Sugar Overload Day: Where sugar is hiding

Monday was ‘Sugar Overload Day’ – we’ve already consumed our recommended annual intake of sugar this year. Sugar remains an integral part of our daily lives, even though everyone knows that too much sugar makes you ill.

This sweet temptation is a master of disguise, and food manufacturers are experts at misleading us. Together, this is a harmful combination.

High sugar content in processed foods

Far too much sugar is hidden in products such as energy drinks, ketchup, drinkable yoghurt, cornflakes, instant cappuccino and mass-produced bread. Sandra Holasek is a nutritionist and food researcher at the Medical University of Graz; she is particularly critical of processed foods: “There are more and more products that have a long shelf life.”

Things are better when it comes to food in Styrian canteens, according to Holasek, as there are now precise guidelines that canteen operators can and must follow. The main aim must be to reduce obesity, improve people’s health and thereby ease the burden on the healthcare system.

Expert against hasty bans

Around 54 countries worldwide are already attempting to achieve this by introducing a sugar tax – for example, on soft drinks. As studies show, bans in countries such as the UK, France and Hungary are proving successful.

In Austria, no such ban exists. Sandra Holasek is also convinced that further research is needed before introducing such a ban: “You have to weigh things up carefully before actually imposing taxes or bans, so as not to cause more confusion than you achieve in terms of effective results.”

As with everything else, the same applies to sugar: it is the dose that makes the poison, and because this dose tastes so delicious, it does not seem dangerous. The craving for sweet things is an evolutionary trait in humans. In the past, if something was sweet, it was usually not poisonous either – a pattern ingrained over millennia.

Source: ORF Steiermark, 4 August 2026