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Day 107: Why is Sugar in Almost Everything?
Sometime this month or next I am going to do One Week Without Any Sugar. Meaning I’m not going to eat any of the otherwise harmless-looking foods like tomato soup, muesli, cereal, ketchup, peanut butter, yogurt, soda etc. that all contain added sugar.
I’m going to go off fruits too, even though they are wonderful for you and their sugar is natural. As readers of this blog know, I have given up candy and all sweets and desserts but not all added sugar. But it’s time to try. I’ll let you know when I decide to do my total No Sugar Week and maybe you will do it with me. It’ll just be one week. It’ll be a grand experiment! Watch this space.
Sugar is in so much of what we eat now that it’s no wonder Americans consume 180 pounds of sugar a year. Putting all that sugar in your body is like bellying up to the broken oil well 5000 feet down in the Gulf of Mexico and opening your mouth as the oil gushes out.
Why is sugar in so much food while an epidemic of diabetes rages in the U.S.?
Why are so many American kids put on Ritalin and Adderall to cure their alleged ADD while countries like France don’t even allow such drugs for anyone?
How did Alvin Greene win the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator in South Carolina?
Why did nobody have proof that President Bush was lying about WMDs until after we went to war in Iraq?
How come nobody can really say why we continued to stay at war with Iraq?
Why are more and more people hooked on the scary sleeping pill Ambien?
How did BP get away with drilling so deep and cutting so many corners?
How come nobody can stop the oil spill?
Is it because we’ve never had more “journalists” in the U.S. but at the same time we’ve never had less real information?
Love this video from Robert Kennedy Jr.
Sweet Tips for Consumers
- Check nutrition and ingredient labels for sugar and its equivalents, including sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, honey and molasses.
- USDA recommends limiting added sugars — from packaged foods and the sugar bowl — to 24 grams a day (6 teaspoons) if you eat 1,600 calories; 40 grams (10 teaspoons) for a 2,000-calorie diet; 56 grams (14 teaspoons) for a 2,400-calorie diet; and 72 grams (18 teaspoons) for a 2,800-calorie-diet. Don’t worry about the natural sugars from fruit and milk.
- Cut back on soft drinks (40 grams of sugar per 12 ounces) — “liquid candy” — by far the biggest source of sugar in the average American’s diet. Drink water, seltzer, low-fat milk, or orange juice instead.
- Fruit “drinks,” “beverages,” “ades,” and “cocktails” are essentially non-carbonated soda pop. Sunny Delight, Fruitopia, and others are only 5%-10% juice.
- Limit candy, cookies, cakes, pies, doughnuts, granola bars, pastries, and other sweet baked goods. Eat fruit instead.
- Fat-free cakes, cookies, and ice cream may have as much added sugar as their fatty counterparts and they’re often high in calories. “Fat-free” on the package doesn’t mean fat-free on your waist or thighs.
- Look for breakfast cereals that have no more than 8 grams of sugar per serving.
- Watch out for sweets — ice cream, shakes, and pastries — served in restaurants. Their huge servings can provide a day’s worth of added sugar. For example, a large McDonald’s Vanilla Shake and a Cinnabon each have 12 teaspoons (about 48 grams) of added sugar.
