Simple Strategies for a Healthy Sugar Intake

Sugar has been a hot topic in the news recently. If you are concerned about diabetes you probably open your ears when you hear these news stories, but do you end up feeling more confused after hearing all the conflicting reports?

Sugar in the News

American Heart Association recently released new guidelines on maximum intake of added sugars. Basically for women they are recommending no more than 100 calories of added sugar intake daily, and for men no more than 140 calories.  Translated into every day life that means men should limit added sugar to no more than 12 oz soft drink and women  -  just 8 oz is your quota.

I wonder how much impact that guideline will really have. If we have a sweet craving are we really going to care about that new AHA recommendation?

Luckily, Coca-Cola will be coming out with 90 calorie cans and other soft drink companies will likely follow. But will they be a good value in cost in the eyes of consumers?

How about the proposed penny per ounce tax on soft drinks? Sounds like a good way to deter us from drinking too much sugar but I'm also not a fan of more government and taxes.

What sugars are safe?

Teaching about diabetes every day, I get lots of questions about sugar. I have a hard time keeping up with all the new products and research but more and more I find that if we just go back to the basic foods we have a better chance of making the healthier choice.

There are many many forms of sugar: Cane sugar, beet sugar, agave nectar, stevia, aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, high fructose corn syrup, etc.

Cane and beet sugar are the forms of brown and white sugar that we most commonly buy. If you want to know which source the sugar comes from you usually have to contact the manufacturer.

Agave nectar has recent concerns reported about its safety also. Todays Wall Street Journal has more on that story. 

I have had several of my clients tell me they get headaches or body aches from aspartame. Other artificial sweeteners have been shown to cause cancer in mice or rats. We already have plenty of cancer risks without adding artificial sweeteners right?

Stevia has been approved by FDA just last year to be safe but the Center for Science in the Public Interest does not agree. Check out their Food Additives report.  The only food additive sweeteners they list as safe are maltodextrin, neotame and sucralose (Splenda). The problem is that usually Splenda is used in combination with other sweeteners.

So what do you do when you really like sweets?   

It's not necessary to cut out all sweets, even for those with diabetes. And eating too much sugar does not cause you to get diabetes. Too much sugar does mean too many calories and not enough nutrients, which can lead to weight gain and nutrient imbalances, which can contribute to developing diabetes.

In my fight to beat diabetes I am trying to minimize my own sugar intake with these simple strategies:  

1. Use added sugar in moderation. Our family really likes sweets but I try to make more homemade sweets rather than buying packaged sweets. That way at least my family does not get as much of the other food additives. 

2. Read food ingredient labels. Once I really started looking I am amazed at how many products contain high fructose corn syrup. It is used in pancake syrup, barbecue sauces, salad dressings, and MANY other foods. Check cereals and snack  foods to see how far down the ingredient list jone of the sugars appears. I know for one of my kid's favorite cereals, sugar is first on the list. Ingredients are listed in the order of what is in greatest amount. So if sugar is first there is more sugar in that cereal than anything else.

Anyone tried Jones soda? Apparently it's made with cane sugar instead of HFCS. Leave me a comment if you like it!  

3. According to the CSPI food additives report,sucralose (Splenda) is probably the safest artificial sweetener.  If you have diabetes this is probably the best option if you find that other sweeteners make it difficult to control blood sugars.  

4. Try using more natural sweeteners. Drink tea with honey, add fruit to cereal, have fruit for dessert, notice the natural sweetness of fresh vegetables, and try real maple syrup instead of HFCS filled pancake syrup.

If you have more natural food sweetener ideas I would love to hear them! 

Comments

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Thanks for this wonderful article on how to balance the amount of sugar intake to our bodies. I've learned so much from this post, I know now what to do and not do when it comes to daily sugar intake.