sugar
SUGAR
Sugar is pure sucrose that contains no preservatives or additives of any kind. One teaspoon of sugar is only 15 calories with no fat. It is not chemically altered or bleached and is colorless. As you know, sugar is very simple to find and is found everywhere.
We are eating more sugar than ever before. Sugar is found in more foods and in larger amounts. Back in 1822, the average American consumed 45 grams of sugar per day. In 2012, the average American consumed 765 grams of sugar every 5 days. We consume sugar, the number one food additive, 10 times more than any other food additive.
One can of soda may contain up to 10 teaspoons or 40 grams of sugar. That is more sugar than the recommended amount per day. This might not surprise you, since most people know and expect soda to contain a lot of sugar. Let’s look at a less obvious foods such as 1 tablespoon of ketchup, which contains 1 teaspoon of sugar. How much ketchup do you eat with your hamburger and fries?
The World Health Organization dropped the sugar intake recommendation from 10 percent of your daily calorie intake to 5 percent. For an adult of a normal body mass index that is roughly 6 teaspoons or 25 grams per day.
The American Heart Association recommends limiting sugar intake to 100 calories per day for women which is 6 teaspoons per day and less than 150 calories per day for men which is 9 teaspoons. On average, the average adult consumes 22 teaspoons per day. The average child consumes 32 teaspoons per day. That is a lot of sweetness!
The problem with sucrose is that it has NO nutritional value. No vitamins, No minerals, No enzymes, and No fiber. It contains absolutely nothing excepts 15 calories and provides no nutritional quality to your food, to your body, or to your health. However, we love it!
We love sugar so much that when we eat it, our blood level spike and we feel great. Roughly after 20 to 30 minutes, our blood sugars drop leaving us hungry and craving more sweetness. So, we eat more sugar to spike our blood levels up starting the addiction cycle all over again. During this vicious cycle, the body stores sucrose as fat leaving us mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted.
What should we do? Cut the sugar out!
- Reduce all sweet foods such as baked goods, cookies, and candy.
- Read food labels and start looking for sugar in the ingredient list
- Find the hidden names in the ingredient list. Such as corn syrup, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, lactose, palm sugar, sucralose, malitol, erythritol, sorbitol are just a few.
- Eat no added sugar foods such as fruit, popcorn, salad dressings, Avocado, and salmon for starters.
- Drink half your body weight in water throughout the day.
- Increase protein and fat foods throughout the day to keep your stomach full.
Always, reduce your sugar intake slowly to prevent withdrawal symptoms and stick with it! The body will adapt to the new sugar levels after three days. The first day will be the toughest. Once the sugar is eliminated it is very simple to walk away leaving the cookie on the table. However, once you start eating sugar again it is very hard to resistant. Be careful, Be strong, and Be smart!
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