Too sweet

Everyone has heard of the freshman fifteen—the inescapable fifteen pounds that creep on during the first stressful semester of college (although studies show that the freshman fifteen is really more like the freshman three). While students try to resist the traditionally “unhealthy” foods at Marketplace at the pizza and burger stations, research shows that greasy and high-fat foods aren’t the only contributors to weight gain. In recent years, scientists have put the spotlight on sugar, showing that it can be a primary driver of weight gain; this is something we college students may want to give our attention.

Cutting sugar out of the American diet may seem relatively straightforward—certainly easier than navigating the ins and outs of complex carbohydrates or managing trans fats over saturated fats. Unfortunately, avoiding sugar isn’t as simple as getting an apple instead of the pumpkin bread while in the Vondy line.

As the American food industry has evolved, sugar has been found in higher and higher quantities in everyday foods. According to the American Heart Association, there are two main forms of sugar in food: naturally occurring sugars such as those found in fruit and added sugars such as high fructose corn syrup that find their way into many of our daily staples. The recommended average sugar daily intake ranges from 25 grams for women to 37.5 grams for men, which is fairly low given sugar contents in food.

So why is it so hard to detect the amount of sugar in food? The answer can be found in the dubious history of the sugar industry in America. A New York Times piece traced today’s sugar policies all the way back to the 1800s, when the federal government’s sugar policy was limited only to taxation, not on influencing nutrition policy. Sugar taxes became a key source of revenue for the United States government and by 1880 sugar taxes accounted for approximately 16 percent of the total federal budget. Dependent on the sugar industry, federal policies aimed to promote consumption of refined sugar.

Nutrition labels, which are mandated to list the total grams of sugar in food, do not currently list the grams of added sugar or the percentage of daily value—unlike every other metric. In 2014, the United States Food and Drug Administration announced their intention of changing these labels to reflect these changes and the sugar industry came roaring back. Ultimately, the FDA confirmed the changes and the new labels will list the total sugars in the product, added sugars and the percentage of daily value for the added sugars only. Despite huge successes in food labeling, the sugar industry continues to be a powerful political machine contributing $57 million to Florida elections from 1994 to 2016.

If the power of the sugar industry isn’t overwhelming enough, it’s worth taking a look for how that impacts our daily lives. I was shocked to find out how difficult it can be to stay within the recommended sugar guidelines, even when trying to eat foods that seem and are branded as healthy. I decided to run through popular foods on campus and see where they landed on the sugar intake spectrum. Here’s a quick rundown of a (somewhat) healthy eating schedule that a Duke student might follow.

Mornings at Duke are always a struggle with coffee shops around campus lined with tired, sleep deprived students. While the sugar dosage for coffee can differ dramatically, my favorite Starbucks order of a tall vanilla latte with 2 percent milk has a whopping 27 grams of sugar. When paired with a Blackberry Chobani yogurt (which has 16 grams of sugar) breakfast is already clocking in at 43 grams. For lunch, a student might brave the crowds at ABP to pick up a soup and salad combo meal. A medium 12 vegetable soup at ABP has 11 grams of sugar and a vegetarian deluxe salad has 8 grams of sugar making lunch tally up to 19 grams of sugar. For dinner, a teriyaki chicken stir fry with broccoli and brown rice (8 grams) and iced tea (20 grams) could total 28 grams. Due to West Union’s lack of nutrition information, the sugar contents had to be estimated for dinner, but you get the idea. If you add up the entire day, that’s approximately 90 grams of sugar when the recommended intake is 25-38 grams!

The lesson is that sugary foods aren’t just sodas, cake, and cookies. Macro trends in the food industry and government regulation have become massively influential in our daily habits. We would all benefit to be more aware of this.