A spoonful of dressing on a salad or a granola bar grabbed as a quick breakfast can shake up a blood sugar chart. When a choice made for health backfires, the culprit is often added sugar introduced during manufacturing.
For those managing their blood sugar, it helps to check the nutrition label and ingredient list on the back of a product rather than the healthy image on the front.
South Korea's disease control agency compiles data on the prevalence of diabetes through its national health and nutrition survey, the medical community said on the 25th. The age-standardized prevalence rate among adults aged 19 and over was 12.0% for men and 6.9% for women. It exceeds 20% for men in their 50s and for women past their 60s.
The Korean Diabetes Association also found in its Diabetes Fact Sheet 2024 that the prevalence rate among adults aged 30 and over rose from 11.8% in 2012 to 14.8% in 2022, an increase of 3 percentage points over a decade.
Consumption patterns are also raising alarms. An analysis of the diets of 6,786 survey participants in 2023 found that 21.2% consumed more added sugar than the recommended level, up 1.1 percentage points from 20.1% the previous year. The Ministry of Health and Welfare's Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans recommends limiting added sugar to within 10% of total daily calories. That is why it is worth checking where added sugar hides in the processed foods eaten every day.
The first item to check is sauces. Ketchup, jarred pasta sauce, barbecue sauce and salad dressing make cooking easier but bring added sugar along with them. The difficulty of sticking to a single recommended serving is another problem.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends products in which added sugar per serving is 5% or less of the daily reference amount of 50 grams. Those exceeding 20% are classified as high-sugar foods. When making pasta, using chopped tomatoes instead of jarred sauce is a better choice, as is dressing a salad with olive oil and vinegar.
Granola bars, too, can differ from what their name suggests. The health outlet Everyday Health described some products as essentially premium candy, saying they are fine as a treat but hard to recommend as breakfast or an everyday snack.
When choosing one, screen out products that list sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, honey or maple syrup near the front of the ingredient list, since ingredients are listed in order of quantity. The standard is less than 4 grams of added sugar per serving and 2 to 3 grams or more of dietary fiber per bar. It is better if less-processed ingredients such as rolled oats appear near the front.
Dried fruit, while it offers vitamins, minerals and fiber, works against blood sugar. As moisture is removed, the sugar becomes concentrated. Products coated in sugar add to the burden. Julie Upton, a U.S. registered dietitian, explained that the more sour the dried fruit, such as cranberries, the more added sugar it contains.
While regulating blood sugar, low-glycemic fresh fruits such as apples and blueberries make good alternatives. For those who do eat dried fruit, around 30 grams a day is an appropriate limit. That is about one tablespoon of raisins or mixed dried fruit, two dried figs, three prunes or a handful of banana chips.
Yogurt with fruit is also an item high in added sugar. Eaten in the morning on an empty stomach, it can send blood sugar rising sharply. The advice is to buy unsweetened plain yogurt, or to choose a product with no more than 2.5 grams of added sugar per 30 milliliters and add toppings yourself.
Adding fresh fruit and nuts brings in dietary fiber and fat, which reduce the swings in blood sugar and prolong the feeling of fullness. For those who miss the sweetness, a little cinnamon can be sprinkled on. Studies in China and the United States have found that cinnamon helps stabilize blood sugar and blood pressure and ease inflammation.
The problem is that it is hard for consumers to single out added sugar on its own. Nutrition labels on processed foods in South Korea list only the total amount of "sugars" and do not break out "added sugar" as a separate item.
This means the natural sugar originally present in the ingredients and the sugar added during manufacturing are grouped together in one line. For now, reading the sugar figure on the nutrition label alongside the order of ingredients is effectively the only way to check.
