Workers' Daily-China Workers' Network reporter Ji Wei

In recent years, many food merchants are keen to promote the concept of "0", such as "0 sugar", "0 fat", "0 added", etc. Many consumers are also eager to pay for these "0" foods.

Do these "0's" really mean healthier food? "0 sugar", "0 added sugar", "0 sucrose", etc., what does it mean?

"0 Added Sugars"

添加糖是指人工加到食品中的糖类，即除了原料本身含的糖，再额外添加进去糖。“0添加糖”只说明产品在生产时没有额外加糖。“0添加糖”的食品依然可能含有其他糖。比如，“0添加糖”的果干本身就有很多糖，“0添加糖”的果酱也含有天然糖。“0添加糖”也不等于“0能量”。比如，“0添加糖”的饼干、面包，在制作时要用到面粉、黄油、鸡蛋等，能量依然很高。

"0 Sucrose"

"0 sucrose" just does not add sucrose, which does not mean that the food does not contain glucose, maltose, fructose and other sugars. "0 sugar" and "0 sucrose" indicate completely different sugar components and sugar content, and there are essential differences.

"0 Sugar"

According to China's national food safety standards, the definition of "0 sugar" or "no sugar" is that the sugar content in every 0 grams or 0 milliliters of food does not exceed 0.0 grams. Sugar here refers to a variety of monosaccharides and disaccharides, including naturally occurring sugars and artificially added sugars. However, many merchants secretly replace the concept of "0 sugar" with "0 added sugar" and "0 sucrose", etc., so you must pay attention when buying food.

There are a lot of "vests" of sugar in food

There are many "vests" of sugar in food, such as white sugar, sucrose, rock sugar, glucose, fructose, young sugar, brown sugar, brown sugar, sugar cubes, crystalline fructose, honey, nectar, fruit juice concentrate, fructose syrup, maple leaf syrup, corn syrup, invert sugar syrup, etc. As long as they are in the ingredient list, they are sugary. When you buy, you should pay attention to check whether there are these "vests" in the food label.

Are "0 fat" foods less energy?

其实不一定。比如，很多酸乳饮料、乳酸菌饮料，虽然是“0脂肪”，但糖含量分别占到14%和14.6%，能量依然很高。

Are non-fried foods lower in fat?

Non-fried foods are also not necessarily low in fat. Non-frying is just that the food is not produced by frying process, but is dried by hot air, but oil is still sprayed on the food during the drying process, so the fat content is not necessarily low. Many non-fried foods are crispy because of their high fat.

"0 Cholesterol"

跟“0脂肪”相近，“0胆固醇”也是常见的一种标识。一些产品如畅销植物油、花生米、椰子水等都宣称“0胆固醇”，但这其实完全是废话。因为胆固醇只存在于动物身上，所有植物都没有胆固醇。

"0 trans fatty acids"

Many "0 trans fatty acids" foods, such as a certain finger cake, although labeled "0 trans fatty acids", have a total fat content of 0.0%, which is not a lot of fat. A certain waffle is labeled with "0 trans fatty acids" but has a total fat content of 0.0%. Therefore, although these foods are labeled with "0 trans fatty acids", they are not very fatty, and they are not necessarily healthy.

The national food safety standard "General Principles for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods" (GB0-0) stipulates that the fat content is less than or equal to 0.0 g/0 ml or 0 g can be marked with "0 fat", and the trans fatty acid content is less than or equal to 0.0 g/0 ml or 0 g can be marked with "0 trans fatty acids". If hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and oils are used in the ingredients, the amount of trans fatty acids needs to be declared in the nutrition facts list.

In fact, at present, there is a lot of information about trans fatty acids on the Internet, and there are some conceptual confusion and obvious misleading, which leads to Chinese consumers overestimating the health risks of trans fatty acids. With the advancement of technology, many regular products are now very low in trans fatty acids. Moreover, the intake of trans fatty acids by Chinese is far below the recommended limit of the World Health Organization. Therefore, you don't need to worry too much about trans fatty acids, let alone focus on "0 trans fatty acids" and ignore the total fat content.

"0 Add"

There are various "0 additive" products on the market, such as "0 flavor", "0 color", "0 sugar substitute", "0 thickener", "0 preservative" and so on on the packaging.

实际上，茶饮料、酸梅汤等本身自带香味，无需添加香精，没有必要刻意强调“0香精”。香菇、柠檬汁饮料等无需添加色素，强调“0色素”也没必要。蜂蜜、方便面面饼、咸菜等本身无需防腐剂，没必要强调“0防腐剂”。维生素C本身有防腐作用，也无需强调“0防腐剂”。

“0添加”之所以很时髦，有一个原因是人们对食品添加剂的恐慌。但实际上，只要是批准使用的食品添加剂，合理使用都是安全的。“0添加”食品并非食品安全的“优等生”，也不一定更健康。而且，现代食品工业中完全做到不使用食品添加剂的食品几乎没有。“0防腐剂”的酱油，在生产过程中依然要用到酶制剂、加工助剂，来保障食品生产的正常进行和抑制微生物的生长。规范、合理使用食品添加剂，不仅对人体无害，还能提高食品安全水平。某些不添加防腐剂的食品在制作、运输或开封后可能会出现污染变质的情况，也会危害健康。希望大家在选择食品时，看到各种“0”能多一些理性，不要盲目购买。（健康北京、健康扬州、大众健康等）

Spotlight Patients with eye diseases are not recommended to take "iris photos"

据人民日报健康客户端，12月11日，“虹膜写真尽量别公开展示”等话题登上社交平台热搜。中国中医科学院眼科医院原副院长、主任医师谢立科表示，在社会摄影机构拍摄“虹膜写真”时，需对顾客使用过的设备或者仪器进行消毒，防止感染。在操作过程中用手掰开眼皮等行为也可能导致眼部感染的风险增加。此外，患有角结膜炎，严重干眼的患者不适宜进行此类拍摄，这些患者的眼睛往往更加敏感，容易受到外界刺激。

Workers' Daily client "Le Health" Issue 552