Poor substitutes?

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Come July and New York will begin to live a life without trans fats, two years after the Board of Health banned the artery-clogging fat. Its restaurants are busy revising their menus and the American Institute of Baking is trying to perfect trans fat-free recipes for chewy chocolate cookies. Well, that’s quite a formidable task, considering the uncertainty of whether trans fat-free shortenings can achieve the same texture and “mouth feel” in cakes, cookies and similar comfort foods.

Hopefully a few of those formulae and recipes would trickle down to India as well, where a generation obsessed with health opts for the easy way out. They can gorge on their favourite snacks and desserts, happy in the belief that they are fat-free and sugar-free. But are sugar and fat really bad for health?

“Onset of diabetes is one of the major concerns for those who consume excess sugar. So is osteoporosis, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention tooth decay and obesity,” says Suchita Thacker, dietician, P D Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre. But how much is too much? “People should limit their daily consumption of free (added) sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. This recommendation adds up to approximately 12 teaspoons (48 grams) of added (free) sugar a day based on an average 2000-calorie diet,” adds Thacker.

One teaspoon of sugar has approximately 20 calories. Honey and jaggery also contain the same amount of calories. However, compared to sugar, honey is a good source of iron. Most nutritionists advice against added sugar because it carries no nutritive value — it’s 100% complex carbohydrate. “Metabolism tends to slow down with age and therefore it’s important to check your diet,” says Rupali Datta, nutritionist with Fortis Healthcare. But are artificial sugar sweeteners a good substitute? “Four to five tablets or drops of sugar substitutes a day is fine, but most people tend to think that they can have as much of it because there’s no threat of calories. 10-12 tablets/drops a day is a definite no-no,” Datta puts emphatically.