Bitter truth about too much sugar

Sugar 22 May 2014 Wanganui Chronicle Photograph by Stuart Munro WGP 23May14 - NOT SO SWEET: A spoonful of sugar may make the medicine go down, but 37 teaspoons (above) every day

I SAW That Sugar Film over the weekend. There aren't too many things that turn my stomach, apart from large quantities of blood, liver and bacon and celery, but that movie came close.

In the film, Australian actor/director Damon Gameau, a robust and fit man, takes on a challenge to consume 40 teaspoons of sugar a day for 60 days, sticking to products touted as "light" and "healthy".

The movie is hilarious and stomach-churning, especially as he demonstrates, pre-experiment, heaping the equivalent amount of sugar on to foods, and trying to consume them. Obviously, you can't cope with that. Yet we do, when that "sugar'"is teriyaki sauce, poured on to chicken.

As funny as that was, it was the chilly realisation of seeing how easy it was to reach 40 teaspoons a day. And yet it shouldn't be surprising when even a tablespoon of ketchup has a teaspoon of sugar. But in his time in the US, Gameau found drinks that could reach 50 per cent of his daily target in one consumption. It was also disheartening to see Gameau's lack of energy, unsightly weight gain, pimples and increased fat around his organs.

Media attention, films like these and a Nigel Latta documentary have put sugar firmly under the spotlight as a killer. We get it, we shouldn't be eating chocolate and sweets and fizzy drinks. But what we are slow to catch up with is our daily consumption, even when we think we're being good.

Today, I will be consuming over twice the World Health Organisation's sugar intake recommendations of six teaspoons a day. I worked it out. The coffees I have today will take me up to six. Add another teaspoon in the bread for my sandwiches. My Weetbix is only half a teaspoon - good for me. But what will blow out my consumption today is my dinner. The can of red curry that I'm having with my chicken and vegetables contains another six teaspoons.

That's around 12 or 13 teaspoons of sugar for me, on what I would have thought was a pretty healthy food regime.

Is weight loss as simple as a sugar-free diet? Manufacturers might say that consumption is personal responsibility and not their job to police. But they will certainly start paying attention if more people start reading the data on the side of their products - and put them back on the shelves.