Sugar Sugar Everywhere

When someone talks to me about how they have modified their diet, increased their exercise and still can’t lose weight my mind starts to thinking.  If they are putting in the hard work in diet and exercise why aren’t they seeing results.  Now, when it comes to women there are many reasons that can account for the needle staying steady on the scale because we are very complex creatures.  🙂

Putting our complexity aside, sometimes it comes down to a very simple thing………SUGAR!  Sugar is everywhere and come in many forms (some perceived healthier than others) like:

1. Honey
2. Fructose (fruit)
3. Corn Syrup
4. Maple Syrup
5. White Table Sugar
6. Lactose (milk)
7. Agave Nectar

And the list goes on and on.  What could be happening is that all of our good efforts are being sabotaged with sugar.  If you read the typical food package and it isn’t a surprise that the amount of sugar in most packaged foods is BANANAS!  I was a Coca Cola fiend and that contains 39 grams of sugar in 1 12-ounce can.  YIKES!  Regular orange juice (not from concentrate because I was told early on that has too much sugar) contains 22 grams of sugar in a single 8-ounce glass.  WOWZERS!

With health food like that who needs packaged foods?  Other beverages considered healthy also contains high amounts of sugar or have been laced with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) which goes against intelligent thinking – why adulterate perfectly natural juice with MORE SUGAR!?  One of the worse offenders is a food always considered healthy – YOGURT.  If you look at the label of the non-lite version you may have to close your mouth because it is revealing your thoughts!  Surprise surprise – many many grams of sugar and HFCS too!  What gives?

That HFCS must be cheap and easy to get which is why manufacturers have it in everything from bread (whole grain or regular), breakfast cereal, breakfast bars and fruit cups.  Almost feels like there is a conspiracy.  Let me add – sugar in moderation is tolerable but sugar can do a doozy on your body and internal organs which could lead to obesity and diabetes among other things.  I recently read a newspaper article that stated 68% of Americans are considered overweight or obese.  Is there any wonder?   Sugar isn’t the only reason for this epidemic but I find it strange that with the increase in sugar in foods, it correlates with an increase of people becoming overweight and obese.

So what is an average working and busy American woman to do?  We must be diligent about reading those labels – even on condiments.  Try to consume no more than 6 grams to 9 grams of sugar in a serving of packaged food items.  Check labels for “no sugar added” and still check the grams of sugar.  We can’t take for granted that because something is “all natural” it isn’t loaded with extra sugar.  Also, many food items labeled “low fat” tend to compensate for lack of taste from removing the fat with adding extra sugar (6 in one hand, 1/2 a dozen in the other).  If you surf the internet on the subject, there are many many articles that discuss this topic.

Children’s favorite apple sauce. All natural and no added sugar. It is very delicious and can replace sugar in cake recipes.

Also, if you read healthcare journals and fitness magazines it appears the recommended amount of daily sugar for the average woman should be maintained between 20 grams and 25 grams.  So what are you going to do?  BBQ or mildew?  By the way BBQ sauce can be loaded with sugar too – read the labels!  Oh, be careful of fake sugar like Equal, etc.  They have been studied to spike blood sugar levels like normal regular sugar.

Please leave a comment below sharing how you plan to cut back on your daily consumption of sugar.

Article on Sugar Allowance Daily:  http://www.livestrong.com/article/493628-much-sugar-allowance-day/