Are You Eating Too Much Sugar?
I'll be the first to admit I have a bit of a sweet tooth. And when I say "a bit," I mean I CRAVE sugar like nobody's business. That doesn't mean. However, I'm crushing brownies, cookies, and ice cream every single day. There are ways to combat this, and it starts by looking at your nutrition label.
First, I want to point out the difference between "Total Sugars" and "Incl. Added Sugars". You obviously want whatever you buy to have low sugars. If you see your food item say 9g of Total Sugar but 0g of added sugars, that TYPICALLY means the sugar comes from natural ingredients such as your fruits. If your ingredients include "blueberries," then there's a good chance that's where your sugar content is coming from.
If you see more than 7g of added sugars, typically that sugar is coming from unrefined sources. High fructose corn syrup, unrefined honey, brown sugar, or most chemical compounds listed are all examples you might typically see in your ingredients that you want to AVOID as all of them are closely linked to hypertension and diabetes. But isn't honey a natural ingredient made by bees? Not necessarily… unless stated that it's unrefined or organic, honey can be very low quality and cut with different kind of syrups to reduce costs.
So if something says "Sugar-Free" on the front of the packaging, I should be good, right? NO. This just means no raw sugar was added to the item of food. This is where checking your ingredients is KEY. Things you want to avoid are: polydextrose (another word for sugar), sucralose (chemical sugar replacement), and maltodextrin (food preservative) just to name a few.
