An interesting article from The Sunday Times in Scotland blows the lid on allegedly health-enhancing, probiotic drinks, because they contain up to 80% more sugar than cola!
In fact, the newspaper found that four varieties of these “friendly bacteria” drinks — which claim to enhance the immune and digestive systems — exceed the Food Standard Agency’s (FSA’s) benchmark for high sugar content."
Now, leading nutritionists and consumer groups are urging manufacturers to cut down on the sugar.
Hurrah to the Times for waking people up to this soaring sugar content. (According to the article, Yakult has 18g of sugar per 100g; Flora pro.activ raspberry, 12.3g; Müller Vitality strawberry, 12.6g’ and Danone Actimel multifruit, 14.2g. Tellingly, Coca-Cola has less — 10g of sugar per 100g.)
The sad part as that sales have been soaring of these probiotic drinks (up 65%) — because consumers have been lured by these alleged health-giving properties — they’ve been unaware of the high level of sugar they contain, nutritionists claim. The Times reports:
Miranda Watson, of Which?, formerly the Consumers’ Association, said she was concerned about the level of sugar in the products, which claim to “control blood pressure”, “benefit overall well-being” and contain “feel-good bacteria”.
“If a product is high in sugar, as these products are, then they should not be making health claims — it is misleading to the consumer,” she said. “If you pick up a product with a health claim on it then the assumption is that it will improve your health. If it is high in sugar then it won’t.”
It’s not nice to fool consumers!
Alas, around the world, we’re being mislead by food labeling. Gullible consumers snap up allegedly healthful foods and drinks that could be more harmful than helpful.
So, make sure you read those food labels of everything you buy!
By the way, we’ll teach you how to read food labels as part of my upcoming 21-day kick-sugar countdown program.
Just join my free, online KickSugar group now — before November 1 — and the 21-day program will be a gift to you. After Nov. 1, it will no longer be complimentary.