The shocking amount of sugar hiding in your food - BBC 

I love how throughout this entire documentary the message was 'if you eat too many carbs and all that glucose that isn't burned immediately will be stored as fat' - anyone with a basic understanding of metabolism knows that excess glucose that isn't immediately burned is stored as GLYCOGEN in your liver and muscles to be burned when needed (i.e fasting overnight) NOT immediately fat. Sure, of you eat a shit ton of carbs to the point where your glycogen stores and full then you will store it as fat, but if you eat a shit ton of any macronutrient you will store it as fat! Excess energy consumed= weight gain. Stop scaring people from eating bloody jacket potatoes and rice BBC.

This is interesting but it's a quite misleading. Carbs give you energy and just because something is mostly carbs, it's not very useful to place it alongside cubes of refined sugar like this, suggesting they are more equivalent than they are. These people in this video are probably going to walk away thinking many foods like potatoes are loaded with sugars and crap, instead of a better understanding of energy content/nutritional content/ caloric content, which would be more useful.

I am absolutely sure to say that rice, strawberry or any other naturally occurring food is not unhealthy.

Just because a jacket potato or rice have starch that equates to the equivalent of however much sucrose, it doesn't make them "unhealthy"... The body needs carbs.

You forgot to take into account that all plant foods contain fiber, and the fiber plays a huge part of getting rid of any excess sugars. The more fiber the better no matter the sugar.

It’s complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates, some complex carbs might contain more ‘sugar’ but it’s not refined sugar (like you find in chocolate and sweets etc) and it takes the body longer to process it and gives you more energy and ‘better quality’ energy for longer. Where as simple carbs give you a short sharp burst of energy but you crash quickly. Not all sugar is bad sugar. The BBC made an episode of eat well for less where this was addressed for a family who’s child had type 1 diabetes!

As long as it's not added sugar, and you eat a balanced diet you're good.

*"I'm not eating rice no more."* Said no bengali ever! 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

As a diabetic who often check my blood glucose level, I confirm that indeed rice, white bread and pasta raises my blood sugar considerably.

This video is really irritating me! She asks to guess the amount of sugar and then judges each food on the break down to glucose which includes carbohydrates of all kinds. The sugar cubes are just one kind of carbohydrate. Unfair, misleading, unprofessional!

The carbs in the baked potato are more complex carbs than those on the muffin. The baked potato keeps you full for longer than the muffin does. The strawberries have a high water content.

This is quite misleading and irresponsible. You cannot tell the public that eating a strawberry is equivalent to a muffin they do not break down in the body the same way.

One more reason to cancel your TV Licence!

What we believe to be true about food is constantly being contradicted year after year.

Strawberries that haven't ripened properly before being picked, means the full complement of vitamins, minerals and general goodness (including sweetness) hasn't developed yet.

Whole plant foods such as rice and potatoes have healthy carbohydrates that are processed completely differently in the body compared to refined sugars and carbohydrates. What a misleading video!

Totally misleading. It makes it look like there is ADDED sugar in rice and potatoes. Watching this, people might think it's healthier to eat a muffin than a potato.

It is important to COMPLETELY AVOID eating refined white sugar. People should NOT use it in cooking or drinks, they should NOT buy products that use it if they want to look and feel their best. Refined white sugar has been linked to almost all diseases!!! Therefore people should just NOT produce it and NOT use it at all. I think the UK should COMPLETELY BAN the production and use of refined white sugar in ALL of its packaged foods and from supermarkets and food shops as well as restaurants and cafes. Food companies making biscuits, cakes, breads and catering companies organising school meals should be asked to use ONLY unrefined, natural sugars that are not artificially coloured when making products/meals. White refined sugar has caused stupid amounts of tooth decay. There are too many teenagers and young people with very yellow, even black and missing teeth in the UK. It is not acceptable or good for anyone. It has also been linked to unwanted weight gain, to diabetes, to heart problems, to poor mental health. They should completely ban all the white refined sugar cubes and sachets in restaurants and cafes. Please put about ONLY UNREFINED NATURAL SUGAR THAT IS NOT ARTIFICIALLY COLOURED in SACHETS or as sugar cubes in restaurants and cafes. This should help improve the situation in the UK. Also it would be helpful if there were a teaspoon symbol with a number in it printed on each product that contains sugar. This is to show how many teaspoons of sugar are in the product in a clearer way. So a symbol showing a teaspoon with a 3.0 in it would mean that there are 3 teaspoons or sugar cubes in the product. A teaspoon with 3.5 on it would mean that there are 3 and a half teaspoons of sugar in the product. AND It needs to be made MUCH CLEARER to everybody that adults should have maximum 7 sugar cubes a day and that each teaspoon of sugar contains 4g of sugar. And that a can of cola has 10 sugar cubes for example, that is 3 sugar cubes over the daily recommended limit!!! Many adults in the UK drink a can of a sugary drink with their lunch, they also have a dessert, and there are lots of hidden sugars in their meals every day in the UK. They are going way over their sugar limit. They need more help with reducing their sugar intake. As a new year's resolution I have stopped buying and eating products that have sugar as the first/main ingredient plus I have stopped buying refined white sugar to use at home. I now use only organic unrefined natural sugar or simply fruit to sweeten foods. This has meant that I can no longer buy cakes from supermarkets or most chocolate bars and snacks. I can only have dark chocolate. It is a challenge and I have managed to stay on track. I have lost weight and feel happier and healthier and have more energy and my teeth, which were hurting a bit, do not hurt much now.

This is ridiculous. It sends out completely the wrong message.

The logic in this video is non-existent. By the same argument I could say: When you eat a steak, your body will at some point use the proteins and fats to make sugar for your body to run on, so the steak is 5 cubes of sugar. Starch is not the same as fast sugar at all. Just like steak is not like sugar.

I'm Asian, I eat one (white) rice meal almost every day and I've always been skinny. It's about portion size and what you eat alongside your rice. You can't compare complex carbohydrates like rice to actual sugar cubes.

Sugar or carbohydrates is not the problem. If it was the problem Japan and Okinawa would of passed out as a nation a long time ago.

This is so uninformative and idiotic. Carbs break down into sugar yes to be used as energy but not the same as comparing to refined sugar cubes

They omitted the most important thing - that exercise helps to burn up excess calories from the sugar. Which is what makes high starch foods like rice and potatoes more okay for active people. Bagels and muffins need to not exist though. For everyone regardless of activity level. Nobody needs that much sugar in one sitting.

Sick of so called 'experts' telling us what we can and can't eat. Different foods have different types of sugars, some which burn off faster than others. Our bodies need sugar to survive and give us energy, so comparing fruit and rice to foods like chocolate muffins which we all know are full of added sugars is just so misleading, as the different between naturally occurring sugars and added sugars is huge. As long as your eating high sugar foods in moderation along with a reasonably balanced diet and getting enough exercise, who cares?? Also labelling fruit as 'unhealthy' is just ridiculous

lol that bagel is more like 25-30 sugar cubes.

The problem is added sugar not natural sugar so things like fruit and vegetables are absolutely fine,

this is why our country has a high rate of diabetes (Philippines)

What a medically deceptive video! BBC nutrition specialist is BBC Egg fried rice!

Downright misleading. And fear mongering

The guy said he is shocked about where they hide the sugar, they don’t hide sugar in potatoes lol , they just grow

The dietary sugar is not the same as serum glucose. They're worlds apart. You can't talk about equivalence because the way sugar (Sucrose) is metabolised and the way starch is metabolised are worlds apart. The fructose portion of sugar is mostly metabolised in the liver. The glucose from starch can be used by virtually all the cells of the body. Nutritional science here at its worst.

Refined sugar is one of the worst things you can have in your diet...equating refined sugar to the carbs in rice, even in a bagel or fructose in strawberry’s is utterly misleading

I call bollocks. I can’t imagine a doctor telling you to not eat or cut down on your fruit intake. How many monkeys do you see with diabetes or falling out of trees? From eating to much fruit, with all that sugar. My take on bad ingredients is. If the ingredients list is as long as your arm. It probably ain’t that good for you. Also look in the supermarket. Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi. Majority of the good food is on the perimeter of the shop floor. Because I am useless at explaining stuff. I copied and pasted this. How they’re the same: No matter what form sugar comes in, it’s a simple carbohydrate that is broken down for energy. The sugar that’s in a piece of fruit is made up of fructose and glucose, just like processed sugar. Most fruits are 40-55% fructose (although this varies depending on the fruit-cranberries have 20% fructose and apples are 65% fructose). Table sugar is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Your body processes fructose in the liver so it won’t trigger an insulin response, while glucose starts to break in the stomach and requires insulin to be released into the bloodstream so it can be metabolized quickly. Neither glucose nor fructose is better than the other, when looked at alone. It’s how it’s packaged that makes the difference. How they’re different: The type of sugar (natural or refined) that you’re eating impacts your health differently. Natural sugar-the sugar that comes in fruit-is packaged with fiber, water, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting phtytonutrients and other nutrients that improve your health. (Natural sugar is also found in milk and cheese and is called lactose.) Refined sugar comes from sugar cane or sugar beets, which are both processed to extract the sugar. Usually, this sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose, called sucrose. Manufacturers add chemically produced sugar, typically high fructose corn syrup, to many foods and drinks. Other than providing a source of energy that the body can use, processed sugar doesn’t provide any benefits to the body-it lacks the fiber and health-promoting nutrients that occur in natural sugar sources. By contrast, processed sugar can harm the body when overeaten and may contribute to inflammation, disease, weight gain and obesity. This is why refined sugar is known as “empty calories”-calories without nutrients that benefit the body. Is there a difference in how you feel after you eat natural sugar versus refined sugar? Yes! Refined sugar causes you to experience energy highs and lows and sugar cravings. Here’s why: Refined sugar (think candy and cakes) has no fiber to slow down its absorption, so it’s digested rapidly and enters the blood stream very quickly, causing a (blood) sugar rush/high. This sugar high, in turn, causes the body to release a surge of insulin, which quickly removes the sugar from the blood to the tissues. This is what is often known as a sugar crash or “low,” and is the body’s way of signaling that it needs a quick pick-up and the quickest pick-me-up is more sugar! This launches a vicious cycle of highs and lows that lead to a deep craving for more sugar. At the same time, sugary foods don’t provide the body any of the nutrients it needs to feel good and to sustain energy. Importantly, natural sugar provides a longer source of energy without crashes. Natural sugar comes packaged in fruit-and fruit is a good source of fiber, which slows down the digestion of glucose so you don’t get the energy high/insulin spike followed by a sugar crash like you do when you eat refined sugar. Fruit also contains water, which helps to prevent dehydration and the tired, drained feeling that comes with it that mimic blood-sugar dips. Here’s an important exception to the above: Fruit juice (if the fiber has been removed) will differ from fruit in the way it affects energy levels. While it still provides important nutrients that the body uses for good health, portions should be limited to prevent a blood-sugar spike and also to prevent weight gain. Our Bottom Line Overall, there is room in a wholesome, nutrient-packed diet for a small indulgence with added sugar-ideally 100 calories or less. However, the majority of people overconsume added sugars in their diet without realizing it. Truthfully, it’s beneficial for most people to make an effort to avoid added sugars because they can contribute to weight gain and take the place of other nutrient-rich foods. We suggest trying to satisfy sweet-tooth cravings with naturally sweet foods, like desserts made with fruits (as in the two recipes below). This helps people to appreciate less-sweet flavors, while also consuming added nutrients. One of the easiest ways to avoid added sugars is to look for them on ingredient labels. Be aware that if you purchase a sweet food and don’t see the word honey or sugar or another sweetener that you recognize on the label, this doesn’t meant there isn’t added sugar. Instead, it probably means that the sugar is hiding under a different name. The good news is that added sugars will be listed on food labels by July 2018. Until then, be mindful that added sugars in foods and drinks may be listed on labels as: anhydrous dextrose, brown sugar, cane crystals, cane sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, crystal dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose sweetener, fruit juice concentrates, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, liquid fructose, malt syrup, maple syrup, molasses, pancake syrup, raw sugar, sugar, syrup and white sugar and more.

Alison Barnes and Xand VT should be ashamed of themselves for this stunt. It gave the volunteers a completely false impression of carbohydrates. Xand made a comment during this programme (not in this clip) along the lines that he put on weight because he loved his pasta - it was never the pasta Xand, it's all the fatty additions that you piled on top. Although this programme was called "The Truth About Carbs", it was a very long way from that!!!

Rice contains 0.1 grams of sugar per 100 grams, while potatoes contain 0.8 grams of sugar per 100 grams. This lady compared the calorie count to cubes of sugar, which is a very different story all together. This video is very misleading.

Fruits absorb pesticides, metals, and other contaminants during photosynthesis.

Our culture eats white rice. Yet we aint fat as the US. Soo hows this works?

why u demonising carbs?

Whats not being mentioned here is the difference between natural sugar and refined sugar.

A gross exaggeration if the sugar cubes are meant to represent added sugar

This is simply not true. Humans can only turn about 20% of the calories from starch into fat. The rest is used for energy.

This is surprising. Thank you.

This explains the UK’s culinary and oral hygiene reputation. REFINED SUGARS & high fructose corn syrups are widely known to be the source of most poor food choices. Natural Sugars (consumed in moderate amounts) isn’t inherently detrimental to a healthy diet.

Wrong about the brown rice ...

Is this a joke... these people didnt know that white rice, bagels and a chocolate muffin were unhealthy. Or that our body converts these into sugar. Also interesting to note how things have to be dramatically simplified for the audience, it was almost like explaining that you need lights on in the room to see.

It must be pointed out that the biochemical action of the fructose half of the sugar molecule is responsible for unique deleterious processes in the liver that accelerate the onset of diabetes and other metabolic ills. It's not the calories, but the molecule itself. That said, this is a terrific presentation.

Fooling yourself by not looking at fructose content in each food. Calorie from sugar is not the same as calorie from glucose.

I don't think the participants understand that they should estimate how much suger the starch break it's also not chemically right to show it like this since sucrose is one part glucose and one part fructose were as starch is chained clucose . The muffin has alot of sucrose and alot of starch while the rice primarily contains starch. Some research show that sucrose is bad in high amounts like the Muffin. Also the strawberrys had the least, that so surprising considering they have no water.

It's quite disturbing reading all these comments. Peoples belief that what they are eating is fine is very wrong. You people need to wake up and do some research before you become statistics.

As the old saying goes: You are what you eat.🙏🤸‍♀️🧘‍♂️🌳

After watching this , I think I eat a million sugar cubes in a day

Oh I've had enough! Next thing they will be measuring the oxygen we intake! Why did the healthy balanced guidance go? I'm not giving up my weekly spud!

Im a registered nurse. This is helpful for people with diabetes....BUT OVERALL ITS MISLEADING....IM NOT RECOMMENDING MY DIABETIC PATIENT TO EAT CUPCAKE OVER A BAGEL OR RICE controlled amounts of this two...WHY? In diabetes management there is a term as complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates.It is good to give diabetic patients complex carbohydrates because it allows a steady release of glucose into the blood stream....WHEREAS IN CUPCAKES IT CONTAINS SIMPLE CARBOHYDRATES....IF THEY EAT THAT THEIR SUGAR WILL SPIKE IMMEDIATELY AND SINCE THEY HAVE DIABETES A DIFFICULTY IN CONVERTING SUGAR TO GLUCOSE THEIR SYSTEM CANNOT HANDLE THE SPIKE....to healthy people....RICE AND BAGELS IS STILL HEALTHY COMPARED TO CUPCAKES....BECAUSE SWEET OR FOODS FILLED WITH SIMPLE CARBOHYDRATES THOUGH LOW CALORIE WILL CAUSE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR TO SPIKE IMMEDIATELY BUT WILL CAUSE IT TO DROP IMMEDIATELY meaning you'll experience hunger much quicker THIS WILL DRIVE YOU TO EAT MORE SO YOU END UP EATING MORE CALORIES(THIS CAN MANIFEST AS LIGHTHEADNESS)unlike BAGELS AND RICE WHICH IS HEAVY TO THE TUMMY AND THE COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATE WILL ALLOW SUSTAINED RELEASE OF SUGAR IN YOUR BODY meaning its not going to spike immediately and go down suddenly..YOU WILL HAVE ENOUGH BODY SUGAR TO SUSTAIN FOR YOUR ACTIVITY WITHOUT GETTING LIGHTHEADED QUICKLY....IT WILL CAUSE YOU TO EAT JUST ENOUGH....

eating carbs is not the same as eating pure sugar.

This is why diabetics have to watch their starch consumption.

People who dislike this video are dumb. Sugar is not unhealth if consumed with lots of fiber

Quite a misleading message. Is she trying to say a chocolate muffin is better for your health than a bowl of rice? That's a rather simplistic view and factually inaccurate. Sucrose (& fructose) is not metabolized in the same way as glucose.

It's interesting the amount of sugar in our food. Sugar is the combustible of our body but is necessary burn it.

its a balance of eating as a fuel to live. some cultures eat only bread and next to it is a small portion of vegetables or protien. but bread and carbs is what fills them up to be able to function throygh the day and those are not fat. eat everything in moderation knowing how much food ur body needs and enjoy life.

this is how government makes you fatigue and feel unhealthy. bless us all

10 sugar cubes in one muffin , are you fucking kidding me

Wait. The important thing to know is the glycemic load (not the glycemic index) of food. Strawberries are definitely very low. Eat 100% whole grain breads, not white bread, and you’ll be better off. I don’t eat white potatoes, pasta, banana, juice of any kind, or rice anymore. I was pre-diabetic and completely reversed it in seven months. I eventually added sweet potatoes back into my diet, but I also eat a lean source of protein at every meal or snack to help stabilize my blood sugar.

You can still eat all of these foods as long as you do exercise, but as a person like me that cancels out all my diet.

This is ridiculous, how unfortunate for people that don’t have other information to believe this. All of Asia lives on rice three times a day at least. Do you want to break down billions of people’s life line and food and compare it to some different sugar based upon carbohydrates? It just doesn’t make sense.

I hope that I can watch the whole episode again, I watched it once before, and this is such a valuable program to be kept to let people know what is the basis of food choices to keep good health and solve health problems. Thanks!

The guy at the end summed it up nicely.

Less sugar can mean more health.💪🏼

This is stupid , strawberries will be differently processed to a cup cake lol

Milk has sugar. Honey has sugar. Vegetables have sugar. Stupid has stupid!

stop eating daughnuts and muffins, pancake icecream

Dude this is so misleading.. this video makes a chocolate muffin look healthier than a jacket potato which is just not accurate whatsoever

you cant compare most of those to refined sugar cubes why would you want to promote this type of thinking

This is dumb. BBC should know better than to put out crap like this. Shame.

It's impressive that all these foods contains sugar. It's unbelievable how sugar can make us ill, because it is an unhealthy food which is better not to use in our daily diet.

Oh, for goodness sake! The Roseto Story tells a story we should all read!

Lot of sugar but rice isn't granulated sugar

Nah, 100g of rice has 0,1g of sugar. How on earth you calculated this? Is she really a professional? I don’t think so. Average bagel containing 5-6 g tops.

It is worth noting that if you add butter, olive oil or other fat to a starch, it slows down the digestion of that food. This could be why, historically, bread has always been eaten with butter, oil or fatty meat. Perhaps it was an ancient knowledge that became a culinary custom.

But if you don't eat enough starch you will not have the energy to be fully alert and awake or be able to fully sleep through the night. This information shouldn't turn anyone away from unprocessed foods like the strawberries, rice and potato

For god sake so what can’t we eat now?

This is so misleading.You cannot compare refined sugar to natural sugars contained in whole foods. Carbohydrates are what humans are designed to eat for energy. I'm not talking about refined carbs but whole food carbs. Starches.

She's so under carbed her hand is shaking.

I realised when she said “carbohydrates” regarding the strawberries the video was misleading. BBC, please make clear to the viewers that the sugar cubes include carbohydrate content as obviously that is different than raw sugar cubes. We need carbohydrates to live and thus one should worry much less about a bowl of rice than you imply in this video.

Unbelievably misleading. They are comparing all glucose in equivalence to sugar cubes.

This is really an eye opener. YEs sugar is sugar, regardless where you get it from. The big difference is in the amount of sugar per volume. You can eat double the amount of strawberries than rice and you will still have consumed less sugar. Thats why its better to eat fruits and vegetables and less grains and potatoes.

Wtf misleading title. They're talking about carbs

So you teaching us eat chocolate muffins instead of rice?

Sorry but a bagel doesnt have 44g of sugar?

But the strawberries have more fructose sugar which is not the same as table sugar (sucrose). Although sucrose is made out of fructose and glucose. Plus your body would process the fructose differently because of the fibre in the fruit.

The amount of glucose which can be converted to fat in the liver is very small. You won't fatten up if you just eat potatos if you put oil on it then its another story. Look up the potato study - A couple ate nothing but potatos for a year. They did not become fat and were able to maintain there marathon numbers.

This is smaefull how deceptive this is. You can't compare white refined sugar to complex carbs and sucrose. The body processes this in a different way. Furthermore the reaction the body has to refined surer is different.

Whst more sugar in a bagel than a muffin seriously??

Organic rice and steam potatoes 🥔 are healthy as they contain fibers.

Drawing an equivalency between rice/potatoes and chocolate muffins/sugar cubes is reductive, overly simplistic and highly misleading. This is just plain bad journalism.

Is this BBC or buzzfeed?? Seriously.

You cant compare manufactured sugar with natural fruit sugar. Best to eat Organic brown rice. White rice is no good for you

The bagel may have more carbs in it but surely its better for you than a chocolate muffin?! The potato has important vitamins and minerals and things that are good for you as well. Silly test imo.

This video would stop people eating healthy food potato, grapes and strawberries and rice are all healthy foods the sugar in fruit isn’t the same as a sugar cube at all it contains fructose not refined sugars !

You cant compare sugar and carbs....cards are essential and healthy cards are needed . Sugar has no nutritional value ..