Contents
Have you stopped putting sugar in your tea, but weight and health are still not encouraging? Modern city dwellers consume record amounts of sugar in all kinds and forms, sometimes without even knowing it! Researchers remind us of the top six sources of added sweetness: These foods make us overeat, hurt, and suffer, but giving up is a challenge that not everyone can handle.
Even a small amount of added sugar, well “disguised” in the most unexpected foods, can cause big problems, and not just with your teeth.
Sugar – the reason for “withdrawal”?
We are eating more and more sugar, and nutritionists, scientists and doctors are sounding the alarm: whole nations are already suffering from obesity and related diseases! Addiction to sweets is similar to drug addiction – sugar consumption has been proven to stimulate the same areas of the brain as opiates, causing an intense sensation of pleasure that you want to experience over and over again.
Unfortunately, the human body is absolutely unable to cope with this temptation on its own – on the contrary, the use of sugar turns our metabolism into a vicious circle. “Sweet” raises blood glucose levels, which in turn leads to a surge in the production of insulin, a hormone that tells the body to store fat. High insulin automatically causes an attack of hunger, which again pulls you to satisfy with something tasty.
This mechanic of inducing excess appetite is well known to those who are most concerned about our eating more. This is not about mothers and grandmothers, but about food companies: food giants maintain large departments of chemical research, the purpose of which is to make sugar cheaper and sweeter, and more reliably hide it in recipes for ready-made dishes, sauces, drinks, snacks. Marketing is not far behind; often behind the label “No added sugar!” a cynical truth is hidden: there is sugar in the product, but its appearance and name have been changed to lull vigilance.
“Sugar remains sugar,” recalls British nutritionist Catherine Collins. – It doesn’t matter if it is white or brown, in the form of molasses or crystals. Don’t be fooled – there is no such thing as healthy sugar! It is a source of useless calories, there is no nutritional value in sugar and our body does not need it. ”
Experts draw the attention of consumers to the difficulties in “tracking” sugar in the specified composition of products. The cunning hides: The most cunning producers often indicate different types of sugar separately, confusing the traces and making the consumer think that there is actually less sugar in a snack or sauce. But the game of hide and seek will not work: you are dealing with sugar if you see, for example, the following inscriptions on the label:
corn sugar
hydrolyzed starch
concentrated fruit syrup
dextrose
fructose
glucose
high fructose (glucose) syrup
honey
inverted sugar
isoglucose
levulosis
maltose
molasses
sucrose.
Sugar Criminals: Record-Breaking Foods for Added Sugar
Regardless of what name the industrially added sugar received in the laboratory, its share should not be more than 10% of the caloric intake of the menu per day, and this is the absolute maximum. For an average mature man weighing up to 80 kg, this is about 70 g (10-12 teaspoons), for a woman weighing about 60 kg – 50 g (7-10 teaspoons). Metrics vary based on activity level, health status and other factors, but the basic dietary recommendation is universal: the less sugar, the better! Remember this when your hand reaches for any of these six foods.
Sweets, dessert pastes, preserves, jamsPredictably, the most obvious sources of added sugar are sweets, but not only sweets, but also all kinds of preserves: pastes, jams, confitures, in the use of which few people can limit themselves to half a teaspoon. Homemade preparations are often considered “healthy” due to the fact that they are made from fruits and berries, but there is some cunning in this definition: additives minimize the benefits, turning the jam into just a candy in a jar. In 100 grams of seductively melting chocolate paste – more than 50 grams of sugar, in the same amount of candies – almost 60 grams, slab milk chocolate is 63% sugar. Already a bite with morning pancakes or cottage cheese, you can “persuade” your daily rate of added sugar, and if you also crunch with caramels …
How to replace: banana will help relieve cravings for chocolate and sweets (attention, not a bunch of bananas!) – these products have a similar effect biochemically, but banana, despite the glucose, fructose and sucrose in its composition, has the property of not causing a chain reaction of absorption of sweetness after sweetness due to the fact that natural sugars are balanced in it by fiber, potassium and vitamins. Also, dark chocolate with a high (more than 70%) cocoa content can be considered relatively “safe” – it contains less sugar technologically. Two squares a day is enough for happiness and pleasure!
Soda and juicesThese seemingly harmless drinks, many of which are touted as healthy and fun ways to quench their thirst, can reward their fans with an impressive amount of added sugar. For example, in 100 ml of tonic soda – 11 grams of sugar, in sweetened drinks based on fruit juice – about 10 grams for the same volume! And even 100% juice without additives contains natural sugar, which should be taken into account in the overall “sweet offset” if you follow your diet.
How to replace
: If you can’t live without fruit juice, limit it to one serving a day, preferably as a morning dessert. Otherwise, quench your thirst with a secret zero-calorie slimming drink that eliminates all added sugars and flavors – still drinking water!
Cookies, bread, muffins, breakfast cerealsSomething deliciously bland and overpoweringly aromatic from the bakery looks like a great snack! Information is capable of sobering up: 10% of the mass of an ordinary croissant without filling is our old friend sugar. Sugar is found even in unsweetened baked goods, and in this case, its insidiousness is enhanced by the properties of white flour in the composition – it has a high glycemic index and by itself provokes an increase in blood glucose levels.
Pastries with fillings, glazes and other confectionery “bonuses” in the content of added sugar are practically close to sweets: a 100 g piece of glazed cake contains 54 g of sugar, the same amount of chocolate-covered cookies will give you 46 g of sugar, and half a glass of sweet corn flakes contains 37 gr of dangerous sweetness. Still find this a healthy breakfast?
How to replace
: Eggs, avocados, or whole grain toast with a slice of good cheese are just as easy to snack as a bun, and the feeling of satiety lasts for a long time after them, while a cookie or a plate of cereal will only whet your appetite.
Dairy produceAlthough dairy products contain lactose, a naturally occurring sugar, they also contain protein and calcium, making the milk a part of a healthy diet. Experts are sure: if you do not have lactase deficiency or lactose intolerance, it is unlikely that you should specifically avoid milk sugar – it does not harm your teeth and figure as industrially added.
Milkshakes, fruit yoghurts and curds, all kinds of creamy and sour cream desserts, ice cream, alas, contain table sugar, fructose, concentrated fruit juice, and hyper-sweet glucose-fructose syrup. Low-fat products with sweet fillers are especially dangerous in this regard; manufacturers are forced to add even more sweetness to them in order to return the texture and taste that were gone after the fat. A 125-gram cup of supermarket fruit yogurt can contain up to 20 grams of sugar in different types and forms.
How to replace
: choose “white” dairy and fermented milk products without additives – nuts and fresh berries-fruits are more pleasant and healthier to put with your own hands. However, high-quality “milk” has a rich pleasant taste without any improvement.
Alcoholic drinksA glass or two after a hard day helps you relax? Undoubtedly, it also rewards an extra dose of sugar and calories that we often forget to take into account. Even if we write off the ability of alcohol to whet the appetite and weaken control (imperceptibly chew a bag of chips under a glass of beer – who has not happened to?), It is important to remember that some types of alcoholic drinks contain a fair amount of sugar – for example, in 100 ml of tequila there are almost two teaspoons tablespoons of sugar, in a glass of white wine – 6 grams, and a portion of a sweet cocktail with syrups is completely comparable in calorie content to an impressive dessert.
How to replace
: if alcoholic “antistress” has become a habit and at the same time you are worried about weight – perhaps you should think about non-alcoholic evenings a couple of times a week? In other cases, choose dry drinks and dilute them with water or ice: this will help both increase the portion and reduce its harm to health and shape.
Spicy foodsMany foods that are salty, pungent, or savory have the same amount of sugar as ice cream! The main “sweet criminals” are semi-finished dishes and sauces. Sugar is added to them not for pronounced sweetness, but to create a unique taste that causes addiction.
In addition, both table sugar and syrups can thicken a dish and give it a particularly pleasant organoleptic effect – all at a very modest cost to the manufacturer.
Added sugar can be found in salad dressings, all kinds of ready-to-mix “just mix with rice or pasta,” frozen convenience foods. For example, 100 grams of tomato ketchup may contain about 30 grams of added sugar, and a Chinese-style canned vegetable sauce can contain 100 grams of sugar per 500 grams jar.
How to replace
: if for some reason you cannot refuse ready-made sauces and semi-finished products – carefully read the label with the composition, using our cheat sheet from the beginning of the article. If you can – so much the better, it’s time for home cooking! By the way, self-prepared meals can also be frozen for long-term storage.
Interview
Poll: Do you have a lot of added sugar in your diet?
Yes, I add it myself everywhere, I love sweets, I can’t help it.
Trying to cut it down, but I still eat a lot of sweets, convenience foods, and soda.
I hunted down all the added sugar in my food, I only cook myself, I rarely eat sweets.