Graphic Representation of Sugar Awareness in School: Facts

Story:

Sugar Awareness: This should be displayed in every school.

Graphic Representation of Sugar Awareness in School

Analysis:

A picture doing rounds on Facebook and other social networking platforms comes as an awareness of ‘Sugar Awareness’ to show the quantity of added sugar content in various popular drinks commonly consumed. The graphical representation on a board proposed to be displayed in every school displays below each drink in a transparent plastic bag the respective amount of sugar content in it. Although the story is a fact in the sense that the popular drinks contain considerable quantity of sugar in them, the precise amount of sugar content in the drinks, as shown in the picture, is misleading and exaggerated.

With several popular drinks tied to a backing board, the image in question appears like a display in a school as a part of Sugar awareness program. The row of seven drinks include a bottle of water, a carton of chocolate milk, a carton of some fruit drink, a can of orange juice, a can of Red Bull, a bottle of Nestea iced tea, and a can of Coca Cola. As a matter of fact, the picture of sugar awareness originated from a July 2015 Facebook post of Natural Child World Magazine, which came with a caption “Sugar awareness: This should be displayed in every school. What do you think?”

Misleading and Exaggerated

The amount of added sugar content in a water bottle would be certainly zero, but the actual quantity of sugar added in other six drinks differs from what is displayed in the transparent plastic bags. For example, Red Bull drink contains 11g/100ml of sugars, which turns out to be 26.75g in a 250ml can. This is labeled as 27 grams sugar on board. Nestea Iced Tea sugar content is 11g in 240 ml, which turns out to be around 27 grams per 20 ounces bottle shown on board. It is labeled as 36 grams of sugar. Coca Cola contains 35 grams sugar per container, which is labeled as 39 grams on board. Apart from this slight difference in quantity of sugar labeled on board, the volume of the respective sugar content of drinks shown in plastic bags is exaggerated. You can see the quantity of sugar in plastic bag respective to Coca Cola container clearly exceeds the volume of the container itself. Considering the sugar awareness was perhaps meant for a school project, the sugar bags might just be a graphical representation; not the actual quantity of sugar in the drinks.

Added Sugar Concerns

Sweetness has a great appeal around the world, reason why many food manufacturers consider adding sugar to their products. But there are some health concerns to it, starting from the fact that it contributes extra calories to your diet, with little nutritional value, which in turn can lead to skipping important nutrition. Currently some evidence suggests there is a relationship between added sugars and obesity, diabetes and heart disease, but this relationship is not entirely clear. Intake of excessive amounts of added sugar is certainly not good for health; this is more valid in case of children who frequently consume beverages like those mentioned in the graphical representation. So the message to take from the story; limit the amount of added sugar in your diet, it will help you cut calories without compromising on nutrition.