The bitter taste of the new WHO guideline on sweeteners – 05/18/2023 – Balance

It is common today for people to consume sweeteners indiscriminately with the intention of maintaining or reducing weight and even with the aim of becoming healthier, freely ingesting sweet foods while avoiding the much-feared sugar. The new WHO (World Health Organization) guideline on sweeteners, recently released, shows that this strategy is a shot in the water.

The WHO document suggests that, in the long term, the use of sweeteners is not enough to control weight or reduce body fat, and may even cause damage to health, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems. The agency also emphasizes the need for efforts to reduce sugar consumption in order to maintain a healthy diet.

What’s the way out then? Accept that life will be more bitter from today? Should we continue or not to sweeten the coffee? And if so, with what? Sweetener or sugar?

The consumption of diet foods in large amounts and unnecessarily by people without diabetes may be masking a disturbed and disturbed eating behavior. The same goes for overconsumption of sugar. In this sense, there is no doubt that the WHO is correct in its recommendation.

However, simply prohibiting certain choices, or classifying specific foods as villains, is not healthy either. On the contrary, the price to be paid for “all or nothing” attitudes can be even more expensive.

Dietary restrictions are the gateway to increasing the chances of binge eating episodes and increasing the risk of developing eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, in addition to disordered eating.

Not to mention that the idea of ​​controlling what you eat directly contributes to perpetuating the so-called “diet mentality”, which involves, for example, the lack of food autonomy and the unconditional appreciation of the relationship between thinness and health, with obvious harm to the well-being.

Basing food choices exclusively on scientific studies, without taking into account contexts and desires, flirts with the possibility of people becoming ill with the act of eating, distancing them from truly healthy habits.

It is therefore necessary to understand food from a broader perspective, recognizing that many factors are responsible for the choices we make at the table, including cultural, social and emotional aspects. In other words, having a cup of coffee with sugar for breakfast, or even a glass of soda for Sunday lunch, will not in itself make anyone’s diet any less healthy.

In the end, what should be taken away from the WHO guideline is good old-fashioned balance. This means avoiding the wild consumption of sweeteners and not abusing sugar; opt for unprocessed or minimally processed foods; and, above all, eating attentive to the physical signs of hunger and satiety. Taking all these elements into account, and not just dietary prescriptions, are still the best and most appropriate ways to decide what and how to eat.