Sugar - How Sweet it is????

Easter had come and gone but are the jelly beans chocolate eggs and malted milk balls still hanging on? To our bodies that is? We love sugar! There is no getting around it. Research shows that on average Americans consume about 142 pounds of sugar a year, translating into about 700 calories per day from added sugars. Combine sugar with fat and together they add up to about 35% of the calories in the American diet. People ask me every day why it is so hard to cut back on sugar? My answer is - because for many of us, sugar is addictive. There has been research done in rats that indicates that sugar may be as addictive as cocaine. Yet we continue to eat and drink it every day even though it has been linked with diabetes, obesity, cavities, heart disease, cancer and the list goes on. What can we do? Obviously going cold turkey and cutting all added sugars out of the diet is the solution. BUT - can we do that? My answer is probably not and if we can, how long can it be sustained. My approach is to work with people to first, become aware of where sugar is in our diet and cutting back and substituting as much as possible ( and I don't mean with fake sugars here, they will be the topic of another post!) You can start with cutting back on sugary drinks - this accounts for about 43% of all consumption of added sugars. Sodas, sports drink, specialty coffees and fruit drinks to name a few. Second - READ LABELS! Become familiar with ingredients that are the same as sugar. News flash, honey, brown sugar, raw sugar all are metabolized just like sugar in our body. A good rule of thumb when reading a label is that for every 4 grams of sugar on the label this equals 1 teaspoon of added sugar. Take a hard look at your kid's sports drink and see how much sugar it contains! Third - become aware of hidden sugars - catsup, bbq sauce, crackers, breads etc.. may all be sources of hidden sugars in your diet. The longer you can go with cutting back on sugar - the easier it will become. I am not saying this will be a piece of cake (oops, sorry, no pun intended!) But you can do it! Your body will thank-you! To your health - Noreen Gallo MSRD