Useful Sugar Information

April 12, 2013
Well the weather isn't co-operating today another winter storm, so I decided I better do my exercise at home today, so I did 45 minutes of Zumba in my basement. I still have a bad cold but it is getting better, I have to say it's the worst cold I have had in a few years.
A few years ago I took a course called Certificate of Weight Loss and Nutrition, I figured it would be useful one day and it could be added to my current Nutrition Management Diploma which I have held since 1997.
So I pulled out the course today and figured I could share a few things with my reader's.
Today I will touch on reducing refined sugars.

Total sugars v. added sugars
The majority of nutrition panels found on food packaging state the total amount of  'sugars' present in the product. This 'total sugars' figure includes both naturally -occurring sugars from fruits and milk components and 'added sugars' . It is important to keep this in mind when selecting products, eg. a breakfast cereal containing dried fruit may have a high 'total sugar' content but contain little 'added sugars' as the majority of the sugars in the product come from those naturally present in the dried fruit. In contrast, if a product has a high 'total sugar' content but does not contain fruit or milk in the ingredients list, it is likely to be high in 'added sugar'.

Reducing refined sugar intake

• Replace biscuits and sweets with fresh or dried fruit
• Reducing the amount of sugar added to drinks and foods eg. breakfast cereals can be topped with fruit
• Choose fruit juice that contain 'no added sugar'
• Drink water or dilute fruit juice instead of drinking pop or cordials
• Reduce the amount of sugar in cooking by replacing with applesauce or substituting with maple syrup, agave, true honey are just a few examples
• Reading ingredient listings on foods carefully - remember that sugars can be listed under a variety of names

Remember that if one of the many sugars is listed as 1 of the top 3 ingredients it is pretty safe to assume that the product is high in sugar content.
Here are a few of the hidden sugars names.

• Sucrose
• Glucose
• Lactose
• fructose
• Sorbitol
• Mannitol
• Corn Syrup
• Processed Honey
• Malt and Malt Extract
• Maltose
• Rice Extract
• Molasses
• Golden Syrup
• Invert sugar

Today's Quote. Your are what you EAT 
What are you eating?
Do you read the labels and ingredient lists?