How we exceed the daily sugar rate without eating a single candy

We know that excess sugar is harmful, but we rarely think about the amounts we actually eat. We can have unsweetened tea and refuse chocolate, but even if we don’t add sugar to our food and drink, it is sometimes possible to get it from many other products (especially processed ones), even those that are considered healthy. Fortunately, you don’t have to stick to a strict diet for your intake to match the proper amount. It is enough to know how producers use tricks with information on labels and which products are best left on the store shelf.

If you want to change the usual menu, then you should pay special attention to the sugar that is added to food and drinks during the production process. It increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

O awesome.club tried to figure out how not to exceed the daily amount of sugar in your diet and found that it is not so difficult.

The World Health Organization makes the following recommendations for a healthy diet: Sugar should be less than 10% of the total amount of food eaten. This equates to approximately 50 grams (12 teaspoons) for a normal-weight person who consumes about 2,000 calories a day. Ideally, it is worth reducing the sugar content in the diet to less than 5% of the total mass of consumed food.

If, when reading the product label, honey, glucose or fructose is described, you will notice that it has sugar in its composition. But a few well-known names can confuse you, so it’s helpful to know which ingredients to look out for.

Syrups: corn, malt, maple, oat, rice, birch and carob syrups; barley malt; Dextrin (E1400); Ethyl maltol (E637); Concentrated fruit and berry juice; Maltodextrin; Maltose; Organic sugar; Garapa; Molasses; agave syrup;

Of course it is not the complete list of sweeteners. Here you can see different names and designations of other additives.

Not everyone knows but, according to Anvisa, the first items should be those that are in greater quantity in the product. Therefore, some companies use 3 to 4 sweeteners so that sugar is not among the main ingredients; Words like “natural”, “organic”, “dietetic”, “healthy”, “low in calories”, “light”, “low fat” can create feelings among buyers that they are looking at a healthy product. While these foods and drinks may actually be low in calories and fat, they often contain a lot of added sugar; Often, labels indicate the amount of sugar and calories in a serving in large letters, and in 100 grams in small letters. For example, in a bag of biscuits there are 15 servings and when we read the label it may seem that in 1 serving there is not so much sugar. But in general, we rarely limit ourselves to one cookie or candy at a time. So these inscriptions simply distract us.

It is common for products with a high sugar content not to cause suspicion, as they are considered healthy or do not have a sweet taste. Examples of such foods and drinks:

Sauces and ketchup (1 tablespoon of ketchup contains a teaspoon of sugar); Sports drinks (one bottle can contain up to 34 grams of sugar) Protein bars and cereals (in 1 protein bar there can be up to 29 grams of sugar, about the same as in a chocolate bar); Cereals for breakfast (a small portion of 30 grams can contain up to 3 teaspoons of sugar); canned soups (one can can contain up to 43 grams of sugar); Carbonated drinks with the inscription light or diet (one can can contain up to 24 grams of sugar); Alcohol (in 100 ml of liquor there can be up to 20 grams of sugar); French fries and appetizers (a small portion of French fries contains around 1.5 teaspoons of sugar); Sausages and sausages (100 grams of salami can contain up to 1.5 grams of sugar);

Sugar isn’t just found in candy. It is also present in vegetables, fruits, bread, cereals, pasta and even processed meat products. Obviously, all of this influences the amount of sugar we eat per day.

For obvious reasons, we cannot calculate the diet of all our readers, but let’s look at an average variant of breakfast, lunch and dinner without desserts and see how easy it is to follow the WHO recommendations. We’ll guide you with data from FoodData Central and an app to calculate calories (eg FatSecret).

Breakfast:

oats with milk and honey: 12.1 grams of sugar; 1 banana: 14 grams of sugar; a cup of unsweetened black coffee: 0 grams;

Lunch:

chicken with pasta: 3.8 grams of sugar; croquette with mashed potatoes: 1.8 grams of sugar; a cup of black tea with sugar: 5 grams;

Dinner:

salad greens: 8.5 grams of sugar; pasta with ground beef: 4 grams of sugar; a cup of unsweetened green tea: 0 grams;

Total: 49.2 grams of sugar per day.

It turns out that we comply with the WHO standard (50 grams), but at the same time, we do not include desserts and breads in the menu, nor do we take into account the sugar in some possible sauces, snacks or additional drinks and processed products. If we add 100 grams of chocolate to the list, the daily norm will double. So it’s worth paying close attention to the sugar in your diet: it’s much easier to consume too much of it than you might think.

It may seem that sugar is evil and there is no way to save it, but in reality, just read the labels carefully and try to eat less processed products. Thus, it will be easier to maintain the diet with the proper amount.

Do you watch your sugar consumption? What are you doing to keep it at the recommended limit?