Food Firms Hope You Can Never Have Too Much of a Sweeter Thing

Forget dinner. These days most food companies are moving right on to dessert, pumping up the sugar in many of their new products--even diet food--in hopes of attracting new customers and boosting sales of tired brands.

Even frozen french fries are getting a chocolate and cinnamon sugar makeover.

Sweet sells, judging by the top-selling products of last year.

And they still can be marketed as “healthy,” because consumers coming off the low-fat kick of the 1990s have been trained to look only at fat and calories and care little about the rising sugar levels in food.

However, a growing number of doctors and nutritionists warn that the increasing use of sugar is becoming a major factor in obesity and, therefore, adult-onset diabetes.

A key national nutrition advisory panel is considering whether to recommend a new limit on sugar, although some experts said such a curb won’t discourage consumers from eating more sweetened foods.

The average consumer eats 152 pounds of sugar a year, 30 pounds more than two decades ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Sugar use in food has been increasing since the mid-1990s, the USDA said.

“It’s a very indulgent time we live in right now,” said Tom Vierhile, executive editor of Productscan Online, a food product information service of Marketing Intelligence Service Ltd. “It’s kind of strange to see this trend, when all evidence would suggest that the last thing we need is more indulgent food.”

Although growing consumption of soft drinks containing high-fructose corn sweeteners accounts for a large part of the increase in sugar intake, doctors say the emphasis on low-fat food also played a part.

Food companies “took out the fat, but replaced it with sugar,” said Sam Andrews, a New Orleans endocrinologist and coauthor of the diet book “Sugar Busters!” The downing of so much low-fat food during the 1990s, he said, “has just encouraged us to eat more sugar.”

Because many sugary products such as yogurt still are relatively low in calories and, in some cases, are fortified with vitamins and minerals, most people consider them healthy.

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Despite Low-Fat Foods, Most Gained Pounds

But the proof is in the waistband, nutritionists say. Most people actually gained weight during the low-fat craze of the 1990s. Sixty percent of the U.S. population is overweight or obese.

Yet neither food companies nor federal health officials have addressed the spiraling consumption of sweeteners and the role they are playing in fattening America.

Consumer groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest have lobbied the government to require food companies to clearly label the amount of added sugars, such as corn syrup, dextrose and maltose, in all packaged goods and include a maximum recommended allowance so consumers can see how much sugar they are eating.

However, nearly three years after receiving a petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Food and Drug Administration still is considering the request.

Many, including Michael Jacobson, executive director of the consumer group, blame intense lobbying by the sugar and sweetener industries for the government’s refusal to take as tough a stance on sugar as it has on fat.

Indeed, the Sugar Assn., the trade group for the sugar industry, acknowledged that it asked the USDA several years ago to change the proposed wording of its dietary guidelines on sugar. The wording now urges consumers to use “moderation” rather than “limit” their sugar intake.

“There is no evidence that sugar in moderation has any ill effects,” said Sugar Assn. President Richard Keelor. “It’s our job to make sure they look at the preponderance of science, and that’s the law.”

To help make its case, the industry has on occasion sponsored health research, Keelor said.

And it is a fierce opponent of anyone who criticizes sugar. Critics have in some cases been threatened with legal action for making what the organization says are “misleading” statements.

New York University nutritionist Marion Nestle, author of “Food Politics,” was sent a letter by the Sugar Assn. after making some remarks critical of sugar during her recent book tour.

“[The USDA] is up against a very powerful industry that chooses the kinds of studies that [the agency] looks at and gives its own interpretation of sugar on health,” Nestle said.

Nevertheless, she said, it’s important that people, especially kids, limit sugar intake. And that, she said, is getting harder as people get used to sweeter and sweeter foods.

In the May issue of Consumer Reports magazine, she noted, the highest-rated peanut butters were picked as much for their sweet taste as for their peanut flavor. Unsweetened peanut butter was described as “bitter.”

“That’s not the word I would use. “I would describe it as peanutty,” she said. “As people get used to sweet tastes, [products] have to be sweeter and sweeter.”

Nestle said sugar encourages people to eat bigger portions, creating bigger demand.

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An Inexpensive Way to Revamp Products

Because sugar is such a cheap ingredient, it’s also an easy way for food companies to court new customers and update existing products.

Birds Eye recently rolled out Sqeezle Sauz--applesauce in a tube with sweet strawberry flavor. Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies recently got a layer of rich cream in the middle to become Chips Ahoy Cremewich.

And more decadent desserts and bakery items are being marketed in snack sizes so consumers can pop them on the go.

It’s not just dessert that’s getting sweeter. Even foods most consumers think of as healthy or dietetic are coming out in sweeter versions.

Four ounces of General Mills Inc.’s Yoplait Whips, a new yogurt mousse, contains 21 grams of sugar, 50% more than in the company’s 6-ounce Dannon Light yogurt.

Food experts said sweet is selling better these days partly because consumers are feeling more time-strapped and stressed and want a sugary treat as a reward.

The more indulgent the product, the more appealing it sounds, especially to women, said Amy Lazenby, a brand manager at Nestle USA’s Power Bar division.

Power Bar, an energy bar designed for athletes, late last year rolled out Pria, a vitamin-enhanced, chocolate-coated soy cookie in flavors such as Creme Caramel Crisp and Strawberry Shortcake.

In some cases, sugary snacks like these are replacing meals as more people grab food on the go, eating yogurt in a tube in the car or pulling into a gas station between appointments to grab an energy bar.

And because parents are pressed for time, kids are getting more convenience foods that often are more sugary than meals prepared at home, experts said. One example is milk and cereal breakfast bars, one of General Mills’ best-selling new product lines last year.

Snack or meal-replacement bars like these have been edging their way into American diets faster than any other food. Sales have risen 12% in the last year, according to data from Information Resources Inc.

Of the more than 1,400 snack products introduced to the market last year, snack bars were among the top sellers. And energy bars aside, the bulk of the top sellers as tracked by Information Resources were sweet products.

Food marketers say that’s what consumers are demanding.

“We haven’t had to pull any products because they’re too sweet,” said John Carroll, managing director of potatoes and snacks for Heinz North America.

Heinz is rolling out chocolate and cinnamon-sugar frozen French fries, part of it’s Funky Fries line, in May.

Like many of the items launched in grocery stores last year, these products are geared to kids and teenagers, who now represent about a quarter of the population and snack an average of two or more times a day.

One of the best-selling products for this group was ConAgra Foods Inc.’s new Jolly Rancher refrigerated gelatin cups--regular gelatin packed with more intense sweet and sour flavors.

The product’s success is prompting ConAgra to roll out other portable dessert products, such as Hershey chocolate pudding packaged in a tube and chocolate-covered caramel popcorn that it is testing in some markets.

“We just can’t make enough of [the popcorn],” said Tim McMahon, senior vice president of marketing for ConAgra Foods. “It’s that popular.”

Other types of staple foods--from meat to nuts--are getting sweet glazes. Honey has become a favorite flavor of food companies, McMahon said, because people think of it as “natural,” so therefore better for you.

And natural products such as nuts are getting new, sweeter flavors such as apple cinnamon and pecan pie.

Is this extra dose of sugar such a bad thing, especially if more people eat nuts and vitamin-laced snack bars instead of less nutritious snacks such as Twinkies?

Maybe not, some say. But many nutritionists and doctors seem to agree that most Americans need to reduce their sugar intake.

They just don’t agree on why and how much of these sweeteners is too much.

Some say sugar is a carbohydrate like any other, and if eaten in excess it can cause obesity and tooth decay. But others believe that, because sweeteners more readily convert to blood sugar than other types of carbohydrates, they carry other health risks as well.

Some, like Dr. Ronald Krauss, head of UC Berkeley’s department of nutritional sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences food and nutrition board, believe there is ample evidence that consumption of a certain amount of sugar is linked to increased blood triglyceride levels, which can put people at increased risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

“Excess sugar consumption in people with a history of heart disease should be discouraged,” Krauss said.

No one, including Krauss, is willing to call sugar addictive. But, he said, “I think there is a sugar attraction, a clear link between sugar and the desire to get more.”

Sugar, in all its forms, nutritionists said, has been an effective tool for cereal makers to attract children and to get them eating more of their products.

But soft drink consumption is of the greatest concern, and is fast becoming a major factor in obesity in children, said Dr. Benjamin Caballero of Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Caballero said the biggest risk he sees from sugar is that it is edging out other nutrients in our diets, noting that soft drinks have reduced consumption of calcium-rich milk.

More of the ever-increasing calories in food are coming from additional sugar.

Krauss believes that more research needs to be done on sugar’s effects on health.

“The science is not where I want it to be,” Krauss said. “It’s so hard to get ... proof that any dietary practice is the magic bullet in disease.”

Krauss said the National Academy of Sciences food and nutrition board will release a report this summer that could recommend an upper limit on sugar. He declined to discuss the contents of the report further.

But many say it’s unlikely that regulators will urge consumers to rein in their sugar habits on this advice.

And with sweet indulgence selling so well, food companies aren’t expected to reduce the sugar in their products or offer low-sugar versions, as they did low-fat versions in the 1990s.

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Few Firms Acknowledge Increasing Sugar Levels

Most food companies refuse to acknowledge that their product lines are getting sweeter.

Officials at Kraft Foods Inc. say sweet “is not a strategy.” Kraft spokeswoman Claire Regan said it’s only coincidence that many of its new products are sugary.

General Mills declined to discuss the matter.

Yet new product reformulations and sweeter versions of existing products are being launched all the time to boost sales.

The first visible example of this happened at the end of the low-fat craze.

In an attempt to boost waning sales of its low-fat Snackwell’s cookies in 1998, Nabisco increased the sugar content, said Vierhile of Productscan.

Although most Americans seem to have caught on that gulping low-fat cookies won’t keep them from putting on weight, nutrition--if encased in a sweet package--is still a big sell. Case in point: Body Smarts, a new line of candy and snack bars that contain large amounts of sugar as well as 30% of the recommended daily allowance for calcium and all of the allowance for vitamin C.

Although a small but growing number of low-carbohydrate dieters are watching sugar, few other Americans seem to care, nutritionists say.

Furthermore, a recent study conducted by market research firm NPD Group Inc. said most people don’t care if they gain weight, despite the health implications.

But at least one anti-sugar activist is fighting fire with fire.

Nancy Appleton, author of “Lick the Sugar Habit,” plans to help peddle a new gum called Sugar Fighter via an infomercial. She claims the gum will make sugar taste like cardboard for 45 minutes after it has been chewed.

“I can’t tell you how many sugar-holics there are out there that need help,” Appleton said.