Many of us who want to lose weight often think that checking every packet and container that we open is enough. Unfortunately though, many companies don’t always work to keep everything healthy and safe.
In fact, it is dangerous for manufacturers to show the number of fat grams instead of sugar grams, because many consumers don’t recognise that the difference. It is for this reason that many people end up swallowing bulk quantities of hidden sugar in many products.
To counteract this, learn how to figure out how many grams of each sugar are in a product and then avoid it. Here are some tips to help you figure it out:
1. Look at the Ingredients List
Sugar is measured by number of grams, with each serving containing a certain number of grams. Since milk examples usually have about 10 grams of sugar per serving, we can work out how much sugar is in the whole milk by adding 10 X split seconds (calories in a serving).
Or if we have Diet versions, we can calculate it by adding 5 grams per serving.
Now the question is how much sugar is hidden in the ingredients of the products we normally buy? To get the answer we have to break out the sugar content for one serving.
Take the average amount of sugar in a product. Now divide that number by 4 to get the number of teaspoons.
A Grocery store that sells a lot of items will have more than 20 teaspoons of sugar in one serving, but a few brands like Shula’s have just 5!
2. Make a habit of reading labels
Now you know the number of grams of sugar in a serving and how many teaspoons in a serving, you’re able to calculate the total sugar content in a container. There are 3 parts of the sugar story.
First, multiply the number of grams of sugar by the number of teaspoons.
Second, find the number of teaspoons of sugar. Since the nutrition facts are per serving, find the number of teaspoons divided by 4.
Then you check to see if the resultant number is equal to 20, 30, 40 or 50. The reason being is that 20, 30, 40 or 50 is less than the 20+5=25 percent number we started with.
spikes in blood sugar levels- this happens when you eat lots of sugary products, it stresses the pancreas; this is one of the reasons diabetics tend to have spikes in their blood sugar levels. Your body can only handle so much!
When excess amounts of sugar are consumed, the liver converts it to fat. The faster the conversion, the worse it is for your health. Read labels carefully.
Sugar triggers the release of insulin (the hormone of the pancreas) which someone simply supplies when they eat too much sugary food!
When the insulin kicks in, the liver converts the food to fat. No joke – the liver’s primary job is to burn fat! You can’t do that when insulin is being produced by the pancreas. In response to a moderate amount of insulin, a person can burn approximately 30 to 50 calories in 6 hours.Multiply that by the number of teaspoons of sugar and that’s how much empty calories you’re packing in!
However, when you eat large amounts of sugary foods, you’re able to store the excess energy as fat! If you ever want to lose weight, you simply need to spend some time at rest. Rest and boredom will do the trick.
Anyways, it’s not rocket science. Sugar is the devil. Everyone knows it. So, what to do about it?
The first thing to do is to reduce/eliminate added sugar. Starches like pasta, bread, cereal and potatoes should be replaced by veggies. Fruits are a good substitute for sugary snacks.
Milk, yoghurt and cheese are rich in protein and calcium. These are crucial to your weight loss efforts. Protein and calcium also help build muscle which will help you burn fat.
Whole grains and beans are also a good source of fiber which slows down digestion which maintains a high level of blood sugar.
Processed food should be avoided and their ingredients removed completely from your diet.
As you can see, sugar makes it very difficult to have an effective weight loss program. It’s time you took control of your health and no longer rely on sugary and refined carbohydrates to fuel your body.
And the first step is the most difficult: changing your mindset. You need to stop searching for the magic pill and stop believing that there is.
Sugar is everywhere. You need to avoid it. You need to eliminate it. And you need to change your thinking.
Do yourself a favor – cut down on the sweet stuff. It really is hard to quit the things you like.
About The Author
Helena Eater
How much does the quality of food really matter? If you eat food that tastes good, your life will be better. If you eat food that tastes bad, your life will be worse. The difference between good and evil is partly subjective: what tastes good to me might taste bad to you. The difference is also partly objective: what restaurants I think serve good food might serve lousy food to you. But if we stick to objective measures — measures such as how much weight people gain or lose — we can cut through some of the subjectivity.
