A Teaspoon of Sugar

Everyone knows that drinking lots of water and eating low-sodium is good for your health, but what about SUGAR?

It’s recommended that our diets only contain 6 teaspoons of sugar or less. This is referring to additional sugar (typically the refined white stuff, but also including honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, etc), and not the naturally occurring sugars in fruits (fructose) and milk (lactose), which are considered low-glycemic.

Hmm, 6 teaspoons? You’re prolly thinking, “That’s a lot!”. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s hard to gauge how much sugar there is in packaged products because it’s listed in grams. Who the hell knows what 10 grams of sugar looks like? FYI, 1 teaspoon sugar = 4.2 grams. I like rounding down to 4 to make my life easier when computing.

So let’s take a can of Coca-Cola. It has 39 grams of sugar. Just off the top of my head, that’s like 10 teaspoons of sugar! Way over the recommended limit. You don’t drink soda you say? Well let’s take a cup of yogurt. Healthy, right? A single serving of Yoplait strawberry yogurt has 26 grams of sugar. But what about the fruit and milk? Aren’t those sugars ok? Fine, let’s look at Yoplait LIGHT (no sugar added). It has 14 grams of sugar from milk and fruit (not to mention artificial sugars). So clearly, the other 12 grams of sugar (3 teaspoons) in the regular is added.  That’s half your day's worth already. From a so-called healthy snack! You’re better off with plain yogurt and adding your own fruit.

Food companies sneak in sugar EVERYWHERE. Cereals, snacks, pasta sauce?! Yes, pasta sauce has anywhere from 1-3 teaspoons of sugar per ½ cup serving. And who really only eats ½ a cup?

But what makes things worse is that many food companies are now using high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) instead of just plain ol’ sugar. Why? Because it’s sweeter, cheaper, and extends shelf life.  But what makes HFCS so bad? First off, it’s highly processed, more so than refined sugar. It produces more advanced glycation end products, which causes wrinkles and sagging (eww!). Also, it’s been shown to create higher levels of triglycerides which is a risk factor of heart disease. And of course, it promotes fat storage around your waistline. I know, ugly :(

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So to kick start the Lent season, I’ve decided to abstain from SUGAR. Which I define as any added sweetener with caloric value. So no more donuts, granola bars, or even KETCHUP.

And no, I won’t go on the artificial sugar route…because I don’t like the taste of it to begin with and I’m sure there are tons of health hazards consuming it by the truckloads. Except for sucralose, which is a derivative of sugar and isn’t metabolized in the body (it’s in my protein powder) and sugar-free gum.

I hope in this process to become more conscientious, about the foods I eat and to help me eat cleaner as well. Cleaner means leaner! ^_^