2024-03-19 17:55:41
The National Food Safety Agency (ANSES) studied from 2008 to 2020 the composition of more than 50,000 processed foods, both sweet and savory, to assess the frequency with which they contain sweetening ingredients. The conclusions of this study published Monday March 18 show that the majority of foods (77%) still contain at least one sweetening ingredient, but that there has been a decline in their use over previous years.
This is due to the fact that manufacturers are less inclined to use a large number of sweetening ingredients. But the agency warns that this should not be concluded from a general drop in the sugar content of foods but rather from the fact that sugars such as white sugar or fruit juices may be preferred to others by manufacturers. . As a result, sugar is still omnipresent on our plates, even in the least expected products, such as in the savory section. Among the populations most affected by this consumption, children.
Anneline Perrini, dietitian in Aix-en-Provence, specializing in the care of children after having worked for years in the endocrinology and pediatrics department of Marseille hospitals, discusses the major issues of limiting sugar in children’s nutrition.
What place does sugar occupy in your consultations?
If we put aside the emotional part which occupies the first place in the reasons for consultation, I would say that sugar occupies second place. It takes up a lot of space. Sugar is omnipresent in all the products we consume, including salty products. Monsieur Sucre, under the pretext of food preservation, goes everywhere and it is to the detriment of the entire population. It is a public health problem.
As sugar is present everywhere and sometimes in very large quantities, we are no longer confronted with a single product with sugar, we are invaded by entire shelves. The choice ends up being very complicated. Labeling is good for those who know about it but it is also very obscure for those who think they know, who have done their little research. They are quickly lost.
Are we informed enough? What about parents?
I don’t think there will ever be enough communication. We see this communication everywhere but we must strike while the iron is still young. We must take charge of the child, his family. Personally, I have the feeling that that is not enough, in the face of the industrial world. We are in a world of consumption where we want something fast, something efficient and this requires industrial, processed, cheap products. The consumer also puts on his own blinders. We need our dose of pleasure, it comes through food and sugar.
Today the parents I see do not discover the problem. They are aware but there are also emotional issues around sugar consumption. The fear of ‘I’m going to frustrate him’. Difficulty taking a step back from the rhythm of their child’s eating. They tell me, ‘it’s from time to time’. I answer them, ‘I’m not talking to you about the day, but about the week, the month. Look at the number of somewhat festive meals where Monsieur Sucre and Madame Fat are very present. And there is the realization, ‘I didn’t think it was this much’.
To realize sugar consumption, you have to look over a week?
At least on the scale of the week, or even the month. There is no objective of deprivation, frustration, suppression, total eviction, it is a question of distribution, of quantity. If it were just a small spoonful of powdered sugar that we filled ourselves, we might say that it’s easy to quantify, except that all the products around us contain sugar. Many people have looked at what they eat, changed their habits. But I also see that many people don’t know that manufacturers can put sugar in ham. It’s normal, it’s not intuitive to put sugar in ham!
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