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What exactly goes into all those sweets?

What exactly goes into all those sweets?

The kids' favourite gums contain gelling agents, juices, artificial colours, aromas... and vast quantities of sugar

ELENA MARTÍN

Thursday, 18 June 2020, 16:31

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When you read this headline, and think of the typical gummy, stretchy sweet, some may think they are all petroleum jelly, but no. The main ingredient in all sweets, even the jelly kind, is sugar. And this is usually added in large quantities, although under different names, such as glucose syrup, fructose and sucrose. That's why people like them so much.

Sugar, as well as giving food a sweet flavour, activates the dopamine and opioids system of the brain, which are associated with wellbeing and pleasure, and creates an addiction similar to that of drugs, according to research by the Aarhus University in Denmark, which was published recently in the Scientific Reports magazine.

"Don't give bags of sweets at birthdays"

  • "Sweets contain around 400 to 500 calories per 100 grammes, but they are empty calories. They have no nutritional value and eating too many increases the risk of dental caries and obesity - 35 per cent of children between the ages of eight and 16 in Spain are overweight. Also, the high amount of refined sugar is absorbed very quickly and produces peaks of insulin which could lead to diabetes in the future. That's why children should think of them as something very special, only for exceptional occasions, and not part of their regular diet. It is also not a good idea to give bags of sweets to half the school when its someone's birthday, because that isn't the way to educate children in healthy eating habits," she says.

For that reason, and the consequences it can have on health (obesity, diabetes, caries, hypertension, cholesterol), sugar should be consumed with caution.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned on several occasions that free sugars, the type that is added to sweets, should not account for more than 10 per cent of a day's calorie consumption, for children or adults. That means around 25 grammes for a diet of 2,000 calories, but a handful of sweets easily contains more than the recommended amount.

"For every 100 grammes of sweets we eat, we take in between 50 and 80 grammes of sugar and between 400 and 500 calories," warns Teresa Cenarro, vice-president of the Spanish paediatricians association AEPAP and a member of its working group on Gastroenterology and Nutrition.

The WHO directives do not apply to intrinsic sugars, in other words those present in whole, fresh fruit and vegetables, but they do apply to juices, which some sweets contain.

The Spanish Royal Decree 348/2011, which regulates the quality and composition of these products, divides them into different categories. Sweets can be hard (lollipops), soft (toffees), compressed or gums, and the definition also includes gels, liquorice, foams and fondants, candies, lozenges, sugared almonds, caramelised nuts and chewing gums.

"The problem is that so many people eat too many sweets"

  • "From the point of view of healthy eating, I think some products should not even be allowed on the market. Sweets are one example, because they provide no goodness, no nutritional value whatsoever. If people only ate them occasionally, I could accept that, but the problem is that they eat far too many of them, and too often. What we need to do is educate people about healthy eating when they are still young, and teach them to choose healthier snacks when they fancy a treat. That isn't to say nobody should eat any sugar at all, but there are healthier ways of doing it, such as fruit, pure cocoa, home-made cake, for example. The nutritional quality is essential to prevent health problems," she says.

The recipes vary between the brands of sweets, but their labels all say they contain "sugar or added sweeteners". The latter are those that appear with the letter E followed by a number, such as sorbitol (E-420) or saccharine (E-954).

With regard to what they are made of, to quote a few examples, hard sweets "are the result of a highly concentrated crystallised mass which is principally composed of a minimum of 80 per cent sugar, glucose syrup and/or inverted sugar," explains Silvia del Lamo, a doctor in Food Science and collaborating lecturer in Health Science Studies at the Oberta Catalunya university.

Sweets such as gums contain gelling agents like gelatine, which is a collagen principally obtained from the cartilage of a pig or from fish; and gums, such as arabic or xanthum gum. There are also gelatines suitable for vegans, such as agar-agar and pectin, and some which are not suitable for coeliacs, such as some modified starches. They usually all contain bees wax, to make them shiny and stop them sticking together.

In some fruit jelly sweets, the gelling agent is partly substituted by fruit pulp. "That is a more natural alternative, but it is not really healthier, because the calorie value is similar," says Del Lamo.

Chewing gum is "made with a chewable plastic or elastic base, which may be natural rubber or synthetic, and is insoluble in water," she says.

Smaller portions

Given that people are becoming increasingly more interested in what they are eating, the food companies have found themselves obliged to develop formulas adapted to changing demands, including sweet manufacturers.

As a result, there are now mini-sizes, whose portions are smaller to reduce calorie value and sugar intake. Others have focused less on the amount and more on the content, such as 'sugar-free' options which "contain polyalcohols" in its place, warns dietician and nutritionist Lujan Soler.

These are non-digestible carbohydrates which, although they have fewer calories than sugar, can produce gastro-intestinal problems if consumed in excess.

New products also include sweets which promise extra health benefits, by incorporating some healthy ingredients like ginger, collagen, Omega 3 or essential oils.

Soler, however, recommends that anyone who wants an occasional treat should look for other alternatives, because these "provide nothing in the way of nutrition".

She suggests options such as such as home-made cake made with cane sugar, or bars of dried fruits and nuts mixed with pure cocoa.

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