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Josh Ye

Most popular desserts on the market contain excessive amounts of sugar, which could have contributed to the recent rise of diabetes cases in the city, the consumer watchdog says.
Tests by the Consumer Council and the Centre for Food Safety revealed that mango sago dessert with pomelo contained the highest average sugar content of 11 grams of sugar per 100 grams.
A 330g serving accounts for 80 per cent of the recommended daily sugar intake of 50g set by the World Health Organisation.
Are your drinks too sweet? 1 in 3 beverages served in Hong Kong restaurants high in sugar, study finds
Sweet potato soup ranked second and mung sweet soup third among the 10 most common non-pre-packaged sweet soups covered in the study.
They had an average sugar content of 10g and 9.5g per 100g respectively. Relatively healthier options include soybean curd dessert, which contained the least amount of sugar, with an average of less than 4g per 100g.
Dr Samuel Yeung, the principal medical officer at the Centre for Food Safety, said consuming excessive amounts of sugar would lead to excessive weight and obesity, which increased the risk of a person developing diabetes.
“Besides providing energy, sugar really does not have too much nutritional value,” Yeung said.
“Our study also found that there are sweet soups with less sugar on the market,” he said. “So it is not impossible to make sweet soups delicious but with less sugar.” Yeung said he personally found less sweet Chinese desserts tastier.
He suggested the government and restaurants set sugar reduction targets, including setting a maximum level of sugar to be used in desserts.
He said mango sago dessert with pomelo was particularly high in sugar because it usually came in large portions.
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The study also examined a number of pre-packaged desserts and found that certain products carried even higher sugar content than that in non-prepackaged products.
Dr Chan Yee-shing, vice-president of the Hong Kong Medical Association, also said that too much sweet soup had contributed to the rise of diabetes.
“In Chinese medicine, sweet soups are considered very nourishing,” Chan said. “Many people who are unaware of their diabetic condition consume a lot of sweet soup.”
He also suggested that people should have mango instead of mango sweet soups. “As opposed to the simple sugar we consume in sweet soups, sugars in fruits have a more complex structure, which gives the body a longer time to process them,” he said.


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Consumer protection in Hong Kong

Beware high sugar levels in sweet desserts, Hong Kong Consumer Council urges

Dr Samuel Yeung (left) and Michael Hui of the Consumer Council discuss high sugar levels in sweet desserts. Photo: David Wong

News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Dr Samuel Yeung of the Centre for Food Safety says consuming too many sweet soups could contribute to diabetes
