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by PittleyDunkin 599 days ago
> The fact is the US government just lumps all forms of sugar together and labels it all genetically as sugar…ignores there are different forms of sugar, each processed by our bodies differently and having different metabolic impacts and harms.

At the same time, these differences can be overstated. E.g. look at how "added sugar" is distinct from other carbohydrates but no "total sugar" metric on nutritional boxes on food products.
2 comments
lolinder 599 days ago
> E.g. look at how "added sugar" is distinct from other carbohydrates but no "total sugar" metric on nutritional boxes on food products.

I had to go check a few labels to be sure, but this is absolutely not true in the US—each nutrition label has a "total sugars" category that additionally breaks out the added sugars from the total sugar.

See the example on this page [0], and discussion of the sugars lines here [1]. Also see this PDF showing the differences in the 2018 nutrition facts label from the old one [2], which clearly shows total sugars have been there in at least the last two iterations.

Maybe you're thinking of the fact that there's no daily value listed?

[0] https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-education-resources-mater...

[1] https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/added-sugars-...

[2] https://www.fda.gov/media/99331/download

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Etheryte 599 days ago
Just for context, total sugar is the only thing shown on European food labels. Makes it somewhat annoying the other way around, it's hard to figure out if it's just the sugars the ingredients contained or if it's stuffed with extra. I prefer this worry over the other option though. In a perfect world we would have both.
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illiac786 599 days ago
If sugar is added, it’s in the ingredients list in the EU. They are sorted by decreasing amount, hence while you won’t be able to tell exactly how much was added, you can narrow it down. But sometimes they add different sugar types and it becomes really difficult to estimate the quantity of added sugar.

Hence I would say it’s easy to know if sugar is added if you know the names it goes by. But it’s difficult to know how much.

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lolinder 599 days ago
The US does have both as of 2018:

https://www.fda.gov/media/99331/download

It has had total sugars for as long as I've known the labels, and was changed in 2018 to break out added sugars. I'm not at all sure what OP is thinking.

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