It was the year 2016 when Antonio Rodríguez Estrada took his first steps in the world of disclosure. To do this, he created sinAzucar.org: an artistic project that intended to show the world hidden sugar content They have some products from the supermarket. In addition to the products that we would all expect such as pastries, breakfast cereals or ice cream, we also find the occasional edible surprise. For example, processed foods as disturbing as sushi, sausages, fried tomatoes, beer, or crab salad. Yes, they also contain added sugar to our surprise.
Camera in hand, Antonio Rodríguez began to analyze the nutritional composition of these foods. He really did not discover anything new that the manufacturer did not teach on the product label, since by law it is mandatory to show the total sugar content. However, his recreations sugared by lumps caused stupor in social networks. Users raised their hands to their heads when learning, in a very shocking way, the huge amounts of sugar that we put between our chests and backs without even realizing it.
In fact, these doses of sweetened reality have always generated quite curious reactions among the crowd. Some users began to feel annoyed —and even insulted— when looking at the images on sinAzucar.org. Called out as an anti-sugar Taliban, sinAzucar.org has received huge waves of hate On twitter throughout his career. Indeed, just to show something that the label already says: only to inform. However, Antonio Rodríguez has never seemed to mind this slight inconvenience. To tell the truth, he has a great time responding to those users who cross the line.
Life is sweeter without sugar
After more than 6 years of tireless informative work on social networks, sinAzucar.org surprises us with its new book “Life is sweeter without sugar”, from Editorial Platform. In a familiar, everyday tone —also seasoned with the occasional personal anecdote— Antonio Rodríguez Estrada accompanies us on a journey to reduce the sugar we consume daily through the latest scientific evidence. The author himself tells us that the birth of this work is due to the need to answer the doubts that sugar raises among the population.
“The images on sinAzucar.org are very powerful and serve to communicate the sugar content. However, it is a bit difficult to get to the bottom of why sugar is harmful to health and what is its relationship with the development of certain diseases. Also what are the different types of sugars that exist, such as free sugar. In this way, the book provides information of interest to the user and resolves the frequent doubts that the followers transmit to me via social networks”.
Antonio Rodríguez reminds us that free sugars are defined according to the WHO as those extracted from the matrix of the food that originally contained them, becoming health problems when they are released. Some foods that contain free sugar are honey and juices or fruit juices. This is very well illustrated with the metaphor of the monster and the cage created by sinAzucar.org himself:
— What is free sugar? Explain it to me as if I were 3 years old.
— A monster in a cage is not dangerous. When you let him free he can hurt you. You should avoid the free monsters and not worry about the ones that are caged.
– I get it. Sugar is the monster. And what is the cage?
— What surrounds the sugar, for example, the fiber of the fruit. It makes it digest more slowly and doesn’t hurt you.
— That’s why it’s better to take the whole fruit than juice, right?
– Of course. By squeezing the fruit, you break the bars and release the monster from the cage.
Are “Real Food” products healthier?
SinAzucar.org has been very critical in recent times with the movement realfooding promoted by the well-known nutritionist Carlos Ríos. The reason has been the market launch of certain processes with the brand realfooding that seem to hide some other trap in their labeling.
Lately you’re giving quite a cane to the realfooding showing that many of their products hide hidden sugar. What is your opinion of these products? Do you think they are healthier alternatives?
If Carlos Ríos himself from 2018 jumped back in time to 2022 and saw his products, he would boycott himself. They are ultra-processed products that, with all the criteria that he promulgates on his social networks, would not have gone through any of his filters. He himself has declared in the press that there is no healthy diet, and that the food industry will try to convince you otherwise with his products. In this case, Carlos Ríos has released ice creams, cookies and cupcakes that are clearly ultra-processed with all the criteria of the NOVA classification.
Likewise, Antonio Rodríguez emphasizes that date paste contains free sugars. Precisely, on fruit purees there is some controversy in this regard. The WHO does not include them as sources of free sugars. On the contrary, other entities such as the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition from UK they do. In this way, adding date puree does not seem as good an idea as we might think. Of course, does not turn a dessert into the cradle of healthy: “The same thing happens with date paste as with orange juice. A date by itself is healthy, but the moment you puree it, you break down the structure of the food and turn it into free sugar.”
And what about vegetable drinks realfooding, how for example the oatmeal drink? What is the problem that these products pose in relation to sugar?
The oatmeal drink realfooding contains free sugar because it uses a common industry trick. It consists of hydrolyzing the starch of the oats to convert it into smaller molecules of simple sugars. With that you get it to taste sweet, but you are putting sugar where there was none. Carlos Ríos had the opportunity to have released a non-hydrolyzed oat drink, as other brands do, but he has not done so. I don’t know if he was looking for health or sales. I understand that he was looking for sales.
So, can these products be consumed frequently or rather exceptionally?
It is preferable to consume them exceptionally, like the rest of ultra-processed foods. I myself, for example, in the summer I have an ice cream on the weekend. And I prefer to have a conventional ice cream before an ice cream sweetened with date paste because it is bland. An ice cream a week is not going to hurt you. The same if you take some cookies “from time to time”. It will not be problematic, you can take the ones you like the most. The product problem realfooding is to consider them healthier than they are. Their label can convey that they are healthier products than the competition, and that makes you consume them more frequently. There will be people who go from breakfast toast with extra virgin olive oil to breakfast Carlos Ríos cupcakes.
Lawyers and complaints: the day to day of sinAzucar.org
As we can see, the path of sinAzucar.org has not exactly been full of roses. In its beginnings, received a burofax from the company Zumosol requesting the withdrawal of one of their photos. The company was offended by an image showing the free sugar contained in their product. Information that the product labeling already includes as standard, let us remember once again.
“A good one was set up. They called me from different departments of the company, and with each and every one of them I had to explain that my photo was fine. I had to explain what free sugar was to the lawyers. A true odyssey. However, I think I convinced more than one who even gave up sugar”, says Antonio. “Finally the thing did not go any further because deep down I was right. The photo is still published and at the moment I have not entered jail nor have they given me a fine.
The innocent that got out of hand
These scuffles with the industry have not been sporadic. SinAzucar.org has been faced with the legislative abyss on more than one occasion. Antonio Rodríguez tells us, in confidence, another unpublished case that until now he had not dared to tell. Indeed, we are before an exclusive in the purest Josep Pedrerol style:
“This cannot be told, because I promised in writing not to do it. But I’m going to skip it, mind you. 3 years ago I published an innocent joke on social networks with a nougat tablet with the brand sinAzucar.org”, says Antonio. “I said I was going to launch my own brand of products starting with a date and avocado nougat. I think that Carlos Ríos was inspired here to make his own products”, comments Antonio jokingly.
“The following year I received a burofax from the company that imitated that joke, and they took it very badly. They said I was plagiarizing their product. They thought that this product had really hit the market. These lawyers were from the UK and didn’t really understand what this April Fool’s thing was. So they demanded that I tell them the exact number of tablets I had made and sold in order to pay a royalty for improper use of their image. It was very difficult for me to explain to them that it was all a joke”, continues Antonio. “These were tougher than the juice barristers. The only way I found for them not to report me was to sign an agreement where I promised to remove the photo and not talk about it anymore. As you see this statement I can get into trouble. Cross our fingers”.
Where to buy sinAzucar.org sugar cubes
To end this pleasant talk with Antonio Rodríguez, I wanted to ask him about some of his most hidden secrets. Much more than the sugar contained in ultra-processed foods that he portrays for posterity. The most sugary intimacies of him.
Where do you buy the sugar cubes? No company has offered you a sponsorship for it? It would be epic, don’t you think?
I have only bought one box of sugar cubes since sinAzucar.org existed. I reuse them. Life is very expensive, I can’t throw clods every time I take a picture. It’s funny because the clods are stuck together. So I have batches of one clod, two clods, and three clods, all glued together. This way, when I have to put seven clods I don’t have to do the exercise of stacking them from scratch. Before, I did it in every photo, but it was a pain because they fell every two by three. Everything was stained with sugar. Regarding sponsorship, no, they have not offered it to me. I have only done one sponsorship with sinAzucar.org and I regret it. I tell everything in the book.
When the calculation for the sugar cubes comes out to something like 10.75, how the heck do you cut them? What kind of legendary weapon do you use so they don’t break? I don’t sleep at night, I need to know.
– Damn, well a cutter. There is also not much mystery. A cutter and a lot of patience. Then it is important to use a file so that the result is impeccable. I smooth the sugar cube to get the smallest pieces. Although I confess that, when I see that it is very complicated for me, I edit the photos digitally. That is, if sometimes the lumps are very tall, I mount them in digital format with Photoshop. One of the photos that cost me the most was the one of Nocilla, in which you literally have to cut the jar. In this case it is not digital, but you have to make the layers of milk, cocoa, hazelnuts, sugar and oil manually. How do I make sure it doesn’t fall off? Well, with a lot of patience and changing the orientation of the boat. They are photos that may take 8 hours to take.