Jan 30 2012
How do you check Added Sugars in growing up milk?
Following my post earlier, here are more videos to share with you all based on the interviews with Dr. John Monro. There are 3 videos here which I want to share, all to highlight how you confirm whether a brand of growing up milk is with or without added sugars.
First & second video
This is exactly what I’ve shared few months ago. The debate about ‘added sugars’ is often confused with naturally presented sugars in food. For growing up milk, the natural sugar is called lactose – i.e. milk sugar. Naturally, without added sugars, the milk sugars should be around 11-12g per serving. That’s why all milk tastes a little bit sweet, but not awfully sweet like most of our children’s growing up milks.
To ensure your brand of growing up milk contains only naturally presented milk-sugar (lactose), check for the carbohydrate level in the NIP. If it is more than 11-12g per serving, don’t buy it. And again, if you see any brands apart from Anmum Essential, that is also without any added sugars, please let me know, I wanna try it out!!
And here is another video explaining types of added sugars.
Sometimes brands would claim: “No sucrose” or “sucrose free”. Actually this is very misleading. It actually doesn’t mean “no added sugars”!! There could be other types of added sugars present. Most of the time, in the ingredient list, we don’t see “sugar” listed anyway. Instead added sugars are commonly added as: corn syrup, glucose syrup solids etc. Since these are too ‘scientific’ for layman like me, the easiest and safest way is really to check out the carbohydrate as pointed out above. >_<
And the above points can be further supported by the latest reduce-sugar-campaign ads from the Ministry of Health (MOH). Check out the MOH ad below which I saw in the Star newspaper last week. Note that MOH declares that corn syrup, glucose syrup solids are ADDED SUGARS (check out step-6 in the ad below)!
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| From The Suzette |
Click to Enlarge
So mothers who are reading this post, have you taken any actions reading the labels of your children’s growing up milk? From step 6 in the MOH ad above, the rule of thumb is: (1) position of sugar on label should not be in the top few as it is an indication that the main component is added-sugars; (2) there should not be more than one type of sugar listed, that’s the way to “camouflage” the heavily added sugar content; (3) looks for “no added sugars” instead of “no added sucrose” as it may still contain other types of added sugars.
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2 responses on How do you check Added Sugars in growing up milk?
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I find this per serving unit very deceiving, should just use a common denominator(e.g.100ml, etc).
Am facing the dilemma of whether I should let my kids drink fresh milk or powdered milk. Spoke to a few doctors and came up with a split vote. What’s your take?
Well, I have always treat milk as just another drink. My personal take is that, children should eat balance diet. Milk is just a drink, just like juice/coffee to you and me. I do keep a pack of milk for Isabel to bring to school, just a supplement for her as I think she needs this little boost for her bone. Having said that, when I learnt about the added sugars thingy, to be honest, I was quite upset and angry. Angry with myself, for feeding Isabel with all these empty carbo. So, after learning more and more, for the first time, I am a switcher to another brand. You know me, I am always very cheapskate, I always pay for the cheapest one, coz “it is just a drink”. So ignorant, without knowing all the issues behind. I hope there is no other issues that is unseen!