Sneaky Ways Sugar Appears in your Everyday Foods
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We all know that sugar isn’t supposed to form a huge part of our everyday diet - however, even if you are trying to cut your intake of the sweet stuff, it can still very easily sneak into your diet in ways you don’t expect.
Current health recommendations from the World Health Organization suggest we consume no more than 25 g/ 6 teaspoons of added sugar each day for optimum health. Reckon you’re nailing it already? The average intake is actually around 60g /14 teaspoons!
Hidden sugars not only add nutrient-poor calories to your daily intake, but they also make you crave more of the sweet stuff overall, derailing the best of healthy eating intentions. Plus, excess sugar intake can muck with your sleep, send your energy levels up and down like a yo-yo and puts you at risk for a number of health conditions like diabetes.
We all know the most obvious sugar-laden foods - things like cakes, lollies, soft drinks, chocolate and energy drinks.
But there are a number of other foods you may find sugar hiding in. Some examples include:
- Store-bought pasta and stir fry sauces
- Flavoured yoghurts
- Fruit juices and smoothies
- Muesli, cereal and snack bars
- Packaged soups, tinned baked beans and spaghetti
- Iced teas, flavoured milks
- Mayonnaise, tomato and BBQ sauce
How to reduce your hidden sugar intake?
Want to take charge of your health and weasel out sneaky sources of sugar? Here’s a few ways you can get started:
Read labels
- knowing what goes into your food is key to lowering sugar intake. Get familiar with the food labels of your favourite products. Look for short ingredient lists consisting of mainly wholefoods and low amounts of sugar per 100g.
Cook at home
- another way to lower sugar intake is to cook/prepare food at home more. This means you have control over what goes into your food and therefore will know how much sugar is in your meal.
Choose wholefoods
- wholefoods contain no added sugars and provide a whole host of health benefits. The more wholefoods you eat, the less you’ll crave the sweet, processed stuff.
