Do you know how much sugar you’re eating?

Do you know how much sugar you’re eating each day?

Sugar is definitely a hot topic in the media as it relates to food. In September the New York Times released an article exposing how the sugar industry paid scientists in the 60s to shift the blame for heart disease to fat rather than sugar. The results of that “research” launched the national fat-free frenzy. 

Sugar vs. Fat

Now we know that healthy fat is not the enemy, and it turns out, sugar may be instead. 

In December the New York Times published an interactive guide about sugar in your diet. The guide helps readers learn how much sugar they are consuming each day. Go ahead and take the test (no cheating!) and come back. How’d you do? Did you make it under 25g? 50g?

Sugar Series Introduction

This post is the intro to a series on sugar I’m starting on the blog. In future posts, I’m going to show you pictures of labels of common food items, without revealing their brand, and then show you great substitutions. In keeping with the overall tone of the blog, I never want to shame anyone for eating something they love. I also don’t want to highlight brands that are adding sugar to their products. My aim is to raise your awareness when you’re shopping at the grocery store. 

As I’ve prepared for this series, I’ve paid a lot of attention to food labels. It’s apparent that sugar is in everything. It’s added to tomato sauce, fat-free items, gluten-free waffles, prepared soups, bacon, lunch meat, and salad dressing. Everything. 

Together, we’ll go over ways to cut down on the added sugar in your diet. Because when it comes to sugar, I like to know when I’m eating it and I want to make a conscious choice to do so. That means if I want a piece of cake, ice cream, or a bag of M&M’s, I’m going to eat it. I want my choice to have sugar to be intentional. That also means that I don’t want added sugar in my diet from unknown sources. I can do without sugar in my tomato sauce, thankyouverymuch. 

If there are any foods you are curious about, let me know and I’ll include them in future posts! (Read part 2 and part 3.)

And, if you want to read more about sugar, check out these articles here, here, and here.