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Do you know how much sugar you eat in a day? The answer might surprise you. Sugars hide in foods you might not suspect.
The American Heart Association recommends a daily sugar intake of 25 grams or 6 teaspoons for women and 36 grams or 9 teaspoons for men. However, the average person consumes 77 grams each day, with the leading contributor of sugar consumption being beverages. By understanding different types of sugar and monitoring your diet, you can prevent prediabetes from becoming type 2 diabetes.
Natural sugars are present in most unprocessed foods. Fruits, vegetables and dairy all contain various types of sugar that your body processes in different ways. Although these foods do contain sugar, they also contain nutrients that are beneficial to your health, and can remain part of any balanced diet.
The challenge is distinguishing natural sugars from added sugars. When additional sugars are added to those naturally present in the food, they don’t contribute healthy nutritional value. To complicate matters further, naturally occurring sugars like honey are considered added sugars if they’re part of the food’s preparation.
It can be tricky to avoid sugars that are added to many packaged and processed foods. Even “healthy” cereals and organic snacks may have a surprising amount of sugars added for flavoring. Canned fruits and vegetables may have sugar added as well, so try and choose fresh alternatives when available. The best way to avoid excessive added sugar consumption is to check nutrition labels before tossing food in your cart.
A good place to start is to think about the sugar you add to food yourself like: sweet dressings on salads, honey in a cup of tea or sweetened creamer in your morning coffee. Limit the amount you add to these meals, and you can start fighting back against added sugars and the health risks associated with it.
The FDA has approved a handful of artificial sweeteners, but just because they’re sugar-free doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a healthy substitute. Saccharin, aspartame, sucralose and others are touted as better alternatives to sugar, but they carry their own implications for your diet.
For starters, artificial sweeteners are much more potent than natural sugars. Your body may begin to perceive naturally sweet foods like fruit as “not sweet enough,” and turning to artificial sweeteners may be the only way to satisfy your sweet tooth. These sweeteners lack any nutritional content, and since they’re devoid of calories they may cause you to seek caloric intake elsewhere. In short, eating artificial sweeteners may end up increasing your desire to eat more, rather than eat less. Though there are reasonable uses for artificial sweeteners like making a diabetic friendly dessert, exercise caution with frequency and quantity of use.
Lowering your sugar intake can pave the way for a healthier diet. Learn more about how to start eating real foods. Already a diabetes patient? Consider these healthy habits.
