by Alice Marson
Would you be shocked if you were told that you were consuming more than ten times the amount of sugar daily than is recommended by the American Heart Association? That would be more than 130 pounds of added sugar a year.
Sugar offers no nutrients, just empty and quickly digested calories that actually pull minerals from the body during digestion. Dr. David Reuben, author of Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Nutrition says, “White refined sugar is not a food. It is a pure chemical, extracted from plant sources, purer, in fact than cocaine, which it resembles in many ways.”
The weekly ads of many groceries and drugstores are dominated by soda, sugary cereals, and candy, while close by in the pharmacy are medicines and products for diabetes and obesity. What a paradox!
Sugar masquerades on labels as high fructose corn syrup, barley malt, sucrose, dextrose, fruit juice concentrate, honey, lactose, maltose, rice bran and sorghum syrups. Manufacturers use these sweeteners to enhance flavor instead of fat. Even your supposedly healthy and organic cereals and foods can have these added sugars. For people who are trying to shed pounds or dodge sugars, you must take care to read ingredient labels.
Other prime suspects are ketchup, low-fat salad dressings, fat-free foods, mayonnaise, peanut butter, yogurt, canned vegetables and soup, pasta sauce, coleslaw, bread, salt, and enhanced water. Check your box of salt—it will probably contain dextrose.
In short, check labels and ingredients for the added sugars. Take a close look at your diet and kick out the hidden sugars so that you can stay in the safe zone of about one ounce a day. You will be amazed at the results, and your health, energy, and waistline will thank you.
