If you don't believe that sugar creeps into just about every food we eat, let's visit the neighborhood grocery store.
You're trying hard to eat healthy. You're determined your family will too! So you're cruising the grocery aisles shopping with the glint of resolve in your eye. You toss a sugar-free pudding mix into your cart. Then you see those granola bars in your grocery cart, because they have to be healthier than those candy bars your kids eat.
You check out and take the food home – feeling pretty smug that you're doing your part to change your eating habits. But, even with this healthy diligence, you and your children are still big consumers of sugar – in far greater quantities than you might think. What to see exactly what we mean?
Let's first look at the sugar-free pudding. With only 90 calories for a half-cup serving compared with the 150 for the type with sugar, it's looking pretty good so far. But let's dig a little deeper here. No matter what the label may tell you, there is still a type of sugar in this product. It's called lactose. It's a natural sugar found in milk products.
Now let's get technical. Lactose is really a large molecule which is made of two smaller sugar molecules – glucose and galactose – linked together. Hmm. Perhaps it's not "as sugar free" as you thought.
Our next step is to look at those granola bars you bought. Go ahead and read the label. Does it sound anything like this? Sugar, rolled oats, dextrose, wheat flakes, rice dried lemon, soybeans, fructose, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated peanut and soybean oil, non-fat milk, almonds, malt, sorbital and flavoring.
Whew! What a mouth full. But more than that, let's really examine some of these ingredients. Food manufacturers are getting ever cleverer, because as consumers we're growing increasingly savvy. This is just one more example of this.
First, the closer the ingredient is listed at the top of the list, the greater the amount of the ingredient is in the product. Sugar is the first ingredient. So there is more sugar than anything else. Not boding too well for healthy, is it?
But wait, because that's not the only sugar in the granola bar. How many types can you find? Here's what we see: Sugar (of course) dextrose, fructose, corn syrup and sorbitol.
Yes, fully one-third of the 15 ingredients in this granola bar – five individual types in all – is sugar in some form or other. Now does it sound like a good snack?
Sugar. We all know that it's a major contributing factor to the growing worldwide obesity epidemic. It's also plays a large role in the development of diabetes. With even so-called healthy foods containing labels like this, it's no wonder that sugar in this county is skyrocketing. You literally can consume sugar with nearly every meal and not even touch a sugar bowl! It's already in the processed foods and snacks we eat – even in those foods marked sugar free and so-called healthy!
