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  • Original Article
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Carbohydrates, glycemic index and diabetes mellitus

A systematic methodology to estimate added sugar content of foods

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objectives:

The effect of added sugar on health is a topical area of research. However, there is currently no analytical or other method to easily distinguish between added sugars and naturally occurring sugars in foods. This study aimed to develop a systematic methodology to estimate added sugar values on the basis of analytical data and ingredients of foods.

Subjects/methods:

A 10-step, stepwise protocol was developed, starting with objective measures (six steps) and followed by more subjective estimation (four steps) if insufficient objective data are available. The method developed was applied to an Australian food composition database (AUSNUT2007) as an example.

Results:

Out of the 3874 foods available in AUSNUT2007, 2977 foods (77%) were assigned an estimated value on the basis of objective measures (steps 1–6), and 897 (23%) were assigned a subjectively estimated value (steps 7–10). Repeatability analysis showed good repeatability for estimated values in this method.

Conclusions:

We propose that this method can be considered as a standardised approach for the estimation of added sugar content of foods to improve cross-study comparison.

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Acknowledgements

No external funding was applied to this project. Permission has been granted from Food Standards Australia and New Zealand to reproduce the food ID, food name and total sugar content of the foods in AUSNUT2007. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the estimated added sugar content presented in the added sugar database (Online Supplementary File 2). The added sugar database is not produced by, or is in anyway associated with or endorsed by, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.

Author Contributions

JCYL, SB, VMF, AMR, AWB, TPG and JCBM were involved in the conception of the study. JCYL was responsible for the early development of the methodology. All authors provided substantial intellectual input into the further development and refinement of the methodology. JCYL estimated the added sugar content of the food items in AUSNUT2007 using the method so developed and drafted the manuscript. HM was responsible for the repeatability analysis. All authors reviewed the final values in the database, were involved in the subsequent edits of the manuscript and have read and approved the final manuscript

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Correspondence to J C Y Louie.

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Competing interests

JCBM is a coauthor of The New Glucose Revolution book series (Hodder and Stoughton, London; Marlowe and Co., New York; Hodder Headline, Sydney; and elsewhere), is the director of a not-for-profit GI-based food endorsement programme in Australia and manages the University of Sydney GI testing service. AWB is a coauthor of the Diabetes & Pre-diabetes Handbook, which is part of The New Glucose Revolution book series, and is a consultant to a not-for-profit GI-based food endorsement programme in Australia. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary Information accompanies this paper on European Journal of Clinical Nutrition website

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Louie, J., Moshtaghian, H., Boylan, S. et al. A systematic methodology to estimate added sugar content of foods. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 154–161 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2014.256

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