For many people sugar is irresistible thing in life. Because of this belief, consequently many people have to fight with obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. Unconsciously, we consume sugar more than we need in daily life. In reality, sugar is a carbohydrate which can be found naturally in many foods like fruit, honey, and milk. We basically need carbohydrate as the source of energy. With enough energy we can move the muscles and keep the brain works.
Hidden Sugar in Processed Foods, Problems & Tips
What is the problem?
First, many processed foods contain a different form of sugar. Most people might not realize this because the sugar appears with names such as sucrose, dextrose, maltose, and fructose. It shows that we’re still lack of knowledge with how to read the food label correctly. Regrettably the manufacturer even writes ‘no added sugar or modified starch’ that makes the consumer but the product without hesitation.
Second, today the culture has created current lifestyle where people from young to old generation consume more sugar. The example of lifestyle we’re talking about is: binge drinking, eat snack and junk food, etc. Working too much in front of computer, school problem, and other life pressure in the end will make unhealthy population. A disease like diabetes for instance less or more is influenced by sugar consumption. The worst thing is that this disease is hard to cure. Furthermore, it can be inherited to the young generation.
How much we need
We cannot deny that we need sugar in certain amount or in other word we need carbohydrate. World Health Organization (WHO) has said that daily calorie intake should consist5% of added or ‘free’ sugars. It can be counted into six teaspoons a day. Specifically, the limit of sugar consumption for women is 25 grams (five-six teaspoons) and 36 grams (seven-eight teaspoons) for men.
Foods and drinks with hidden sugar
- Alcohol. Heavy drunkards are likely to ignore how many glass they drink in one night. Some people advise to drink red wine, champagne, bottled beer, or replace alcoholic drinks with a glass of water to decrease the bad effect of sugar. This is not a bad choice since they contain around 2 grams of sugar. However, for good everyone should not drink alcohol at all. Other alcoholic drink such as sherry can have about 20 grams of sugar. As alcohol is addicted you might end drink many glasses.
- Soft drink and other bottled drinks (tea, coffee, etc) on average these contain a quite amount of sugar equal to seven teaspoons of sugar.
- Low-fat and diet foods: granola cereals or bars, yogurt, and so on. They often contain extra sugar in the product to improve the taste, texture and palatability.
- Savory foods (frozen meals, ready-made soups, salad dressing, bread, sauces) may contain added sugar.
- The natural sugar in some fruit, canned fruit, dried fruit, smoothie, and fruit juice). In fact, the sweet taste does not come purely from the fruit itself, especially if you buy them outside.
Tips to reduce bad effect of sugar
1. Look at the ingredient list. Here take more concern on the ingredient name ended with ose (dextrose, glucose, sucrose, etc) and carbs as sugars written on the nutrition panel. If these ingredients come up in the first/higher list, it means the food mainly contain a lot of sugar. The safe one should be less than 5g per 100g.
2. Add less, sugar replacement (cinnamon, etc), low sugar or no sugar in your drink, food and cooking/recipe.
3. Eat small portion of sweet drink or food.
4. Eat the raw form without adding sugar like eating fruit as it is.
5. Beware of ‘sugar-free’ foods and choose the 100% unsweetened.
6. Brush your teeth and gums at least twice a day (morning and night) by using toothpaste contains at least 1000 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride.
The post Hidden Sugar in Processed Foods appeared first on Nutritiously Happy.