How much sugar am I eating?

Why does sugar taste so good and is it so bad? Hmm. I have always believed everything is okay in moderation and still believe it is okay to have the piece of pecan pie at thanksgiving, the birthday cake at the celebration, and the wedding cake at the wedding. But, where are all the ways that sugar has become a major problem? Why did I stumble across this topic? Well, I had to write a paper for my behavioral analysis class about Habit reversal procedures (HRP) and how it can be used to help with overeating. What this procedure does it helps with nervous habits such as nail biting and stuttering, and with habits such as overeating and smoking by specific components; awareness training, competing response training, social support, and motivation (Miltenberger, 2016). In simple terms, they teach the individual to be aware of the habit when in progress, then practice a competing response such as say clench a pencil when you began to bite your nails, have social support such as have family members or friends help you with awareness and with encouragement, and then motivational tools such as awarding yourself in some way when progress is made. I was fascinated with how simple it is and can understand how HRP can help with bad habits. So, while investigating HRP and how it had been used with individuals that overeat, I found out that almost 40% of the population is considered overweight and sugar was a huge culprit. I knew our population was getting bigger but always just blew it off and blamed all the fast foods and processed foods.

Refined sugars may increase your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. It also linked to depression, dementia, liver disease, and certain types of cancer. Refined sugar is made by extracting and processing the sugar naturally found in foods like corn, sugar beets, and sugar cane. This refined sugar is then added to foods for various purposes, including to boost flavor and is added to most processed foods. I always knew about the sodium added for flavor but sugar? Okay, maybe all the cereal. How about that fat free fad many years ago? All the companies did was pull out the fat, added lots of sugar and then slapped a label on it that stated Fat-free and we bought it. Yes, I remember well. I thought wow, I can eat this entire bag of pretzels because it has not fat never ever thought about the sugar content. And, the more sugar we eat, the more we wanted. The companies knew this. Sugar is highly addictive. The more we eat, the more we crave. Here are some ways to identify sugar when reading labels; high-fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, cane juice, rice syrup, molasses, caramel, and most ingredients ending in -ose, such as glucose, maltose, or dextrose. Wow, that is a chore. There are sugars that are okay. Natural sugars in foods such as fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber, protein, and other health-promoting nutrients and compounds, which makes them more beneficial and help with that sweetness that we enjoy. The fiber helps slow how quickly the sugar enters your bloodstream, reducing your likelihood of blood sugar spikes. These spikes in our bloodstream produces so much stress our bodies. Remember this when making your smoothies. It has been found that the blender process takes away from the fiber and chewing which is less beneficial. Unfortunately, when you think about, spoon out ice cream is a little easier than slicing up a bowl of strawberries and topping with vanilla yogurt. It takes about 3 minutes more!!!! AHA! Yep, a little more effort with so many more nutrients.

Now, I am not having Louis give up his nightly little bowl of ice cream (yes, almost every night), but I am encouraging him to cut back on his chocolate candy snacking. I on the other hand, I have never much of a sweet tooth but have lived with someone over 40 years and know the drill lol. I do enjoy pecan pie, wedding cake, or any white on white cake. Oh, I am a huge fan of a nice piece of dark chocolate. I just wanted to share that sugar is a huge culprit in our diets and need to watch for. No judgement here, I have a salt and crunch issue and will talk about that another time. Yes, sometimes I stand at the pantry and crunch on anything salty 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️.

So, am I saying we should not eat the cupcake? No, just wanted to share that if we watch our sugar intake and become aware of where sugar is in our diets then we can eliminate some stress on our bodies. Find ways to cut it out in hidden forms of sugar and enjoy the occasional scrumptious desserts!

Here is a list of foods that are extremely high in sugar that most of us might not even be aware of. For instance, yogurt. I had no idea that there was such a huge difference. I started buying TWO Good vanilla yogurts. It only has 2 grams of sugar. I slice up strawberries, a big dollop of yogurt and topped with chopped up walnuts. DELICIOUS. Most all bbq sauces that we buy off the shelf has high fructose corn syrup. By being aware of where we get all the sugar, will help us eliminate some of the sugar intake that we don't really enjoy.

Lowfat Yogurt

BBQ Sauce

Ketchup

Fruit juice

Spaghetti sauce

Sport drinks

Chocolate milk

Granola

FLAVORED coffees

Sweetened iced tea

Protein bars

Premade soups

Breakfast cereal

Cereal bars

Canned fruit

Canned baked beans

Premade smoothies

Have a beautiful day…