Is Stealth Sugar Ruining Your Diet?
Eating sugar-ladened foods raises your blood’s sugar levels dramatically. In response, your body must store away all those sweet sugar molecules inside “sugar vaults” located in your fat, liver, and muscle cells. It’s easy to steer clear of sugary foods when you can recognize them in the form of a doughnut, a candy bar, or an ice cream cone. But what about all that sugar that lies hidden in processed foods?
Many times, I have been nutritionally side swiped while label reading after I have eaten a processed food product. Here a few sneaky sugar-filled items to be on the lookout for:
- Tomato soup
- Yogurt
- Granola—cereal and bars
- Salad dressings
- BBQ sauces, marinades
- Frozen and takeout meals…Asian varieties are especially suspect (i.e. Thai, Chinese, Japanese)
- Honey flavored cereal, nuts, etc.
- Craisins®, and other dried fruits
- Vitamin-type waters
Another form of stealth sugar to be wary of is found in the fruit juices we’ve been led to believe are actually good for us—because of all the vitamins and anti-oxidants they contain. Yes, I know I am calling into question fruit sugar, or fructose. But the reason I am is that your body doesn’t know the difference. It responds to fructose just the same way it does when it gets flooded with table sugar. Here are a few eye-opening facts about some of the fruit juices you might regularly enjoy:
# of teaspoons of sugar per 8 oz. glass
Orange juice = 6 tsp
Apple juice= 5 ½ tsp
Grape juice= 8 tsp
So, if you’re counting calories or trying to keep your blood sugars under control, be on the lookout for caches of sugar which may be sneaking their way into your diet. Believe me, life will be much sweeter without them!