The sugar saga: is the food industry really to blame?

By Rebecca Almond

The issue seems deceptively simple: sugar is calorific, harmful to teeth and has no nutritional value, so manufacturers should remove it from their products – case closed. Well hang on just a minute Mr Prosecutor, this is far from a cut and shut case…

You see, while sugar isn’t essential in the diet, it does serve other key functions in the production of foods and drinks beyond adding sweetness – such as providing texture, bulk and extending shelf life – so removing sugar completely isn’t always a feasible solution. 

Encouragingly, though, members of the UK’s Food and Drink Federation(FDF) have pledged to help improve public health by reducing the amount of sugar in products where this will result in an overall calorie reduction. But to extract some of the sugar from a product requires something else to take its place, and looking at the options it’s slim pickings: 1g sugar contains 4kcal, 1g protein contains 4kcal and 1g fat contains 9kcal. So is it time to stop wagging the finger at the food industry? Well, not quite…

This year sees the rolling out of mandatory on-pack labelling as part of a new European Regulation – great news for those of us who are keen to make healthier food choices. But there’s a big gap between manufacturers providing labelling information and consumers understanding what it truly means. If I’m honest, a front-of-pack label that tells me there are 9.5g sugar in a pot of fat-free yogurt isn’t all that helpful. What does 9.5g sugar look like? Aside from whipping up the occasional weekend bake, I’m not in the habit of weighing out sugar. Teaspoons, sugar cubes… that sort of measurement I can relate to.

Then there’s the ingredients list. ‘Where sugars are included in products, the different sources are clearly labelled in the ingredients list and the amount of total sugars is provided in the nutrition table,’ says Barbara Gallani, FDF Director of Regulation, Science and Health. Clear, yes, comprehensible, no. Sugar comes in many guises: sucrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, treacle… Sometimes these sugars occur naturally in foods (milk, yogurt and fruit) and other times they're added (biscuits, cakes and chocolate). The reality is, unless you know the lingo, even detailed food labels won’t always be that useful. So what’s the solution?

‘While there’s certainly room for the food industry to reduce the amount of added sugar in products, without them having to add more fat or salt, it’s crucial that we help consumers understand the often complicated information provided on pack,’ says HFG nutrition consultant and registered dietitian Juliette Kellow. ‘As a rule, foods that contain no more than 5g sugar per 100g are ‘low sugar’ products.’ Websites such as nhs.uk/Change4Lifetranslate the sugar jargon and provide useful sugar swap suggestions, and of course there’s the expert advice in your Healthy Food Guide magazine. But perhaps the easiest way to cut back on added sugar is for us to eat homemade meals: ‘Cooking meals from scratch using fresh ingredients means you’ll know exactly what’s in them and you won’t need to worry about hidden sugars,’ says Juliette.

What changes, if any, would you like to see the food industry make to their on-pack sugar labelling?

Dairy-free sticky ginger cake

This is an indulgent treat for people who can’t eat dairy. The sugar and treacle produce a really sticky cake, which will taste even better after a day or two.

Prep 20 min Cook 40 min Cuts into 8

Cooking oil spray, to grease

150ml soya milk (or dairy-free alternative to milk)

2tbsp black treacle

100ml groundnut oil

225g self-raising flour

½tsp baking powder

100g Whitworths dark soft brown sugar

1tsp ground ginger

50g crystallised ginger, finely chopped

1tsp white wine vinegar

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1.     Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin.

2.     Beat the soya milk or dairy-free alternative to milk, treacle and oil together. Add the flour, baking powder, sugar, ground and crystallised ginger and mix well. Stir the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda together, add to the batter and mix well. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 35–40 min until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

3.     Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to stand in the tin for 1-2 min before transferring to a wire rack to cool.  

Per slice: 296kcal; 3.1g protein; 13.3g fat; 2.6g saturates; 43.8g carbs; 21.9g sugar; 1.3g fibre; 0.7g salt; 145mg calcium; 2.3mg iron

Is coconut oil healthy?

By Liz Atkins

At Healthy Food Guide we get a lot of enquiries about coconut oil. Is it better for you than other oils, is it really full of antioxidants, can it help you lose weight, and do all those coconut-crazed celebrities know something the rest of us don’t? It certainly seems to be taking up a lot of supermarket shelf space at the moment…

So the facts are these: coconut oil is high in saturated 

fat – a typical level tablespoon has 135kcal and 15g fat, 

of which 13g are saturated (it also has small amounts of monounsaturates and polyunsaturates). We shouldn’t be eating more than 20g saturates a day if we want to reduce the risk of raising bad (LDL) cholesterol in the blood, and thus the chances of heart disease.

But here the waters get a little muddied... Virgin coconut oil is high in lauric acid, a type of saturated fat that’s sub-classified as a medium-chain fatty acid. This, say scientists, can lead to a rise in both bad and good (HDL) cholesterol levels in our blood. So, despite being rich in saturated fat, virgin coconut oil may actually have a neutral - or even beneficial - effect on overall blood cholesterol levels. At least, that’s what early research is suggesting. But it’s far from conclusive.

Research into other health benefits, including its effect on weight loss, is limited. Virgin coconut oil does appear to contain some antioxidants but, if you’re eating a balanced, varied diet that includes plenty of fruit and veg each day, you shouldn’t be going short on these.

Sadly, like all other oils, it’s high in calories, so if you’re watching your weight, you need to restrict the amount you use. Skinnier-than-average celebrities, remember, tend to eat very little of anything, coconut oil included. The government recommends sticking below 70g total fat and 20g saturated fat each day.

Still curious?

If you want to try it, we recommend you go for virgin coconut oil, which comes from the fruit of the ripe coconut flesh. It’s an unrefined fat, ie no chemicals are used and it’s not heated to high temperatures. Avoid both refined and partially hydrogenated coconut oil: they’re likely to contain trans fats, which appear to be even more damaging to our bodies than saturated fats.

How to cut your risk of type 2 diabetes

By Tracy Kelly, Diabetes UK

Diabetes levels are soaring with no signs of slowing down.

New figures just released by Diabetes UK show that the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK has increased to more than 3.2 million. This is the biggest increase in a single year since 2008, with 163,000 more cases in 2013 than there were in 2012.

These figures demonstrate that the sharp rise of new cases over the last decade shows no signs of slowing down. Even more worrying is that if we continue on this trajectory it is predicted there will be 5 million people affected by diabetes in the UK by 2025.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for most of the increase and one of the main reasons for this is the high obesity rate. Being overweight is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes, while other factors include genetics, age and ethnicity. We need more people to be aware of diabetes, more people to know their risk of developing type 2 diabetes and more people being supported to reduce their risk of developing it.

The big increase in the number of people with diabetes confirms that we are in the middle of an unfolding public health disaster  and  it is frightening to think that one in 17 people you walk past in the street has been diagnosed with the condition. This doesn’t include the 630,000 who have diabetes but don’t yet know it. The time to act is now! 

Apart from campaigning for better public awareness, better prevention programmes for type 2 diabetes and better care for everyone with diabetes, we need to address the obesity crisis by making healthy food cheaper and more accessible and by making it easier for people to build physical activity into their daily lives.

We’d really encourage Healthy Food Guide readers to find out more about diabetes by visiting www.diabetes.org.uk. You can also find out your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by taking a quick online risk assessment (www.diabetes.org.uk/risk) or discussing your concerns with your nurse or doctor.  Taking action now could help you to significantly reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

How to cook a healthy Valentine’s supper

By Melanie Leyshon

HFG crème brûlée: pure indulgence for under 200kcal 

One Valentine’s Day, before joining Healthy Food Guide, I was planning a night-in for two. I spent an age on recipe sites, trying to find three perfect courses – not too everyday, not too indulgent. There’s nothing seductive about a pudding that delivers 900 calories in one go or a meal that makes you feel so stuffed that you want to go to bed early… to sleep it off.

I couldn’t find any planned menus I liked, so chose three recipes that came in under 1,000 calories – a simple smoked salmon pâté to start, a fantastic seared steak with rocket (tagliata) and an extravagant, but not too OTT, chocolate pud (thanks to Healthy Food Guidemagazine’s indulgent cookery cousin, http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk).

This year, as editor of Healthy Food Guide, I thought I’d do myself (and those of you who are also staying in à deux) a favour by asking our recipe consultant Phil Mundy to plan a healthier Valentine’s supper. The brief: the menu needed to be satisfyingly sexy but still under 700 calories.

Phil chose a French bistro-style meal that has 673 calories all-in: a prawn salad with mango and chilli, steak and chips with a homemade tomato chutney and a prepare-ahead crème brulée.

Our friends at the Express newspaper came over to the HFG test kitchen to film Phil cooking all three recipes. Even the paper’s man-size cameraman found them filling as well as tasty.

Sit back and watch Phil whiz up the menu at http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/food/454999/How-to-cook-a-healthy-three-course-Valentine-s-Day-dinner-for-two. He also shares his brilliant cookery tips and nutrition advice.

For more recipe clips, see Phil cook our three favourite Healthy Food Guide mood-boosting recipes at: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/food/455028/beat-the-january-blues-with-three-easy-mood-boosting-recipes.

How to get a lean ballerina body

By Rebecca Almond

Thighs burning, abs shaking, face a sweaty mess – working for a toned ballerina body is harder than I thought. I’m at Barrecore in Mayfair, London, road-testing the ballet-inspired workout craze that’s got the nation pirouetting with glee at its body-shaping power. ‘It’ll be fine,’ I convince myself as I walk into the studio, recalling my dance training of days gone by. But this is not the toes-pointed, tutu-wearing Swan Lake style of ballet I remember. Ballet shoes and experience are not required for this exercise class – just a willingness to work your body hard.

‘This will hurt – your muscles will shake, they’re supposed to,’ the instructor warns at the beginning of the session. And she’s not kidding. The 60-minute workout is a blend of high repetition pilates and barre exercises that use your body weight and small equipment (light weights, pilates ball, resistance band) to exhaust every muscle group, alternated with stretching – and boy do you need to stretch! It’s these isometric movements (static holds with small contractions) that shape and hone the muscles, improving your posture and alignment – and burn up to 500 calories.

In spite of the pain, I leave the class feeling a few inches taller, tauter and buzzing with endorphins – I even booked myself in for the same time next week. An exercise class that tones the whole body and burns calories, all under the pretence of gracefulness… I'm hooked.

The next day, I catch up with Barrecore founder Niki Rein and ask her to share her ballet-body tips:

What’s so good about the Barrecore way of exercising?

We work the body like dancers do – targeting every muscle in the body, especially the small stabilisers (the muscles that hold the body in place so a desired movement can be performed) to create long, lean lines.

What’s your favourite exercise?

I love our thigh exercise, V Waterski. Stand at the barre, heels together with toes turned out, then lean back and pulse towards the barre. It’s a thigh killer that shapes the inner and outer muscles, stretching and elongating them at the same time. Plus, it lifts the seat, flattens the abdominal wall and sculpts the back. 

The V Waterski

When is the best time of day to exercise?

Before 10am is the best time as our cortisol (stress response hormone) levels are highest. The amount of cortisol in our bodies naturally reduces throughout the day so we are relaxed by bedtime, but exercise – a stressor – results in the release of extra cortisol from the adrenal gland. By working out in the morning when cortisol levels are already elevated, it gives the body plenty of time to reach the relaxed state needed for deep restorative sleep. Exercising later in the day may disrupt the natural cortisol rhythm. Plus, studies show people who work out in the morning are more consistent exercisers than those who exercise in the evening. 

How long should you wait after eating before working out?

Two hours after a large meal, but it’s fine to have a light snack just before exercise.  Great light snack choices include a handful of nuts, a raw energy bar such as LoveRaw, or even a couple of bites of chicken will help you burn fat and sustain your energy levels during the workout.

What is your favourite post-workout snack?

I love a green vegetable and apple juice after exercising. Workouts cause acidity in the body, so the greens help increase alkalinity, while the sugar in the apple helps improve insulin uptake after exercise. I always aim to get a little bit of protein shortly after my juice, too, for muscle recovery.

What’s your best piece of fitness advice?

Stay mentally connected to what you are doing – try and visualise your muscles working and changing. This will get you working harder and burning more calories.

Fancy trying it for yourself? Barrecore has studios in London’s Mayfair and Chelsea, or you can download one of the online classes and workout in the comfort of your own home. Visit barrecore.co.uk for class times and prices.