E-Oral Abstracts Book

FSAH 2019

2019
THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF

FOOD SAFETY AND HEALTH

E-ORAL ABSTRACTS BOOK

1

FSAH 2019

1-1 Dr. Mary K. Schmidl

ABSTRACT Professor,
IUFoST President
University of Minnesota, USA
Email: [email protected]

Sugar: A Sweet and Bitter Challenge


Mary K. Schmidl, Ph.D.

University of Minnesota, USA

The global obesity epidemic is a major concern in developed and developing countries not
only for its impact on public health but also the escalation of health care costs that
accompanies it. Today more than ever, organizations, researchers, governmental agencies
continue to step up their efforts on all fronts to identify possible solutions to the epidemic. In
many communities the efforts tend to focus on eating less (portion control), moving more
(walking or other similar activities) and eating better. The eating better part of the equation
seems to bring forth areas where agreement is not 100%. Most scientific thought leaders do
agree on encouraging a reasonable consumption of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, low
fat dairy, and whole grains to obtain a balanced lower calorie intake lifestyle but there seems
to be less agreement on decreasing consumption of total fats (which specific fats) and sugars.
With sugars being an area where those involved in scientific research, government regulators
and industry have yet to decide on the vision for recommendations for the future e.g. the type
and the number of caloric sweeteners and how to handle concurrent recommendations on
non-caloric sweeteners. Avoiding too much sugar is an accepted dietary guidance throughout
the world. The US Nutrition Facts panel includes information on total sugars in foods. A
focus on added sugars is linked to the concept of discretionary calories and decreasing
consumption of added sugars or free sugars as a means to assist a consumer to identify foods
that are nutrient dense. On March 14, 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration proposed
that including “added sugars” declaration on the nutrient facts panel would be another tool to
help consumers reduce excessive discretionary calorie intake from added sugars. Through
deductive reasoning, labelling added sugars is one tactic to potentially curtail the increased
rate of chronic diseases in the United States. Yet it is still unknown whether this labelling will
be beneficial and not create more consumer confusion.

Key words: Sugar, Fat, health, Nutrition, labelling

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