Too Much Sugar in Your Benefits Program?

In a drug landscape weighed down by the high personal and fiscal costs associated with Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, the media’s recent debate on sugar regulation comes as no surprise.  This attack on sugar almost makes sense when you consider this sequence: Too much sugar has an unhealthy impact upon diet; poor diet is a critical risk factor contributing to obesity; obesity has implications for ill health and all this manifests itself both at work and at home.   

I’m not going to make a statement as to whether or not sugar should be regulated but I’ll direct you to one recent National Post article and to its rebuttal and you can decide for yourself.

Instead, since March is National Nutrition Month, and because we’re in the business of helping you with your benefits, retirement, and compensation programs, I’ll share some tips on how to reduce your exposure to too much sugar which, I hope, will be good for you, your employees, and your benefit experience.  I invite you to share this information within your workplace.

As a trained chef, I’ve studied nutrition and here are my hints on how to avoid consuming more sugar. 

1. Processed Food – Almost all processed products on the supermarket shelves, including health foods, are topped up with extra sugar.  “Low Fat” products are some of the worst culprits because the fat is often replaced by sugar to boost flavor and, consequently, calories.   Be careful: Some of our typical Canadian breakfasts contain more than 65 grams of sugar – equivalent to nearly 3 Skor chocolate bars or 13 teaspoons of sugar!
2. Your Own Food – Cook from scratch with items that have only ONE ingredient. (Fruits, vegetables, spices, meats, legumes, etc.)  As a guide to the freshest one-ingredient items, shop the outside of the grocery store and avoid the aisles.
3. Read labels. You would be surprised at how much sugar is used (and in large amounts, too) in foods wherein you wouldn’t expect to see it.  Ingredients are listed in order of concentration so see if sugar is in the top five.
4. Watch condiments and sauces. Ketchup, some salad dressings, and even mustard list sugar as their second ingredient. 
5. Know sugar’s other names.  Sugar is masked by the following names:  Molasses, cane sugar, dextrose, glucose, and sucrose, to name a few.  These are all sugar. 

Finally, I’ll share this last thought with you: There is no exact right amount of allowable sugar per day but the recommended daily limits (and these are not goals, they are limits) are as follows:

Men:   36 grams

Women: 20 grams

Children: 12 grams

What do you think? Looking at your benefit plan utilization, is there anything there that suggests the negative manifestation of too much sugar in your workplace?  Comment below.

Allison Brown

New Business Development