Un-sweetened

It's amazing how you can think that you are eating healthy, but when you really evaluate every single piece and part of a food label and learn your numbers, you might not be. My first week started off as usual, me reading labels and adding up calories. As I was snacking on one of my favorite Greek yogurts, I was checking out the label...and I got to the sugar part. Here's a place I had never really stopped before. I count calories and investigate fat, carbs and protein. But sugar? I assumed that since I never eat candy or drink soda, and rarely have homemade sweets that I must be just fine. Then I realized that I didn't really know what the number of sugar grams meant. How much sugar was I even supposed to be consuming. So I asked my good friend Google...and was shocked with what I found.

 

 

 

Apparently, Americans consume around 150 pounds of sugar a year! That's almost 3 pounds a week, and around half a pound a day! A few studies I read said that half of Americans are eating twice that. Wow. Now a half a pound of sugar a day equates to 48 teaspoons or 196 grams. Women are supposed to be consuming no more than 20 grams, or 5 teaspoons of sugar a day. Now this is mostly related to added, processed sugars. Naturally occurring sugars from things like fruit and lactose (dairy) are more difficult to measure, but still need to be consumed in moderation.

 

 

The yogurt I was eating which started this whole thing had a whopping 19 grams of sugar! Plus, I had already had 2 cups of coffee with 2 teaspoons of sugar and was going to grab a protein bar for a quick breakfast that had 16 grams of sugar. That's already 43 grams of sugar and I'm barely past breakfast. I poked around my kitchen to find some other surprising sugar sources. My favorite BBQ sauce has 14 grams of sugar per 2 tablespoons, our spaghetti sauce has 8 grams in a 1/2 cup serving, a serving of raisins is 24 grams, and most of my protein bars have between 10-15 grams each. Even though I'm not even touching the national average, I am still consuming around 50-60 grams of sugar per day, not including fruit, which is 3 times the recommended amount. But, dang girl, this isn't easy! I tried drinking my coffee with no sugar...yucky! And I tried mixing my own cafe yogurt using plain nonfat Greek and instant coffee....you probably would've enjoyed seeing my face when I took a big 'ol spoonful of that nastiness. I might not be a sugar queen, but I do like a few things palatable.

 

 

 

 

So, now my goal is to get myself down to 20 grams a day (not including normal servings of fruit). I may not like it, but I can save all my good choices up for a rainy day cupcake :-) in 11 weeks!

 

Next post will be about protein!