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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Everyone knows ice cream and pizza are not the healthiest options, but condiments like ketchup are also sneakily raising people’s intake of saturated fat and added sugar. Researchers have compiled a new list of foods and drinks that many people may not know are contributing to unhealthy diets among Americans.
Nutrition guidelines recommend limiting fat and sugar to 10% of a person’s daily calories. Most adults exceed these limits — saturated fats were found to make up 12% of a person’s diet, and added sugar made up 14 to 16% of daily calories. This usually came from eating lots of cheese and consuming soft drinks. However, seemingly harmless items like chicken breast and ketchup are also on the list — especially if people consume them excessively.
“Chicken breast is promoted as a lower saturated fat food, but it still has a little bit of saturated fat. But it is helpful to know how foods with smaller amounts also slowly add saturated fat in a stealthy way into the diet,” explains Professor Christopher Taylor, director of medical dietetics at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The Ohio State University and lead study author, in a media release.
The authors collected data on over 35,000 U.S. adults as part of a project to develop tools for identifying unhealthy food consumption in a person’s diet. The research, published in the journal Nutrients, also spreads awareness of unexpected daily sources of sugar and fats and the importance of reading labels before buying these foods.
“Being able to meet less than 10% is to identify the big contributors, but also to be able to see where saturated fat and added sugar may still exist in other food choices. It doesn’t make them poor choices—it’s about being aware of how the morning latte may be contributing,” Taylor says.
Breaking down the menu of unhealthy foods
Overall, cheese, pizza, ice cream, and eggs were at the top of the list of foods high in saturated fat, according to the study. Cold cuts, substitutes for cream, fried potatoes, and whole milk were all high in saturated fat as well.
When it comes to beverages and sweets, soft drinks, tea, fruit drinks, cakes, and pies were the most common sources of added sugars. However, tomato-based condiments, cereal bars, energy drinks, and yeast breads also contribute to people’s daily consumption of added sugars.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The research team analyzed information from 36,378 adults 19 years and older who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2018. Surveys included what a person ate in the past 24 hours and when these foods and drinks were consumed in the past 2 days.
Researchers also examined differences in food sources rich in saturated fat and added sugar by race/ethnicity and age groups. Understanding these factors would help to create a more personalized plan for maintaining a healthy diet.
Key Results
- Cheese, pizza, ice cream, and eggs ranked the highest for foods high in saturated fat.
- Other commonly eaten foods with high saturated fat included cold cuts, cream substitutes, fried potatoes, and whole milk.
- Soft drinks, tea, fruit drinks, cakes, and pies were the most common sources of added sugars.
- Tomato-based condiments, cereal bars, energy drinks, and yeast breads contribute to people’s daily consumption of added sugars.
- Saturated fats account for at least 12% of the average American’s daily calories, and added sugars account for 14% to 16%.
Discussion & Takeaways
Researchers are developing an app to identify “nutrients of concern” among common foods that contribute to Americans’ saturated fat and sugar intake. In limiting these food choices, the goal is to prevent the risk of diseases in the future, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
“There are the foods that are higher in saturated fat and added sugar that are consumed frequently, and they get targeted, but there’s also that smaller cumulative effect of things that are generally perceived as healthy, but they’re all contributing just a little bit,” Taylor says. “And then when you top it off with some of those higher sources, it ends up taking you over the threshold for that 10% of the day’s calories.”
Funding & Disclosures
The research was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institution. One study author was employed at the nutrition and healthcare research company Viocare. The other researchers have disclosed that they have no competing interests that could have influenced the outcome of the study.
