Walk into any grocery store, grab a few packaged products, and flip to the ingredients. You’ll likely spot added sugars — lots of them — provided you can discern their dizzying array of names: sucrose, dextrose, barley malt, agave nectar, high-fructose corn syrup, treacle, to list just a few. Why is our food saturated with all these sweeteners?
Provenance, authenticity and artisanal processes are transforming mainstream food-bev categories. The idea of “provenance” – having a back-story anchored in heritage and trust and perhaps made in a traditional, artisanal way – is now entering the strategies of largest companies, according to 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition and Health 2019, the annual trend report from New Nutrition Business.
It seems as though no other substance occupies so much of the world’s land, for so little benefit to humanity, as sugar.
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There's a joke doing the rounds in Cape Town, where the so-called "Tim Noakes diet" has taken off: you can't find cauliflower or double cream yoghurt for love or money. The humble flower head is fast replacing starches such as rice, pasta and potatoes on...
Sugar has a direct effect on risk factors for heart disease, and is likely to impact on blood pressure, independent of weight gain, according to new analysis of 39 clinical trials.
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A new US documentary film, Fed Up, hit cinemas in North America last week. Following the likes of Supersize Me, Fast Food Nation, Food, Inc and the likes, it's destined to ratchet up the anti-sugar pressures that are putting a squeeze on food manufacturers, in...
Consumers are in for more food-beverage price hikes, this time in sugar-based products, after the recommendation by the International Trade Administration Commission of SA (Itac) that the domestic dollar-based reference price for sugar be increased....
When you eat something loaded with sugar, your taste buds, your gut and your brain all take notice. This activation of your reward system is not unlike...
A British professor's 1972 book about the dangers of sugar is now seen as prophetic. John Yudkin, first proving that sugar was bad for our health, was ignored by the majority of the medical profession and rubbished by the food...
Dr Robert Lustig, the American pediatric endocrinologist who is now famous as "Mr Anti-Sugar", says he would rather be viewed as the "anti-processed food guy", since sugar — while his biggest concern — is just one of a number of ills he...
It has been called toxic, addictive and deadly, the driving force behind obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Is sugar really so bad? The New Scientist investigates...
With a media blaze of publicity in the UK, a campaign group, Action on Sugar, has been formed to reduce the amount of sugar added to food and soft drinks in an effort to tackle obesity and diabetes in the UK.
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Under government, consumer, media, foodie, retailer, and nutritionist pressures, food manufacturers are responding to remake their products with less added sodium and sugar. But they are doing it quietly. In fact, the industry’s name for the strategy is stealth reduction. Here's...
A new report from Credit Suisse says the global backlash against sugar is about to start hitting the shares of food and beverage makers over the next few years.
...Stevia will steal more and more market share from sugar — the natural sweetener has the potential to displace 25% of global sugar demand by 2050 as more consumers opt for the zero-calorie sweetener, asserts leading stevia producer, PureCircle.
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Coca-Cola Great Britain has announced that it is taking further action to be part of the solution to the global problem of obesity. The move includes the launch of a new, reduced calorie Sprite in the UK from this month that will contain 30% fewer...
If you do, you fly in the face of mounting and incontrovertible evidence that some calories - in particular, "sugar calories" - are jeopardising both your and your family's health. Physicians and politicians who cling to the dogma that "all calories should...
How middle-class consumers 'manage' sweetness is becoming increasingly a divided issue whereby on one hand consumers view sweetened products as an important part of their lifestyle while on the other hand they view it as a potential threat to their health. Under pressure from a...
It will be if Robert Lustig has anything to say about it. People love the California endocrinologist and people love to hate him, especially after he proposed in the journal Nature that sugar should be regulated like alcohol and that people...
The average Briton is three stone or 19kg heavier today than in the 60s. And not because they're eating more or exercising less – they just unwittingly became sugar addicts, argues this lengthy article in The Guardian. It is written...