Dr. Sugar's Sing Along Blog

Today, I shall discuss one of the greatest battles I lead on a daily basis.

Think you're being healthy eating that piece of chocolate (hey, scientists tout its great effects on the body after all)? Think again! Cause it's gotten some sugar processed into it, just as so many other foods (and drinks) in the US (a globally expanding trend).  Apparently, we ingest about 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, or about 120,000 sugar calories a year (which equates to about 35 lbs of fat)!

And the sucker's slipped in nearly all of your food and sometimes under disguised names as well (would make for a great spy!).  So which are some of the greatest culprits?  Here's a small list for ya:

1.  American-Asian sauces -- the ones you find in your sesame chicken or beef teriyaki, for instance.  These usually contain (high-fructose) corn syrup, or any kind of "ose" like dextrose and maltose, which are all alternate IDs for sugar.
2.   Jams and jellies -- a lot of the major producers of these hide the sugar content by spreading it out amongst different sweeteners (that way they can make it look like fruit's the principal ingredient).
3.  Salad dressing -- especially those called "light" that have the fat content replaced with sugar instead so they can still taste good.

Bad Sugar - from randmcollective

4.  Sauces -- as in spaghetti sauce, or barbecue sauce, for example, where the sugar's used to cover the taste of the cheap oils and dehydrated vegetables used to make the sauce.
5.  Oatmeal -- avoid those added packets that can give you the same amount of sugar as two cinnamon rolls (might as well have the rolls, they're much more tasty and don't hide what they are!).
6.  Wheat bread -- enriched flours and sugar are used to improve the taste of these so-called whole wheat breads (some even have more sugar than actual dessert!).
7.  Yogurt -- example: Yoplait's original 99% fat free yogurt contained as much sugar as a bag of peanut M&Ms.
8.  Frozen Dinners -- these either contain lots of sugar or lots of salt to counteract the "nuking" effects of the microwave. "Light" dinners aren't so light either, as the fat taken out is replaced with sugar (see item number 3).
9.  Bottled Tea -- here, have some antioxidants along with some high-fructose corn syrup et al.

Yes. This is a scary, scary world, where even the foods you eat lie to you!  So my New Year's resolution is to cut down sugar as much as I possibly can out of my diet. Wish me luck!

More on the dangers of high-fructose corn syrup:

PS:
I was inspired for the title by this awesome musical called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Sources:

ABC news
Mind Body Green