Hidden Sugars in Healthy Foods

You don’t need a nutrition degree to know a piece of cake is packed with sugar. But what you might not realize is that the salad you had for lunch may have contained just as many grams as 3 donuts. These days, with sugar lurking in all kinds of unexpected foods, it’s hard to avoid the stuff. Many obesity experts say that sugar can be addictive and harmful to your health, so it’s wise to find out exactly how much you’re consuming. Too bad that’s easier said than done. Sugar hides in places you wouldn’t expect because it’s cheap to produce, tasty, and addictive. Flavored yogurt, tomato sauce, ketchup, bread, salad dressing, and even instant oatmeal all have forms of sugar added during processing. Compounding the problem is that sugar goes by many aliases—sucrose, cane juice, simple syrup, fruit juice, and dozens more—and many of the foods that contain sugar, like bread and salad dressing, don’t taste  sweet.

I was just on Fox 10 news this morning discussing those seemingly healthy foods that you might not think has as much sugar as donuts or that candy bar. Here are some of the foods of many out there that have more sugar than you think and leave you thinking I might as well be eating those donuts.

1. Orange juice: 1 cup has as much as 11 tsp of sugar but most aren’t drinking a cup ….so many people could be consuming up to 22 tsp of sugar or 44 grams just in their breakfast in addition to anything else they are eating.

2. Flavored yogurt : 6oz of yogurt is equivalent to 3 donuts .

3. Fat free  or non fat dressings : could be up to 9g of sugar per serving (1 tbsp), most aren’t doing just  a tbsp….so if doing up to 3 tbsp could be eating in equivalent to 2-3 donuts.

4. Instant oatmeal: 1 packet of instant oatmeal is equivalent to a full size candy bar.

fox 10

Ways to combat the added sugars and go the healthy route:

1. Add fruit to your water- like strawberries, oranges, cucumber

2. Opt for plain Greek yogurt and add your own fresh fruit

3. Go for olive oil based dressings or another quick tip is to dip fork in dressing then into the salad.

4. Always eat whole grain oats and add your own fruit or honey vs the processed instant.

 

Take your time to read labels and understand what you are putting in your body. Sugar isn’t necessarily bad but if you can eat more of the natural sugars and less of the added processed sugars then you are well on your way!!

 

fox 10 2

 

Thank you so much for reading!

Felicia Romero

 

 

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