If Only I Could Blog About It: Added SUGAR

I may be new to the whole writing-things-down-officially BUT I have been talking to myself inside my own head for years! Randomly I have written novels (inside my head) about certain topics that weigh heavy on my heart. Some may classify me as a bit crazy-a nut case-but boy am I thankful to finally have this outlet. Added sugars are one of those topics that drive me up the wall because it’s a never-ending fight for us all.

There are two main types of sugars: natural sugars and added sugars. Natural sugars are most commonly found in fruits and milk. Added sugars on are found in processed foods/drinks as well as the teaspoon of sugar added to coffee or the cup of sugar added when baking cookies, pies or cakes. Added sugar, although giving us a short “high” on life feeling, has little to no benefits for our bodies. Please take the time to visit http://www.sugarstacks.com, it is an eye-opening site that includes pictures of processed foods with how many sugar cubes are in that particular item. Training my brain to look at food differently has helped me make better choices. The images on the website look like this:

According to the USDA, sugar is the number one food additive. The Mayo clinic recommends a maximum daily limit of 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men.

One regular 12-ounce soft drink contains 40 grams of sugar or 160 calories and is more than the American Heart Association describes as a healthy allotted amount for one whole day! The crazy thing about this is even after the elimination of soft drinks my guard is still up because sugar is a sneaky companion that I did not invite to the table but still shows up. Sugar finds its way into a variety of everyday foods like mayonnaise, ketchup, salad dressings and barbeque sauce. Consuming two tablespoons of barbeque sauce is the same as eating three packets of sugar. And most of us southerners swim in this stuff! Can you imagine how many grams of sugar we consume at one sitting just in barbeque sauce? I am in tears as I report the next big winner…Yogurt (with fruit)! It packs a big punch with 19 plus sugar grams per one individual serving, which is the equivalent of five packets of sugar! Pasta sauce, granola bars, and yes even that “healthy” box of organic whole grain cereal contains added sugar. If it comes in a package you can pretty much assume it has added sugar, so…BEWARE! Don’t forget to avoid the obvious items fully loaded with added sugars: candy, energy drinks (I can hear Lauryn Hill from the Fugees singing “Killing Me Softly” right now) specialty coffee, tea drinks like a Grande Chai Tea Latte with 42 grams of sugar or a White Chocolate Mocha with 59 grams of sugar, baked goods like pies, muffins, doughnuts, bagels and on and on and on.

America is known as the land of the free and home of the brave. We are an incredible nation with endless possibilities at our fingertips. Sadly, we are also the country winning the race for the sickest nation of chronic healable diseases. We are blessed beyond measure to live in such an incredible country and many can’t or won’t be able to enjoy it due to preventable illnesses. Cardiovascular health is the number one killer for women. Cancer, high cholesterol, dental diseases, childhood obesity, obese adults, high blood pressure, and candida overgrowth (also causes a whole slew of problems) are also many of the diseases consuming Americans today. We are fueling the drug companies by masking symptoms with medicine just to make it through the day. One of the biggest contributors to these diseases is added SUGAR. One woman dies of a heart attack every 8 minutes. While 1 in 31 American women die from breast cancer each year, 1 in 3 die of heart disease! The American Heart Association says that too much added sugar leads to a higher risk of death from a cardiovascular disease. Wake up America!

Challenge: Let’s do the math: 4 calories per gram of sugar and 4 grams per teaspoon! For one week try tracking your added sugar intake and recognize what you are giving your children. For the following week, avoid some/all added sugars and see how it goes. Can’t hurt! Read all your labels and do not add sugar to your drinks or meals. Like me, you may find yourself relying on someone greater than yourself to avoid the sugar addiction. You may also realize how much you had been relying on sugar to fill an emotional or spiritual emptiness in your cup. Jesus is enough! It doesn’t mean you can’t have sugar sometimes BUT this challenge will open your eyes to how much sugar you “actually” consume in a one-week period. Sugar is addicting-just like any other drug. It pulls us in quickly and it is hard to kick! Together we can do this!

Added Sugars may be listed on your labels as any of the following ingredients:

*Brown Sugar *Cane Juice or Cane Syrup *Confectioners Sugar * Corn Sweetner and Corn Syrup *Dextrose *Fructose *Fruit Juice Concentrate *Glucose *Granulated White Sugar *High Fructose Corn Syrup *Honey *Invert or Inverted Sugar *Lactose *Maltose *Malt Syrup *Molasses *Raw Sugar *Sucrose * Syrup

I honestly thought I was doing a pretty good job here at home avoiding added sugars. Sugar has a stronghold on us all; we are never fully aware of it. It’s a substance that our mind and tongue tell us more, more, more and our bodies are yelling at us to stop! Change is hard but necessary when health is concerned.

Personal Goal: A few items I plan to serve les in my home will be yogurt with the added fruit (I will swap for plain yogurt or cottage cheese instead), packaged granola bars (Pinterest here I come), use less jelly on our morning toast, and focus on a true serving size when eating boxed cereals or even eliminate them altogether. Tweaking a few things now can make a HUGE difference later.

Let’s break the crazy sugar cycle together! Here is a picture of my worst “on purpose” added sugar indulgence. After writing this I will look at it a bit differently.
Salted Caramel Core

Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Blonde Brownies & a Salted Caramel Core

Of course only ½ of a cup is considered a serving and to prove to you that I struggle with added sugars also, I will confess that I have eaten the entire container before in just one sitting! So here is the math on the whole thing:

2 cups of ice cream = 112 grams of sugar= 28 tsp of sugar (22 tsp over the allotted recommended daily amount)

Looking at packaged foods/or homemade desserts through different eyes now makes it much easier for me to weigh the consequences and usually I am reminded it’s not worth it in the end to have a headache, feel sluggish or even get sick! Would you eat 28 teaspoons of just sugar?

Be Strong,

Kirsi Ingram

Bonus Picture from sugar stacks and a reminder to my summer taste buds that a so called "healthy" fruit smoothy is also filled with lots of added sugar: