Why are sugary processed foods harmful? | Explained

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The story so far: Over the past week, the spotlight has returned on high sugar content in flavoured malt-based milk powders and baby food. Government authorities are warning against branding such items as “healthy” and have called out the allegedly misleading promotion and marketing tactics while loading products with added sugar.

Why is it problematic to label malt-based, sugary milk products as ‘health’ drinks?

On analysing the product in question, (a drink like Bournvita, for example,) it is observed that it contains 86.7g of carbohydrates per 100g, of which 49.8g is sugar content. Of the total sugars, 37.4g is sucrose or added sugar. For every recommended per serve of 20g chocolate powder, the consumer is downing nearly 10g of total sugar. “Apart from added sugar, the process of malting, which involves germinating cereals, drying, roasting and powdering them, also produces sugar. Malting was a process originally used to produce single malt whiskey, and is also used in making malt-based milk beverages,” a scientific panel member of the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI) told The Hindu. Once you germinate a grain, the starch in the grain breaks down to sugar by the action of a group of enzymes called amylase. When you roast it, it develops a nice flavour as that sugar gets caramelised. “Maltose is nothing but two units of glucose, a form of sugar, bonded together. Apart from added sugar, the chocolate powder contains maltodextrin, liquid glucose, maltose generated from malting process of cereals and so on,” the member said.

What is FSSAI’s stand on sugar content?

In its Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations 2018, the FSSAI said that only if total sugar is less than 5g per 100g in a product, it can claim to be ‘low on sugar.’ Any product which is ‘low on sugar,’ can potentially be ‘healthy.’ But when products do not fulfil this requirement, and still advertise or market their products as ‘health drinks,’ it is problematic, the FSSAI scientific panel member added. “This is because if a child, for instance, takes four servings of this so-called drink, he or she will end up consuming 40 grams of sugar, which is higher than the World Health Organization’s advised threshold of consuming 25 grams or six teaspoons of sugar per day. In Indian households, one often adds extra teaspoons of sugar to a chocolate-powder drink too,” the member added.

What is the controversy over baby food?

A closer look at the ingredients of Wheat Apple Cherry baby cereal for kids from eight months up to 24 months marketed by Nestlé under the brand name Cerelac in India reveals that it contains 24 grams per 100 grams of total sugars derived from milk solids, maltodextrin, dextrose and so on. For a one to two year old child, the company recommends feeding twelve scoops or 100 grams of baby food every day. This means the baby consumes 24 grams of sugar each day. This is a harmful practice, say experts. “A baby is only familiar with the taste of breast milk. Lactose, which is a naturally occurring form of sugar, is less sweet. When a child is shifted from breast milk to complementary foods, extra sugar is being fed. Extra sugar in a young baby’s diet creates unnecessary pressure on the baby’s pancreas, leading to production of excess insulin which may lead to diabetes and obesity in future,” the member said. Addition of ingredients like maltodextrin to improve flavour and texture is harmful as the white starchy powder of maltodextrin has a higher glycemic index (GI) than table sugar. GI is a measure of how quickly a food causes blood sugar to rise. The member further added that excess sugar gets converted into triglycerides, a form of fat which gets stored in liver leading to fatty liver and insulin resistance that causes diabetes.

An estimated 101.3 million people in India could be diabetic, a study co-published by the Indian Council of Medical Research stated.

Will an FSSAI probe be enough to curb the practice of misleading labels?

In September 2022, the FSSAI put out a draft notification which stated that high fat, sugar, salt (HFSS) food means a processed food product which has high levels of saturated fat or total sugar or sodium.

The draft notification was released to explain what a HFSS food would consist of and how to warn consumers against it on front-of-the-pack labelling of the food packet or beverage bottle. It implied that if a product derives more than 10% of total energy (kcal) from sugar and/or saturated fat, then the product was high on fat and/or sugar.

However, the FSSAI has kept the regulation open-ended on whether companies need to declare fat, sugar and salt content on the front of the pack or not. It has also batted for ‘health rating stars,’ and not warning labels.

“Warning labels are upfront and inform the consumers if a product is high on fat, salt or sugar. Health stars can be misleading. A consumer does not have the time or knowledge to calculate if a product is high on sugar, based on the FSSAI’s definition,” said Dr. Arun Gupta, Convener of the Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) and former member of the PM’s Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges.

What is the way forward?

According to Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2019, sugar is allowed in milk cereal-based complementary food, Dr. Gupta points out. The regulation says that lactose and glucose polymers shall be preferred carbohydrates for food and infant nutrition. Sucrose and/or fructose shall not be added, unless needed as a carbohydrate source, and provided the sum of these does not exceed 20% of total carbohydrate. “The regulation permits sugar, hence the regulation needs to be re-looked,” he says.

Hence, the first step, Dr. Gupta explains, would be to bring about a comprehensive regulation to clearly define what is ‘healthy,’ and ‘unhealthy,’ which encompasses all beverages and food products. “There is a draft notification on front of pack labelling and high fat, sugar, salt foods which has received comments from all stake holders and after that has been put in cold storage,” Dr. Gupta says. The underlying problem is marketing and pushing it to unsuspecting consumers.

A Hindustan Unilever Limited annual report of 2022 states that the company partnered with the Zilla Parishad of Pune in the midday meal programme to add Horlicks, cited as a ‘health food drink,’ to existing take-home rations, which were planned to be provided to children across 4,600 anganwadi centres covering 1.45 lakh children aged between three and six.

Also, under the Infant Milk Substitutes Act, infant foods cannot be promoted via advertisements. However, rules are flouted, and social media influencers often promote baby food, Dr. Gupta says. “Strong action needs to be taken against illegal ads,” he adds.

• Over the past week, the spotlight has returned on high sugar content in flavoured malt-based milk powders and baby food. Government authorities are warning against branding such items as “healthy” and have called out the allegedly misleading promotion and marketing tactics while loading products with added sugar.
• In its Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations 2018, the FSSAI said that only if total sugar is less than 5g per 100g in a product, it can claim to be ‘low on sugar.
• According to Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2019, sugar is allowed in milk cereal-based complementary food, Dr. Gupta points out.