Food Quiz - Answers

1. Regardless of the bad rap corn syrup has received in recent years, neither is healthier; both are wasted calories with no real nutrient value. The healthy option is to simply avoid as much refined sugar as you can, especially if you eat processed foods. It’s better to get your sugars naturally from fruits and vegetables rather than those added to processed cereals, muffins, doughnuts, and loaf bread. Choose products that do not add sugar or have greatly reduced the amount of the sweetener.

2. True.

3. 50 percent.

4. True.

5. Six ounces. Fruit juice is very high in natural sugars and can be very fattening. It is better for a child to eat a whole apple, orange, or other piece of fruit intact to get all of the bulk, fiber, and nutrients than drink the juice, which could easily be the equivalent of eating three or four pieces of fruit that have had the nutrients processed away.

6. False. “Fresh” refers to foods that spoil faster than others.

7. True.

8. The U.S. pretty much stands alone in its very high sugar recommendations. The American Dietetic Association endorses a 25 percent upper limit – even in light of the nation’s growing obesity epidemic. Americans eat 20 percent more refined sugar today than in 1986, or 152 pounds of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, etc. That equals 30-35 teaspoons of sugar a day, up from 20 teaspoons just 23 years ago.

9. True.

10. False. An average of 16 nutrients are removed in the refining process but food science only has the technology to add four back into the mix. Current standards allow this smoke-and-mirrors approach since some nutrients are actually added to the product; the labeling just doesn’t tell you which ones are still lacking. “100 percent whole grain” bread, as well as breakfast cereal, should be the only choice for shoppers to make. The vast majority of bread from the major bakers should be avoided.

11. Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside. “As the old saying goes, you’re as old as your arteries are,” said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children’s Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. “This is a wake-up call.”

• Sources: “What to Eat” by Marion Nestle, U.S. News and World Report, Weimar Center of Health and Education, American Heart Association.