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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Shiriki Kumanyika

Aired April 27, 2003 - 11:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You might say a new report has given some in the food industry -- well, a sugar rush. That's because it's urging people to eat less refined sugars. What does this mean for both you and I? We want to go to now to Shiriki -- I'm sorry, I've forgotten your last name. What is your last name?
SHIRIKI KUMANYIKA, VICE CHAIR, WHO DIET AND HEALTH PANEL: Kumanyika.

COOPER: Kumanyika. Thank you very much for being with us. I appreciate your patience. You are the vice chair of the world health organization panel on diet and health, joining us from Philadelphia. So this WHO report has outraged some in the sugar lobby, confused a lot of others, including myself. What exactly is the World Health Organization now saying about sugar intake?

KUMANYIKA: Well, the recommendation in the WHO report is actually the same recommendation that was in a report issued in 1990. For some reason it's created a lot of shock this time. But what the report simply says is that of the total calories that people take in, less than 10 percent of them should come from a category called free sugars, which includes sugars added, and actually also includes naturally occurring sugars in fruit juices.

COOPER: What does that mean? How much sugar is that? If I drink two cans of soda, is that over the limit?

KUMANYIKA: Probably if they're large, 12 ounce. In some of the publications from the U.S. Government, there's a count of how many teaspoons of sugar you'll find in like a 12-ounce fruit drink or soda. And each teaspoon has about 15 calories. So if you have a soda that has 10 or 12 of these teaspoons, then you've got 150, 160 calories right there. On a...

COOPER: I'm sorry.

KUMANYIKA: So you have to look at the total calories. So if you have 2,000 calories, that max from all the foods containing added or free sugars is going to be about 200 calories and, you know, you can read a label and see which drinks or which products would give you that much in a free sugar.

COOPER: We've got some graphics about where are the added sugars. First we want to look at bread, cereal, rice and pasta. Bread, one slice doesn't apparently have any, but a doughnut has two teaspoons. A cake, frosted has six. And the next one is in fruit, canned fruit in heavy syrup, a half a cup, has about four teaspoons, and then milk, yogurt and cheese, low fat yogurt in particular has a fair amount, seven teaspoons.

Let me ask you, the WHO is basically saying that now you've got to keep it under 10 percent. There was this other study, by the National Academy of Sciences, this is back in September. And apparently that found no conclusive evidence that people suffer nutritionally unless their sugar intake was over 25 percent of daily calories. Why the discrepancy?

KUMANYIKA: It's not really a discrepancy. I think the president of the Institute of Medicine has already sent a letter to Tommy Thompson about this issue. That's a misinterpretation of that report, as far as I understand. And if you read that report, you'll see that they agree a lot with the WHO recommendation.

Yes, 25 percent is mentioned there as sort of an absolute upper limit. But that is not a target or a recommendation for the level of free sugar intake.

COOPER: And we should point out that that study is sort of being touted by the Sugar Association as evidence -- they have been very critical of this WHO study. In fact, someone from the Sugar Association said " Taxpayer's dollars should not be used to support misguided, non-science based reports which do not add to the health and well-being of Americans, much less the rest of the world." Obviously you disagree.

KUMANYIKA: I disagree with that. The process for generating this report involved about 75 experts across 30 countries. We used accepted standards of evidence. We cited our evidence. And I think it's unfortunate that the industry has chosen to try to discredit this, because this recommendation is actually very compatible with the U.S. dietary guidelines that have been in place since 1995 and reiterated in 2000.

COOPER: Ms. Kumanyika, I'm also joined by my colleague, Kelli Arena, who I think has a question.

KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. As a mother of three small children, are the recommendations different for children?

KUMANYIKA: The recommendations in this particular report are not specific for any population group. There are targets for, say, health and food ministries and countries to begin to shape individual eating recommendations. In the U.S. report, recommendations are for children and adults over age two years, and it says very clearly use the added sugars sparingly. The levels recommended would be very compatible with the WHO guidelines.

COOPER: All right. Shiriki Kumanyika, appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much. It was interesting.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 27, 2003 - 11:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You might say a new report has given some in the food industry -- well, a sugar rush. That's because it's urging people to eat less refined sugars. What does this mean for both you and I? We want to go to now to Shiriki -- I'm sorry, I've forgotten your last name. What is your last name?
SHIRIKI KUMANYIKA, VICE CHAIR, WHO DIET AND HEALTH PANEL: Kumanyika.

COOPER: Kumanyika. Thank you very much for being with us. I appreciate your patience. You are the vice chair of the world health organization panel on diet and health, joining us from Philadelphia. So this WHO report has outraged some in the sugar lobby, confused a lot of others, including myself. What exactly is the World Health Organization now saying about sugar intake?

KUMANYIKA: Well, the recommendation in the WHO report is actually the same recommendation that was in a report issued in 1990. For some reason it's created a lot of shock this time. But what the report simply says is that of the total calories that people take in, less than 10 percent of them should come from a category called free sugars, which includes sugars added, and actually also includes naturally occurring sugars in fruit juices.

COOPER: What does that mean? How much sugar is that? If I drink two cans of soda, is that over the limit?

KUMANYIKA: Probably if they're large, 12 ounce. In some of the publications from the U.S. Government, there's a count of how many teaspoons of sugar you'll find in like a 12-ounce fruit drink or soda. And each teaspoon has about 15 calories. So if you have a soda that has 10 or 12 of these teaspoons, then you've got 150, 160 calories right there. On a...

COOPER: I'm sorry.

KUMANYIKA: So you have to look at the total calories. So if you have 2,000 calories, that max from all the foods containing added or free sugars is going to be about 200 calories and, you know, you can read a label and see which drinks or which products would give you that much in a free sugar.

COOPER: We've got some graphics about where are the added sugars. First we want to look at bread, cereal, rice and pasta. Bread, one slice doesn't apparently have any, but a doughnut has two teaspoons. A cake, frosted has six. And the next one is in fruit, canned fruit in heavy syrup, a half a cup, has about four teaspoons, and then milk, yogurt and cheese, low fat yogurt in particular has a fair amount, seven teaspoons.

Let me ask you, the WHO is basically saying that now you've got to keep it under 10 percent. There was this other study, by the National Academy of Sciences, this is back in September. And apparently that found no conclusive evidence that people suffer nutritionally unless their sugar intake was over 25 percent of daily calories. Why the discrepancy?

KUMANYIKA: It's not really a discrepancy. I think the president of the Institute of Medicine has already sent a letter to Tommy Thompson about this issue. That's a misinterpretation of that report, as far as I understand. And if you read that report, you'll see that they agree a lot with the WHO recommendation.

Yes, 25 percent is mentioned there as sort of an absolute upper limit. But that is not a target or a recommendation for the level of free sugar intake.

COOPER: And we should point out that that study is sort of being touted by the Sugar Association as evidence -- they have been very critical of this WHO study. In fact, someone from the Sugar Association said " Taxpayer's dollars should not be used to support misguided, non-science based reports which do not add to the health and well-being of Americans, much less the rest of the world." Obviously you disagree.

KUMANYIKA: I disagree with that. The process for generating this report involved about 75 experts across 30 countries. We used accepted standards of evidence. We cited our evidence. And I think it's unfortunate that the industry has chosen to try to discredit this, because this recommendation is actually very compatible with the U.S. dietary guidelines that have been in place since 1995 and reiterated in 2000.

COOPER: Ms. Kumanyika, I'm also joined by my colleague, Kelli Arena, who I think has a question.

KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. As a mother of three small children, are the recommendations different for children?

KUMANYIKA: The recommendations in this particular report are not specific for any population group. There are targets for, say, health and food ministries and countries to begin to shape individual eating recommendations. In the U.S. report, recommendations are for children and adults over age two years, and it says very clearly use the added sugars sparingly. The levels recommended would be very compatible with the WHO guidelines.

COOPER: All right. Shiriki Kumanyika, appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much. It was interesting.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com