Tip to Your Health: What to do about Sugar

Why you shouldn’t eat too much sugar


• Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease

• Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.

• Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia

• Sugar contributes to obesity

• Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes

• Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein

• Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress

• Sugar can cause gum disease

How much sugar you should eat

• The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends no more than 8 teaspoons per day of added sugar based on a 2,000 calories/day diet. That's 32 grams if you're reading labels, and about 6% of your total calories for the day. Sounds like a lot, but believe me... it's not.
32 total grams sugar/ 4 grams per teaspoon = < 8 teaspoons added sugar/day


What to do about Sugar…reduce the amount of sugar that you eat

1. Read labels – You should have 32 grams sugar or less total per day

2. Try to obtain your sugars naturally–which should be primarily from fresh, whole fruit.Fruit juices, even if they are 100 percent fruit juice, are all-natural sugar but they are very high in calories–it’s best to avoid beverages with high calories, including fruit juices, sodas, lemonade and other sweetened beverages. Learn to enjoy your iced tea for its natural flavor, rather than for the flavor of the sugar that you pour into the glass.

3. Rather than adding syrup or honey to foods like waffles or pancakes, try topping them with sliced fresh fruit and a dollop of vanilla yogurt.

4. Look for whole-grain cereals without added sugars, and top with sliced bananas, berries or other fruit that appeals to you. This applies to both cold cereals and hot. Oatmeal is delicious with some mashed banana stirred in for sweetness.

5. Keep healthy snacks around, like whole fruits, cut vegetables, whole-grain crackers, low-fat yogurt and low-fat cheese, so you won’t be tempted to eat sweets instead.

6. Help your kids develop healthier habits–if they are old enough to read labels, give them a list of all the names for sugar and ask them to become “sugar detectives.” They will enjoy finding the hidden sources of sugar in foods, and it will help to educate them as to how much sugar is added–sometimes where you least expect it.

      Names for sugar: sucrose, fructose, glucose, dextrose, lactose, maltose, invert sugar, raw sugar, 
         turbinado sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, brown rice syrup, fruit juice concentrate, confectioner’s 
         sugar, maltodextrin, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, maple syrup and molasses.

7. Instead of baked goods for desserts, try fresh fruit with a bit of chocolate syrup. One great trick is to take ripe bananas, peel and place them on a foil-lined tray in the freezer. Frozen bananas taste just like ice cream and will satisfy your sweet tooth for significantly fewer calories.

8. If you add sugar to cereals, beverages and fruits routinely, try to gradually reduce the amount you use. You may not really know the true flavor of these foods because you have “masked” the flavor with sugar. Fresh fruits in season should be deliciously sweet–no added sugar necessary.