The Facts about Sugar in Food
A little sugar is nothing to be ashamed of, and although it can be replaced by sweeteners in your tea and coffee, sometimes there?s nothing quite like sprinkling a little on your cereal in the morning, or indulging with luxury chocolate. Indeed, even if you?re dieting, it can be difficult to avoid sugar which is used not only to sweeten food but add texture, mass, pliability and crispiness. It?s an easy assumption to think we have a good idea what foods have a high amount of sugar in them. Show anyone a can of full fat soft drink and they?ll tell you it?s full of sugar, but will they do the same for a healthy looking chicken meal or a load of bread?
Considering how much attention has been weighed on the amount of salt in your food ? the government ran a series of adverts warning of the dangers of salt a few years ago – sugar has remained largely out of the spotlight. This is the despite the fact that it can cause a variety of problems in high consumption including diabetes and tooth decay. It is also one of the leading contributors of obesity in adults today.
Sales of health food have rocketed in the last decade as we are continuously told that modern unchecked diets are making more people unhealthier and obese than ever before. It?s easy to assume that supermarkets will have played to this fact, offering foods that are lower in sugar, salt and fat than they did years ago. This isn?t the case however, especially in the case of sugar, whose usage has doubled since the 1970s. In some cases such as bread and cereal, the amount of sugar has actually doubled in thirty years.
A survey conducted by ?Which?? Magazine found that certain chicken ready meals from the leading supermarkets contained more sugar than a standard service of ice cream. In some cases healthier items labelled with brands like Weight Watchers actually had more sugar in them than their standard counterparts, added to compensate for the lack of salt and fat.
So how can you cut down on your intake of sugar? Here are a few tips:
? Chocolate and sweets are well known for their sugar quantity and although healthier foods might include more than we expect, it?s still chocolate that is one of the main offenders when it comes to sugar consumption. If you don?t want to give up on chocolate completely, consider forcing yourself to cut back by buying smaller ?fun size? bars.
? Switch drinks like coke to diet, but be aware that ingredients like aspartame (which replaces sugar in many soft drinks) have also been claimed to be detrimental in large amounts. Less well known is that fruit juice is also high in sugar, so be wary when buying and dilute them first.
? Foods such as cheese, meat and fish are generally much lower in sugar content than other foods but the sauces and condiments like ketchup can contain a high amount, so watch out what you?re putting on your food.