Sugar Surprises!

By Amy Campbell ’Tis the season for visions of sugarplums dancing in your head…and lurking in your food, too. The holidays are certainly a time for all sorts of treats and goodies, many which are loaded with sugar in one form or another. It's virtually impossible — and unnecessary, I might add — to completely avoid sugar. We all know that it's OK for people with diabetes to eat sugar in moderation. However, too much of a good thing isn't all that good, diabetes or not. Sugar bombs Americans love their sweets. But becoming too sweet on sugar has its downfalls. Dietary guidelines advise us to get no more than 10% of our calories each day from sugar (as an example, that's about 13 teaspoons on a 2000 calorie diet). But we consume more like 42 teaspoons of sugar each day. That translates into about 6 cups, or 3 pounds, of sugar per week! Of course, a lot of that sugar isn't coming straight from the sugar bowl. Instead, our sugar intake comes from the following sources, in descending order: • Regular soft drinks • Sugars and candy • Cakes, pies, cookies • Fruit drinks • Dairy dessert (like ice cream) and milk • Other grain foods Soft drinks are a big culprit. Dietitians love to point out that drinking a 12-ounce can of regular soda is pretty much like guzzling down 10 teaspoons of sugar. And it's not just soda that contains sugar — energy and sports drinks, sweetened ice tea, and fruit drinks are loaded, as well. S...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs