Sugar, the big bad wolf of the food world. Insidious. Sneaking into your food without you noticing. Increasing your risk of health problems and weight gain. The World Health Organisation recommends that we cut our sugar down to just 5% of our calorie intake per day, that’s 6 teaspoons. You might be thinking, well I don’t take sugar in my tea, I don’t buy biscuits or eat chocolate, this doesn’t apply to me. Sadly, sugar is hiding and creeping into your diet, here are some places where you might have forgotten to look…
11: Baked beans
Unless you’re part of the Paleo crowd you may have beans, in some form, as part of your healthy diet. After all they are a great source of fibre, they are a healthy carbohydrate source and also include some protein to boot. However, unless you are making your own at home these little cans are packed full of sugar. In some cases not just sugar but also the dreaded ‘glucose-syrup’ Not to mention many include genetically modified ingredients!! These sugars will have your pancreas realising insulin like there’s no end in sight. Take the extra time and make some beans at home. You can follow Jamie Olivers fancy and amazing recipe, or quite simple buy your preferred beans (in water). Cook them along with some chopped tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, salt and a little pepper for a healthy bean hit.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/bbq-baked-beans/
10. Ketchup/HP sauce/Salad cream
These sauces are an essential part of a good bacon sandwich for a lot of people but are you aware of all the sugar lurking in those bottles? Some sauces, especially supermarket own brands, also contain the nasty ‘glucose syrup’ to the mix. In popular brands you can expect 4g of sugar from a 20 calorie serving. 16 of those calories are pure sugar. Not what you need ruining your bacon breakfast. If you want a healthy alternative try this:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12392/homemade-ketchup
9. Pre-cooked chicken
Quite often cold meats and pre-packed chicken slices contain brown sugar, despite not tasting sweet. If you are buying a flavoured meat or chicken it may also contain glucose syrup. Depending on the flavour of chicken it can contain up to 6g of added sugar per 100g portion. If you need a quick hassle free source of protein it’s best to go to the fresh meat counter and buy a fresh roasted chicken (full or portioned).
8. Shop bought smoothies
We all know that fruit is healthy and when it’s blended at home*. However your home made smoothie wouldn’t make it until the end of the day in your bag before going off. This can’t happen for shop bought smoothies, they need to last longer, so additives and preservatives are added in, along with the fibre content being low they won’t fill you up or give you any significant health benefits. The truth is these smoothies are no healthier than a bottle of coke.
* https://www.savagept.com/blog/chocolate-cherry-smoothie/
7. Yogurt
Surely not yogurt? It’s healthy! It can be healthy but only if you are talking about unflavoured full fat greek yogurt. Anything else is a false promise. As an example, an average low fat yogurt from one of the big supermarkets contains 22.5g of sugar in the 150g portion, with over half of the calories coming from sugar. These products are made to last longer in the shop so it is filled with additives and extra sugars to help with the taste. There is also no fibre in these yogurts so you are exposed to all that fructose without the healthy fibre. The end result is a lot of stress on your liver.
If you want a healthy flavoured yogurt, blend together some frozen fruit and greek yogurt. If you’re wanting to push the bliss even further grate some dark chocolate on top. Oh yes!
6. Bread
Yep, that loaf sitting in your cupboard, looking all innocent with it’s whole wheat flour and boasting about it’s many seeds, it’s hiding sugar. Quite often it’s caramalised sugar. But it doesn’t taste sweet! Who knew? Store bought bread can be full of questionable ingredients and the finished product is highly processed and contains very little in the way of nutrition. If you are tolerant to bread it is best, if you can, to make your own at home. This way you can control exactly what goes in.
5. Breakfast cereals
Now, I’m not talking about Krave, personally I believe that to be an abomination rather than a food. No, I’m talking about flavourless cereal, the kind that requires sugar to be added e.g corn flakes, crisped rice cereal and high fibre cereal. Believe it or not, despite that fact that it does not taste sweet, it already contains a whole heap of sugar. Corn flakes for example contain 3g per serving!! Not to mention that a serving as determined by the cereal companies and a serving determined by a human (especially a child) are drastically different. Personally I would advise against the eating of breakfast cereal in the morning, but if you are a cereal fan perhaps look into making your own granola* at home or stick to hot cereals like home made porridge.
*http://www.theroastedroot.net/paleo-granola/
4. Vitamin water
Ah, vitamins in a handy and yummy package, why not? Well, it turns out there are a few good reasons why not. In 2010 Coca-Cola and it’s partner Energy Brand overstated the nutritional value of the product. They still deny that this is the case by as of earlier this year they have settled to avoid further legal action. Each bottle contains between 29 and 31 grams of sugar. Well above the recommendation.
If you want some flavour to your water try adding slices of lemon, lime or cucumber to your water to make your own version. You can pretty much add any type of fruit to water and give it that ‘hint of’ taste without the added sugars.
3. Popcorn
When popcorn was touted as a healthy alternative to crisps it was a dream come true, especially for a trip to the cinema. However the healthy side of popcorn only refers to unsalted, or lightly salted popcorn and not the heavily sugared types that have become so common. When buying popcorn if it has only 3 ingredients (popcorn, oil and salt) it is safe to buy. However much of the popcorn uses vegetable oils which can be dangerous in high quantities. If you want a healthy popcorn that is easy to make and transport, try this:
http://thecoconutmama.com/2014/01/coconut-oil-popcorn/
2. Shop bought tomato based sauces
There was a bit of a shift in sauce bases when we were advised to avoid fat, out with the creamy sauces, in with the tomato based ones. And since tomatoes are a very healthy, versatile fruit with lots of health benefits it seems like a smart move. However we have a preservative issue here again. As tomatoes are fruits, they have a quick sell by date and need to be refrigerated, so if you go to the ‘jar aisle’ and have a look at the ingredients you’ll surely spot the sugar, lurking. Thankfully it is easy to make your own!
https://www.savagept.com/blog/ainzlies-amazing-pasta-sauce/
1. Gluten free alternatives
Cutting out gluten now is becoming more and more common. Whether it’s people with celiac disease, gluten intolerance or just an awareness of how grains affect our bodies. More and more of us are seeking a way to become gluten free while still enjoying the things we love. The problem arises when the diet quality doesn’t change, simply the source of which it is made. For example, switching from chocolate cereal to gluten free chocolate cereal, cakes to gluten free cakes, biscuits to gluten free biscuits. While these products won’t cause the same response as their gluten filled counterparts they are often stuffed full of sugar.
Gluten free does not always equal healthy. Not to mention the flours used (potato, rice, tapioca, coconut) are all higher in calories than wheat, this explains why gluten free biscuits are smaller than the ‘normal’ ones, to try and keep the calorie counts similar. This might lead to eating an extra one because it’s smaller so it must be less calories.
In conclusion, if trying to cut down on sugar, it’s time to start reading the labels. Companies will try and confuse you with terms like “low fat”, “heart healthy”, “free from”, “100% natural”, “natural sugars”, “wholegrain” but in the end if the sugar count is high, it’s not healthy. If looking to cut your sugar down you want the total sugars to be 5g or less per 100g (not per serving).
Ingredients are also listed according to amount therefore the higher sugar is in the ingredients list, the more there is in the food.
Be vigilant healthy shoppers, know what is in your food then you know what is going into your body. Remember, we fuel our bodies with good ingredients or we fail our bodies with bad ones.
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