restricting the meal timings in order to prevent the acid attack in the tooth enamel.
•Ensure brushing of the teeth after each meal and especially after the consumption of desserts (Gupta et al. 2013).
•Substitute water can be used instead of the sodas which contains added sugar. Processed fruit juices should be
avoided (McLennan et al. 2013).
•Regular dental check-ups should be scheduled
•Sweetened drinks should be avoided before going to bed as the liquid might pool in the mouth and can facilitate
acid formation
•Gupta et al. (2013) have stated that placing sealants on the first molars of the children can be helpful in protecting
the teeth from corrosions.
•
References
Ahmadi-Motamayel, F., Rezaei-Soufi, L., Kiani, L., Alikhani, M.Y., Poorolajal, J. and Moghadam, M., 2013. Effects
of honey, glucose, and fructose on the enamel demineralization depth. Journal of Dental Sciences, 8(2), pp.147-
150.
Gupta, P., Gupta, N., Pawar, A.P., Birajdar, S.S., Natt, A.S. and Singh, H.P., 2013. Role of sugar and sugar
substitutes in dental caries: a review. ISRN dentistry, 2013.
McLennan, A.K., Ulijaszek, S.J. and Eli, K., 2014. Social aspects of dietary sugars. Dietary Sugars Health, 1, p.1.
Olusile, A., Adeniyi, A. and Orebanjo, O. (2014). Self-rated oral health status, oral health service utilization, and
oral hygiene practices among adult Nigerians. BMC Oral Health, 14(1).
Public health England., 2016.Child oral health .Access date: 1.2.2019. Retrieved
from:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-oral-health-applying-all-our-health/child-oral-health-
applying-all-our-health
Stevens, L.J., Burgess, J.R., Stochelski, M.A. and Kuczek, T., 2015. Amounts of artificial food dyes and added
sugars in foods and sweets commonly consumed by children. Clinical pediatrics, 54(4), pp.309-321.
Watt, R.G. and Rouxel, P.L., 2012. Dental caries, sugars and food policy. Archives of disease in childhood, 97(9),
pp.769-772.
How to identify the hiddenHow to identify the hidden
sugarssugars
•The labels on the food should be
read carefully. Most of the food
containing artificial sugar might not
have the word “sugar” mentioned on
the labels.
•Hidden sugars usually ends with
“ose” and it includes sucrose,
fructose, galactose, lactose and
honey.
•Sometimes they also contain words
like brown sugar, corn sweetener,
corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate ,
invert and molasses
Beware of Hidden sugarsBeware of Hidden sugars!!!!
Take home message!!!Take home message!!!
Check the sugar intake, even the hidden one beforeCheck the sugar intake, even the hidden one before
consuming it.consuming it.
Replace high sugar food items with low sugarReplace high sugar food items with low sugar
alternatives.alternatives.
Take blood sugar checks every 6 months to ensure notTake blood sugar checks every 6 months to ensure not
acquiring diabetes or similar diseases.acquiring diabetes or similar diseases.