你的食物里添加了多少糖？How much added sugar is in your food Marketplace

sleuthing for sugar at the supermarket


we're looking for added sugar hidden in


packaged foods that you don't think of


as sweets or treats






back at cbc time to decode these food


labels


with a registered dietitian stefania


we're talking


something sweet today we're talking all


about sugar yes we


are stefania palmeri says naturally


occurring sugars in fruit and dairy are


nothing to worry about


but we do need to limit how much added


sugar we eat


added is exactly that anything that you


or a manufacturer


puts in just for taste sugar shock


number one


liberte zero percent organic vanilla


yogurt


so if we take a look at the label here


we see 19 grams of sugar


nutrition labels in canada are only


required to show


total sugars not how much sugar has been


added by the manufacturer


but we're going to try to find out the


sweet secret


stefania's first tip check the


ingredient list


the higher up an ingredient is on the


list the more of it there is


with this yogurt the second ingredient


includes


sugar that's a pretty big giveaway that


there is something added to this product


to get it


to be this way we do the math the


vanilla yogurt has 19 grams of total


sugar


per serving compare that to plain


unsweetened liberte


zero percent organic yogurt with only


five grams


that suggests the vanilla yogurt has 14


grams of added sugar


in just one serving which is slightly


over three teaspoons of added sugar that


would be the best way we could


guesstimate it


four grams is about one teaspoon we're


going to show you what that looks


like there's one teaspoon


two teaspoons three teaspoons of added


sugar


just for having a flavored yogurt


general mills the owner of liberte says


they follow health canada's regulations


which include the labeling of total


sugars in the product


but they won't confirm how much added


sugar


is in their vanilla yogurt stefania's


sweet suggestion to reduce


your added sugar take a hundred gram cup


of a flavored yogurt


to the individual packet and dilute it


down in a larger tub of plain yogurt


and that way they can have the best of


both worlds most prepackaged foods have


added sugar


public health professor david hammond


studied added sugar in


40 000 packaged foods in canada we found


that about two-thirds of products had


added sugar


the real challenges are things that


consumers see


as a healthy alternative but fact are


often


chock full of added or free sugars so


it's sneaky sugar


it's sneaky sugar and i think what makes


it sneaky is that it's very hard


you know what do we do we tell people to


go look on the back of the label


and look at the number most canadians


have no idea how much a gram of sugar is


how did you guys determine that the


sugar had actually been added because


it's not on the label the short answer


is it's very difficult to tell


just from the label


sugar shock number two campbell's


condensed tomato soup


the label says one cup of soup has got


16 grams of sugar


so what's tricky about a tomato soup is


that tomatoes and certain vegetables


do have natural sugar content but if we


double check with the ingredient list


you'll notice that the third ingredient


is glucose fructose which is an added


sugar


so how much sugar has been added we call


up the campbell's consumer line to find


out


unfortunately we are not able to note


the exact amount of added sugar


in the soup you don't know


no we're not able to know i can send


this with my research


team and i can get back to you either by


phone or


email later campbell's media team tells


us


their tomato soup has 11 grams of added


sugar


in one cup that's just under three


teaspoons


one two three but


south of the border there are no sugar


secrets


new regulations mean added sugar is


right there on the label it's also on


campbell's u.s website


i find that much more helpful to the


average consumer to families because if


these purchases


are being made at the store that's


really where the decision-making is


happening


the world health organization recommends


limiting added sugar or


free sugars to just 25 grams a day


for maximum health benefits that's about


six teaspoons


so after some yogurt and soup it seems


we're already at the recommended limit


stefania says you've got to be mindful


of marketing


while shopping always check the facts


the front of the packaging is intended


for marketing and while some of those


health claims can be alluring and draw


your attention to the product


really you want to do a little bit of


detective work and check the side


with the nutrition facts panel the


ingredient list to make a fully informed


decision for yourself time for sugar


shock number three


vitamin water calcium orange a nutrient


enhanced water beverage


i think this is a product that has very


persuasive marketing and kind of appeals


to the on-the-go canadian


it's got 32 grams of total sugar


but how much is added coca-cola owns


vitamin water


their media team won't tell us but they


do


say too much sugar isn't good for anyone


and they offer many low or zero sugar


drinks


including zero sugar vitamin water but


with cane sugar as the second


ingredient stefania suspects that all of


the 32 grams of sugar


are added that would be about eight


teaspoons of sugar


eight oh my gosh i might need a bigger


bowl let's try


one two three four


oh my gosh five six


seven wow look at that


you've already knocked out your full


day's worth of added sugar just in one


drink you're done for a day in a bit


health canada does not allow companies


to include added sugar on the label


but they say there's nothing to prevent


companies from telling you


if you ask only one of the companies


that we reached out to has gotten back


to us about added sugar


and that was campbell's are you


surprised that


like even we can't get the answers i


don't think it's in their interest to


talk about just hammering their products


and at


what level we stay at sugar we need to


make it easier for consumers whether


it's awkward for companies or not


canada is getting new nutrition labels


but added sugar


still isn't listed we ask health canada


why not


they say it's more important that


consumers know the total amount of


sugars in a product


rather than only what's been added and


say


their new labels will help canadians


reduce their sugar intake


and make informed choices but hammond


thinks


it's a missed opportunity the reality is


that we're gonna


have to require companies to do this


because they're not giving consumers


this information on their own


so the next time you're out shopping


keep your eyes open for the new


nutrition labels health canada is


rolling out


and we'll be watching for them too to


see how helpful they


really are and we're still on the


lookout for more sugar stocks


so send us your stories we're at


marketplace at cbc.ca