Sugar is Everywhere – Get JAM’S Tips on How to Avoid it Now.
Let’s get something straight — stay far, far away from high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Seriously, this stuff really puts the “junk” in junk food! The people who make it have tried to claim it’s the same as sugar, and while it’s chemically similar, our bodies process it in different ways. HFCS is processed only by the liver, making it a greater contributor to obesity, diabetes, and more. It’s the most abundant source of calories in a lot of foods out there and it’s terrible for you because it boosts your fat-storing hormones.
Look at your labels and you’ll find HFCS in so many foods that line the shelves in our grocery stores. It’s found in most soft drinks, processed foods, breads, candy, flavored yogurts, salad dressings, canned vegetables, and cereals. But just because high-fructose corn syrup is evil doesn’t necessarily mean halos are hovering over other sugars NOT including those natural sugars you’ll find in fruit!
So here more of the junk sweet stuff that you need to avoid!
We still have far too much of the non-corn variety of sugar in our diets, and it’s definitely not doing anything good for our health or our waistlines. The average American eats more than 30 teaspoons of sugar a day — that’s more than 114 pounds of sugar a year!
While sugar is everywhere, you must do your best to eat it in extreme moderation if you eat it at all. The World Health Organization recommends no more than 12 to 15 teaspoons a day, or 48 to 60 grams from whole natural foods, not refined and added junk food sugar. Your best bet is to keep that amount as low as possible by ditching the fake foods. Check your food labels — anything with refined and added “sugar” should obviously be avoided. However, sugar has many aliases. I’ll give you a hint: Anything that ends in “-ose” is a sugar. See what I mean in the list below, and beware of these sweeteners in the foods you eat!
- Aspartame
- Dextrose
- Evaporated cane juice
- Fructose
- Fruit juice concentrates
- Galactose (milk)
- Glucose
- Honey (Yeah, I know you thought this was healthy)
- Invert corn syrup
- Lactose (milk)
- Malt
- Maltose
- Malt syrup
- Maple syrup (what could be wholesome than this? Not!) It’s for trees!
- Molasses
- Rice syrup
- Sacharin
- Splenda
- Sucralose
- Sucrose
- Nectresse But it’s from the Monk fruit. Isn’t that natural? Nope, not when it’s mixed with refined and added sugar and molasses.
Keep an eye on what you’re consuming and limit yourself when it comes to sweeteners. It’s not like mother nature didn’t give us natural sweeteners that completely blow away these man made substitutes. She did, and they do!
In the grand scheme of things, if you have a little Erythritol or Stevia or even some of these other sweeteners listed above in very small quantities in an otherwise very nutrient rich superfood eating style, then it’s probably not a very big deal, But it can be… Learn more about this in the Superfood Nutrition Support center.