Sugar
Sugars are stored in your body as stubborn fat! No more than 10 per cent of your daily caloric intake should come from sugars. For the average person, this can translate to around 40 to 50 grams. To put things into context, some fat-free, fruit-flavored yogurts can have up to 21 grams of sugar. One cup of 100 per cent fruit juice has 25 grams of sugar – half of our recommended daily intake!
As sugars are absorbed into your bloodstream, your blood sugar level rises. In order to lower blood sugar levels, the pancreas releases a hormone called insulin, which moves sugar from the blood into your cells, where the sugar can be used as a source of energy. The more refined the sugar, the greater stress on your pancreas, which can eventually lead to weight gain and illnesses such as diabetes. Your body needs sugar for brain function, muscle and liver glycogen. However, excess sugar is stored in your cells as fat. Glucagon is a hormone that takes the fat out of storage and releases it so your body can burn it off. When your body is producing insulin to bring your sugar high down, it cannot produce glucagon. The result: not only are you storing extra fat, but your body has the inability to burn fat that is already stored – double fat whammy!
What’s worse is that most fat-free foods contain poor quality, highly refined sugars such as high-fructose corn syrup. Even extremely small dosages cause tremendous negative impact to blood sugar levels – causing you to crave even more sugar.
Many high-sugar, fat-storing foods masquerade as “health foods” and should be avoided, including fruit juice, non-fat fruit-flavored yogurts, breakfast cereals, high/refined-sugar granolas and sauces such as BBQ sauce, ketchup and teriyaki sauce. Here’s a look at the amount of sugar in some everyday foods. I bet some will surprise you!
| FOOD ITEM | GRAMS SUGAR |
| Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream | 16g |
| Starbucks grande latte | 17g |
| Subway 6-inch sweet onion teriyaki chicken sandwich | 17g |
| Pizza Hut meatball sandwich | 20g |
| Non-fat strawberry yogurt | 21g |
| Tropicana 100% orange juice (8 oz.) | 25g |
| Vitamin water (20 oz. bottle) | 33g |
| Oscar Mayer Lunchables (crackers, turkey, cheese) | 36g |
| Pizza Hut crispy chicken salad (without dressing!) | 37g |
| Coke (1 can) | 39g |
