Sugars are Hiding Everywhere!
One of the main things that must be considered in a quest to lose weight and stay healthy is watching your daily sugar intake. You might be thinking that sounds easy. You might be thinking that giving up cookies, ice cream, and soda isn’t that hard. Maybe you don’t even have much of a sweet tooth. Unfortunately, sugar is much sneakier than that and hides in things you might not expect.
Added Sugars
When calculating your daily sugar intake, remember that natural sugars don’t count against you, such as those in fruit or milk. When watching for “bad sugar,” you are watching for added sugars. Not all labels separate added sugars from natural sugars. But by 2020, companies will be required to separate them on the label which will make it much easier to keep track of your daily sugars!
Some of you may feel like you are already eating pretty healthy. We encourage you to take our challenge and keep track of your daily sugar intake for at least a few days. You may be pleasantly surprised or surprisingly shocked! For example, your favorite granola bar may have 10 grams of sugar. Even protein bars which many people eat as a healthy choice can have 10 grams of sugar. Why is this a problem? Women should have no more than 25 grams of sugar per day, and men should have no more than 36 grams of sugar per day. When you consider that one granola bar may contain almost half of your sugar intake for the entire day, you may want to reconsider your snack of choice.
Sugar Alternatives
One can of soda contains about as much or more sugar than you are supposed to have in a whole day. There are sugar-free sodas which use substitutes like Stevia. You should steer clear of unnatural sugars like aspartame. They may have dangerous side effects in the long run with some researchers considering them possibly carcinogenic (cancer-causing). But again, maybe you don’t like soda or don’t have a sweet tooth. What other healthy items have sugar?
Well, most items have at least 1 gram of sugar, but that isn’t a problem. Did you know that most cereal and instant oatmeal also have a lot of sugar? If you do choose to eat these in the morning, adhere to the serving size or you will be eating more grams of sugar than you planned. Even most yogurt contains added sugars. So, if you thought oatmeal for breakfast and yogurt and a granola bar for lunch was a healthy choice, you might actually have already surpassed all your sugar grams for the day before noon.
If after adjusting your eating habits you are still struggling with your weight, then please call us at Advanced Surgical and Weight Loss Institute. Dr. Diego Velarde specializes in rapid weight loss surgery including, but not limited to, lap band, gastric balloon, and gastric bypass in Melbourne, FL. We are located in the Merritt Island area, and we know that weight loss is a very personal topic and we treat our patients with the utmost respect. We look forward to helping you attain your best health!