Healthy Eating:Salts, Sugars, Sweeteners

and searching for hidden sugars.

A Presentation by Jordie Rowlands

SALT

SALT

What is Salt? Salt is a compound made from two dangerous elements!

Why do we need Salt?Your body uses Sodium which it gets from Salt to help perform a variety of functions.

For example Salt helps keep the fluid in our blood cells so that we can carry nutrients around the body.

SALTHow much salt should I have every day?• Children – about 3/4 g of salt a

day• Adults – 6g salt a day

QUIZ: People eat too much salt,

but how much salt do people eat on average a

day?

3g - 6g10g – 12g14g – 18g

ANSWER

SALTWhat can I do to reduce my salt? Which belongs in each box?

EAT LESS:EAT MORE:

SALTWhat can I do to reduce my salt? ANSWERS:

EAT LESS:EAT MORE:

SALTWhy is too much salt bad?

Salt raises blood pressure leading to strokes, heart failure and heart attacks!

High link to stomach cancer, osteoporosis, obesity, kidney disease.

Known to make Asthma and diabetes worse.

SUGAR

SUGAR

Sugars are ‘simple’ carbohydrates.There are three types of sugars;

Monosaccharaides, Disaccharides and Polysaccharides.

SUGAR

What are Saccharides?Monosaccharide

Polysaccharide

Glucose

Amylose

Disaccharide

Sucrose

SUGARWhy does it matter to know about types of sugar?

SugarInBlood

HOW LONG THE ENERGY LASTS!

SUGARWhat do you eat at break / lunch?

How does that make you feel an hour later?

What could you change about your snack / meal to help you avoid a ‘SUGAR CRASH’?

eSUGARWhy is too much sugar bad?

Sugar (sucrose) is calorie dense, meaning that the pay off of energy is quite low compared to the calorie level.

Eating high calorie food leads to weight gain.

Low energy makes it harder to burn the calories off.

Sugar feeds bacteria in the mouth, if not cleaned properly could lead to tooth decay.

(HIDDEN)SUGARWhat do people mean by hidden sugar?

Sugar is hidden in many ways – normally the label: ‘NO ADDED SUGAR’ is used to confuses consumers.

Many consumers do not realise that certain foods contain natural sugars.

Lactose Fructose Fructose

FructoseAnd lactose (when milk added)

Maltose

SWEETENERS

Sweeteners are artificial sugars or sugars isolated from plant proteins.

Some sweeteners (Thaumatin) can be up to 2000 times more potent than sugar (sucrose).

What are Sweeteners?

Aspartame is a sweetener made from Aspartate, Phenylalanine and

Methanol.

Aspartate or Aspartic acid – comes from asparagine which in

itself has been isolated from asparagus

Aspartame

00 CH3

NHNH3

0

0

H0

AspartatePhenylalanine

Methanol

Discovery of PKUA Norwegian doctor called

Folling discovered a few

of his mentally disabled patient

smelt very similar.

He isolated the odour’s cause to being the high

amounts of phenylalanine in

the blood and Urine

This is all caused by a lack of phenylalanine hydroxylase, the enzyme

responsible for processing phenylalanine.

Aka Phenylketonuria

Phenylalanine is an essential amino

acid.

It is also an important chemical that helps brain

function.

Phenylalanine

Deficiencies can cause symptoms of depression, and problems with the

brain and nervous system.

People are born with PKU and have to limit protein their diets from birth,

as nearly all proteins contain phenylalanine.

Babies are given special milk.

Because of how dangerous Phenylalanine is to PKU sufferers, the government past legislation in the

“UK in 1982 following the review of its safety by the UK's Committee on Toxicity, Consumer Products

and the Environment (COT)”

Legislation

SweetenersCreate a quick info leaflet telling people about PKU

(phenylketonuria) and how its passed on.

Or write a quick paragraph saying why someone

suffering from PKU can’t drink fizzy drinks

containing sweeteners such as Aspartame

SHOP SMART

Get into groups of five (if not already).Take it in turns to pick an item out of the

pile, pick wisely – items are worth points. Team with highest points at end will win a

bronze award!

SHOP SMARTSCORING

Green = 3pts

Yellow = 2pts

Red = 1pts (lose points if more than 2 red per team)