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These days, it’s not only your assignments that will be graded: even your drinks will also be graded as well. With the Ministry of Health (MOH) latest “drink grading system”, you’ll be able to easily tell which drinks are the healthiest with just a glance. From 30 December 2022, when we’ve all probably taken 20 booster jabs, all drinks will be graded with either an A, B, C or D, with A being the healthiest and D being the unhealthiest. All drinks, including soft drinks, fruit juices and juice drinks, milk and yogurt drinks, and even instant powdered beverages, will receive a grade, specifically, “Nutri-Grade” The drinks will also have a nutrition label specifying: Energy value Amounts of protein Carbohydrate Fat Total Sugar Saturated Fat D-Grade Cannot be Advertised Just like your failing grades, the drinks with D-grade cannot be advertised on media platforms. However, if you were to go into a store with such drinks, they can still be advertised with posters. Drinks graded with C or D will also be required to carry the Nutri-Grade mark on the front of the packaging. If the drinks are sold in a vending machine, in a dispenser or online, the grades will have to be displayed in a prominent manner. In short, the grades have to be visible and not hidden at a corner, under the can or worse, in the can. Why the Graded Drinks? The new changes are implemented to help consumers identify beverages lower in sugar and saturated fats. This help consumers make more informed decisions in hopes of them making healthier choices. Additionally, they do not want the media to advertise consumer preferences on unhealthy drinks anymore. This will spur industry reformulation aka no more clickbaity drinks advertisements. The Government Gazette has published the regulations and it will come into force a year later. This period of time was given to help companies adapt to the new requirements and reformulate their products to a healthier version. If these companies still refuse to put the grades on their drinks by the end of next year, they will be fined a maximum of S$1,000 if they are first-time offenders. If they still did not learn their lesson after the first offence, they will be fined up to S$2,000. Source: https://goodyfeed.com/drink-graded/

SINGAPORE - Singapore may well become the first country in the world to ban the sale of packaged drinks with high sugar content. This is one of the moves the Ministry of Health (MOH) is contemplating in its efforts to cut the high sugar intake of people here, as it is a major factor for obesity and diabetes. The MOH and the Health Promotion Board are asking people for their views on four measures to cut sugar intake from drinks, which include 3-in-1 mixes, cordials, yogurt drinks, fruit juices and soda drinks. The target is on drinks as they account for more than half the 12 teaspoons of sugar people here take each day. One in four sugar-sweetened beverages contains 5.5 teaspoons of sugar or more. The four measures the MOH wants public feedback on are: - Total ban on pre-packed high-sugar drinks - Single or tiered tax on high-sugar drinks - Mandatory front-of-pack labelling on sugar/nutrition content - Ban on advertisements on all platforms for high-sugar drinks, including social media and on buses Singapore already does not allow the sale of high-sugar drinks in schools and on government premises. Many companies also refrain from advertising high-sugar drinks during the hours when children are more likely to be watching television. There is also the Healthier Choice Symbol to identify healthier drinks. But this, too, is voluntary. The public consultation is to gauge people's reactions to pushing these boundaries further. In a press statement, the MOH said that every 250ml of sugar-sweetened beverages daily raises a person's risk of getting diabetes by 18 per cent to 26 per cent. This is from various studies, so the amount of sugar in the drink was not indicated. The World Health Organisation (WHO) encourages people to take as little sugar as possible as "nutritionally, people do not need any sugar in their diet". It said reducing sugar intake to 25g a day would provide health benefits. This is equal to five teaspoons as measured in Singapore, but six teaspoons according to the WHO. Experts The Straits Times spoke to all agreed that a total ban on high-sugar drinks would be the most effective, but also the least politically palatable measure. Professor Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said the four measures are not mutually exclusive and together, are "very much in the right direction". He added that any reduction in sugar intake will directly translate to health benefits. Both he and Professor Eric Finkelstein of the Duke-NUS Medical School agree that packaged fruit juices, even those with no added sugar, should not be exempt. Prof Finkelstein said sugar is sugar, adding that the narrower the tax, the less effective it is as people can still have other high-calorie drinks as substitutes. Dr Kalpana Bhaskaran, a glycaemic expert from Temasek Polytechnic, said a 330ml can of soda and one of apple juice have about 36g of sugar each. Ms Gladys Wong, a senior principal dietitian at the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, thinks the suggested measures do not go far enough. She said: "There must be a fair way to tax the freshly prepared beverage outlets, not just the pre-packaged drinks." Professor Rob van Dam, an epidemiologist at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said high sugar content in drinks adds calories but does not make people feel full, so it is worse than sugar in food. He said a study in Mexico estimated that a 20 per cent reduction in sugar would reduce obesity by 12.5 per cent. Being overweight or being obese are key risk factors for diabetes, heart attacks, stroke and some cancers, he added. The public can give feedback at www.reach.gov.sg/sugarydrinks or e-mail [email protected] from now till Jan 25 next year.

Tiko Rangers stand a side... Our very own Tiko from Singapore... http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/in-search-of-a-sugar-daddy

Today went to a drink stall at Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre to buy teh o peng ka dai. Out of sudden, the stall assistant shared with me that in the past, they always faced issue with ants going after the sugar left uncovered in containers. However, now even though they keep their sugar in a bowl without cover, the ants left the sugar in it alone. True enough, I saw the sugar sparkling white and left exposed in a bowl. The stall assistant ends his story asking what stuff were added during the manufacturing of modern day sugar and that he usually advise his customer to skip sugar in their drinks.

Top 20 per cent consume 35 kg of added sugar a year. http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/scratch-win-contest-launched-get-sporeans-reduce-sugar-intake SINGAPORE — The next time you buy a drink with less sugar at a Kopitiam or pick up bubble tea with reduced sugar level at Gong Cha, you could stand a chance to win prizes such as vouchers from electronics, shopping mall and supermarket brands. The Health Promotion Board (HPB) announced today (Oct 11) that it is launching a Scratch & Win contest with the aim to reduce sugar intake among Singaporeans. The contest, in partnership with coffee shops, food courts, hawker centres and food kiosk chains, will be held across nearly 800 outlets. HPB aims to have 1,000 participating outlets on board the contest by December. Sweetened drinks have been identified as a source of empty calories, contributing 200 calories or about 10 per cent of the average daily caloric allowance, the HPB said. Individually, Singaporeans currently consume, on average, 20 kg of added sugar per person per year, with the top 20 per cent consuming approximately 35 kg of added sugar a year. A major source of sugar is sweetened drinks - 60 per cent of Singaporeans consume two or more sweetened drinks a day

Cargill Inc., the agriculture and trading giant, said Thursday that it would close a division that trades coal, as well as European power and gas, after a strategic review of the businesses. Cargill, one of the world's largest privately owned companies, said in a statement that it is exiting the businesses because of "significant changes in the coal and European power and gas markets." It didn't identify those changes. Separately, Cargill and Copersucar SA, a Brazilian sugar and ethanol trader, agreed to combine their global sugar-trading activities, creating a new joint venture that will source and trade sugar. The Geneva-based energy-trading operation Cargill is closing is part of its energy, transportation and metals division. Cargill estimates it buys nearly $5 billion of energy a year. Reduced coal consumption in some countries, such as the U.S., has lifted global supplies of coal in recent years and depressed prices, intensifying competition for markets that still need the fuel. Coking coal, used for making steel, is trading at its lowest level in eight years, while prices of thermal coal, used in power generation, are the weakest since 2009. Cargill said it would continue to trade in petroleum, petrochemicals, iron ore and steel, ocean freight and North American gas and power markets. Last month, SparkSpread.com, an energy-market publication, reported that Cargill suffered losses of at least $100 million trading in energy markets early this year, mostly in mid-Atlantic power markets. The publication didn't cite a source for its information. Pete Stoddart, a spokesman for Cargill, said Thursday that the company doesn't disclose the results of individual business units, but said the $100 million-loss figure was inaccurate. He said the decision to exit the coal and European power businesses was unrelated to the U.S. power operation. The Cargill-Copersucar sugar venture will be 50%-owned by each company. Other financial terms weren't disclosed. The venture will benefit from a large supply of sugar from Copersucar's partner mills in Brazil, the world's largest sugar producer and exporter, and from both companies' logistics-management experience, the companies said. The venture's trading activities will be based in Geneva, with offices in locations including Hong Kong, São Paulo, Brazil; Miami, Moscow and Dubai. Ivo Sarjanovic, who leads Cargill's sugar business, will be chief executive once the new company is formed, which is expected in the second half of 2014. Copersucar Chairman Luis Roberto Pogetti will become the first chairman of the venture, a post that will rotate. Both companies' ethanol businesses and fixed assets, such as terminals and mills, are excluded from the transaction. Each company will continue to own its own logistics and infrastructure facilities, but these will serve the joint venture, according to a spokesman for Copersucar. The deal will help Copersucar shore up its logistics reach after a massive fire in October damaged six of its Brazilian sugar warehouses, used to store and ship sugar at the port of Santos. Shipments of sugar from the port dropped by about 40% after the fire. Copersucar is repairing its Santos terminal and by February 2015 expects to have the capacity to receive and ship 10 million tons of sugar a year, an average of about 800,000 to a month, up from a current 250,000 a month. The deal comes as other commodity companies have struggled in the sugar business. Bunge Ltd. last month said it hired Morgan Stanley to advise on a strategic review of its money-losing sugar milling operation, which has been hurt by low world sugar prices and caps on the price of ethanol produced from sugar cane in Brazil. Archer Daniels Midland Co., in financial results reported in February, recorded a $50 million impairment of its investment in a Brazilian sugar mill, based on a new assessment of future cash flows from the business. Cargill, founded in 1865, has diverse operations including processing meat, selling steel and making pharmaceutical ingredients, in addition to trading grain, energy and other commodities and transporting goods across a sprawling global logistics network.

hello hello...........anybody know when can get sugar free moon cakes???.............Singapore or Malaysia also can......thank you many many!!!!! :D

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/sugar-dumb-us-sci...-190918147.html Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to US scientists who published a study Tuesday showing how a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup sapped lab rats' memories. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) fed two groups of rats a solution containing high-fructose corn syrup -- a common ingredient in processed foods -- as drinking water for six weeks. One group of rats was supplemented with brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), while the other group was not. Before the sugar drinks began, the rats were enrolled in a five-day training session in a complicated maze. After six weeks on the sweet solution, the rats were then placed back in the maze to see how they fared. "The DHA-deprived animals were slower, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats' ability to think clearly and recall the route they'd learned six weeks earlier." A closer look at the rat brains revealed that those who were not fed DHA supplements had also developed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar and regulates brain function. "Because insulin can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, the hormone may signal neurons to trigger reactions that disrupt learning and cause memory loss," Gomez-Pinilla said. In other words, eating too much fructose could interfere with insulin's ability to regulate how cells use and store sugar, which is necessary for processing thoughts and emotions. "Insulin is important in the body for controlling blood sugar, but it may play a different role in the brain, where insulin appears to disturb memory and learning," Gomez-Pinilla said. "Our study shows that a high-fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body. This is something new." High-fructose corn syrup is commonly found in soda, condiments, applesauce, baby food and other processed snacks. The average American consumes more than 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. While the study did not say what the equivalent might be for a human to consume as much high-fructose corn syrup as the rats did, researchers said it provides some evidence that metabolic syndrome can affect the mind as well as the body. "Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think," said Gomez-Pinilla. "Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage." The study appeared in the Journal of Physiology.

1. I'm wondering from health perception, which is more evil than the other. 2. If my maid prepares bread for breakfast, should I go either for kaya bread or butter bread. Please comment. Thanks. Regards,