Sugar Sleuth


My youngest promoted from junior high school today…on to the big leagues now! He’s not one to make anything in the kitchen because he never needs to, but he just now asked me where the sugar is. Is he making cookies because I haven’t made anything sweet while writing these blogs and he’s getting desperate?  (I may need to work on the that happy balance thing.)  Or could it be sister’s birthday in a few days, and she always makes something sweet as a gift for her brothers?  Are you even considered a year older if you didn’t eat sugar at some point to celebrate?  Then there are the cravings.  Late afternoons are dangerous times for me, and if I haven’t eaten enough in the day, LOOK OUT!  As I ramble on about Sugar and me,  why don’t you take a moment to contemplate your own relationship?

TAKE STOCK
With the current escalation of obesity and metabolic syndrome ushering in higher incidence of heart disease and diabetes among all of us, I think it is a question worth asking.  Like anything else, the issue is not simple because some aspects of it are not so straight forward. The first line of defense is to take stock of where sugar is hiding in your current menu.  Keep in mind that 3-9 teaspoons a day is considered healthy and safe depending on your age and size:

Sweetened iced tea drink- 14 teaspoons
12 oz. soda-  10 teaspoons
12 oz. sports drink- 9 teaspoons
packaged marinara sauce-  2 ½ teaspoons in ½ cup
1 cup granola- 6 teaspoons
protein bar- almost 4 teaspoons (1)

HIDING!
This list just scratches the surface, but what you might notice is that the foods hiding sugar are not sweets and treats, but generally considered healthy parts of a breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack.  Unlike desserts which are almost completely nutrient deficient, these things will have nutrients you need, but the sugar that comes along with them just keeps adding up.  The high fructose content of processed sugar in all of its various forms must be metabolized in the liver, and remember how the liver quickly converts it to fat.  The ball starts rolling downhill and won’t stop until we find a healthy balance.

One thing I have made great efforts to do is to get sugar out of things that aren’t considered dessert, and even then I cut it back as far as I can.  Making your own food is an important component to banning sugar because it gives you control over the contents. Let’s just look at the list above and consider some sugar free alternatives.

DRINKS
The numbers above for tea, soda and sports drinks show how drinking sugar is a very fast way to get volumes of it into your body.  Instead of opening a can or bottle for refreshment, try floating a mint tea bag in water for a few minutes and stir in a few drops of liquid stevia for lightly flavored and sweetened, nourishing water instead. You will be amazed at how fast this goes down!  Or for iced tea float some tea bags and honey with water in a glass container and set it in the sun for a few hours. Honey is an added sugar, but is metabolized more slowly, it has nutrients, and you can control the amount.  At Orange Tree Lane fizzy drinks are a rare treat, and I make it myself with fruit juice, sparkling water and a few drops of liquid stevia.  Gone are all those chemicals I can’t pronounce and the 10 teaspoons of sugar going straight to my liver!

Try my Phyto Iced Tea for a delicious honey, ginger and phytonutrient rich green tea refresher and let me know your own ideas for getting sugar out of drinks.  Next week I will problem solve some more about getting sugar out of breakfast other meals and snacks. 

molly's avatar

Molly

(1)  http://www.kitchendaily.com/2011/06/07/food-lies-10-healthy-foods-with-hidden-sugar/

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Comments:

Do you have a recipe or similar one for the lemon cake you made when I was over?

By Charleen on 2012 06 10

Uh oh, I will look around for it. Now I will have to figure out how to get even more of the sugar out of that one!  The first place I try that with cake is to replace the vegetable oil with olive oil and applesauce.  I’ll look for the recipe for you!

By molly on 2012 06 10

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