From the comment you first replied to: harder to see how sweet something is
It was never about sugar content, but how sweet something is.
Overly sweet things can be unpleasant to an adult palate, or one accustomed to a culture of less sweet things. In simpler times, sugar content was a somewhat reliable metric of sweetness (of course it can be balanced by acid, tannins, salt etc.), so you could select a product without needing to taste it first.
> In simpler times, sugar content was a somewhat reliable metric of sweetness (of course it can be balanced by acid, tannins, salt etc.),
In simpler times, there were no labels to judge sugary content. The regulation in USA came in 2011. In simpler times, you bought the thing and did not cared about sugar at all. Later on, you engaged in culture war whether calories should be on labeling or whether such regulation is nanny statism.
Plus, I will go out and say that amount of people who would regularly check packages to learn how sweet it is and thus estimate taste before buying was super low. It is not a great proxy in the first place.
Carbohydrates have been shown in Ireland ever since I can remember, at least 30 years. For many things - drinks especially - carbohydrates is a straight proxy for sugars.
I still rely on it. Fruit juices touting how natural they are, but bulking out on sugar via apple or orange juice, is really common. You learn to watch out for it in various snacks for toddlers too.
Artificial sweeteners effect your health. It would be nice to know how much is in there. The information would help a person to avoid the food combinations with Aspartame that decrease the rate of metabolism. But yea I guess a person could just read the label and just believe whatever it tells them.
