The Facts About Sugar

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From Your Health Journal…..”This site will review and share ‘snips’ from other web sites in hopes of educating our visitors on health topics, while bringing visitors to other great sites like Massage Today. The article today was excellent, where the author was discussing how much sugar we actually ingest each day. Many times, unknown to us. In many cases, it is hidden in foods, and we are not even cognizant that it is even in a product. Sugar, in many cases is associated with foods high in fat or calorie content. Now, sugar alone is not a bad thing. We can get natural sugars from many fruits we eat, which are considered a healthy choice. But, when we evaluate many of the processed snacks we ingest, along with various liquids we drink, the sugar levels do go pretty high. So, evaluate what you and your kids eat and drink, to minimize your daily intake of sugar each day. I highly recommend reading this full article.”

From the article…..

While on a flight to Phoenix this past fall, I came across an article on sugar that I found interesting. It made me wonder exactly how much sugar was in the non-fat, no whip, grande peppermint white chocolate mocha I was sipping.

After settling in at the hotel, I checked Starbuck’s website for the nutritional information, and interestingly, sugar is not listed. After some more online research, I found out my drink had 49 grams of sugar. Well, what exactly does that amount to? Is it a lot? We have been hearing more and more about the excessive use of sugar in our society and its possible effect on obesity and diabetes. But exactly how much we should or should not be consuming has not been made overtly clear. Since we work in the wellness field, it would certainly behoove us to get a sense of where our eating habits fall in the sugar-consumption spectrum.

It turns out that 49 grams of sugar is indeed a lot of sugar. In fact, it is more than double the recommended daily intake of added sugar for women. For the first time ever, in 2009, the American Heart Association published recommendations on sugar consumption (Circulation, August 2009). The report explained that we need to start limiting the amount of added sugars we consume, not naturally occurring sugars such as those found in fruit, vegetables and dairy products. For women, that means we should consume no more than 24 grams (about six teaspoons) of added sugar a day. For men, the recommendation is no more than 36 grams (about nine teaspoons) of added sugar a day, and for children the recommendation is 12 grams per day, or three teaspoons. Many a survey has found that on average, Americans consume about 22 teaspoons of added sugar on a daily basis.

After reading this report, I was quite shocked by how much added sugar most of us are eating without even realizing it. Now that I know how to read the nutritional labels (4 grams = 1 teaspoon or 1 gram = 1/4 teaspoon), I can try to do a better job of keeping track of my sugar intake.

To read the full article…..Click here