Now It’s Sugar, No SH#T

For the last couple of days all I have heard on the radio and TV is how bad sugar is for you.  Is this news?  On All Things Considered on NPR they were talking about the “NEWS” that no grown woman should have more than six teaspoons of sugar a day.

I hardly know any woman who knowingly eats that much raw sugar in a day.  But each teaspoon contains about 4 grams of sugar and if you were to look at any processed food 24 grams of sugar is a very small amount.  So most of us who eat anything processed is probably consuming way more sugar than you think.  Especially if you eat fat free processed foods that use sugar in place of fat to get flavor.

Most people who can read already know that sugar is bad for them, but boy does it taste good.  But the news is not that sugar just makes you fat, but that it is a major factor in heart dieses, something you don’t necessarily see when you look in the mirror.  So you may be fairly thin, but if you live on just a tiny bit too much sugar your heart might not be as happy as you think.

The easiest thing to do is to eat real food that you can recognize in its most natural form.  Now you can cook it and change it, but start with things you can spell, like chicken, oats, apples, and peppers, just not all together.  If you make it you can get a good idea about how much sugar you are eating.

One horrible hideout of sugar is in fat free yoghurts with fruit.  One small serving is more than your whole day’s allotment of sugar.  This is easy to fix.  Buy plain yogurt and add real fruit.  If you add fruit in season that is ripe it will be sweet.

I am a sugaraholic.  Given my choice I used to always pick dessert over anything else.  That was not helping me weight wise, and now I understand heart wise and even apparently skin wise.  Sugar does not contribute to a good complexion.  When I started my weight loss challenge sugar was one of the easiest things to cut out.  Yes I know there are huge groups of people that believe in no forbidden foods, but not me.  Once I got over missing sugar I stopped craving it.  If I slip up and eat something sweet now it does take me a few days to break the addiction again so it is so much easier to just stay away from it.

If you don’t have a weight problem go on and eat things with fat, and cut out the sugar.  Your body needs a little fat to function, but not sugar to work well.  I think back to my Grandparents who ate lard, Crisco, butter, cream, and even some real sugar, but they ate no processed foods since they hardly existed then.  They were fairly healthy in spite of the drinking and smoking.  I am not advocating you take up smoking, but just look at the labels on your foods and tally up your sugar.  Your heart will thank you for sticking to under 24 grams.