It tastes good, but sugar isn’t always your friend. Your body turns excess sugar into fat. When that fat is stored around major organs, it can increase your risk of heart and liver disease.
There are many negative health effects associated with sugar. Being overweight can lead to diabetes and high-sugar diets may help to promote some types of cancer. As we know, sugar can be very bad for your teeth too. While our cells need sugar to function properly, we should be watching our intake.
The World Health Organisation says people should limit their intake to around 40g (about 10 teaspoons) a day of “added sugars”. This means refined sugars, not those that occur naturally in food like fruit. To some people that may sound like a lot, but consider this – a can of soft drink contains between nine and 12 teaspoons of sugar alone, and a single iced cupcake may have the same amount.
Although the food you need to avoid if you’re trying to cut down on sugar seems obvious (sweets, chocolate, soft drinks and biscuits), there are hidden sugars in other foods. Even in savoury dishes there can be large amounts of sugar. Here are some examples of foods that contain sugar:
Tomato sauce: Some brands contain around 20g of sugar (five teaspoons) per 100g. So a 20g dollop on your plate may have a teaspoon of sugar.
Yoghurt: 150g pottle of yoghurt can contain around 16g of sugar (four teaspoons) although some of that can be due to naturally occurring sugars in the yoghurt and added fruit.
BBQ-flavoured chips: Sugar is added to the flavouring, so a small packet of chips may have almost a teaspoon of sugar. A plain bagel may also contain almost a teaspoon of sugar.
Ready-made bolognaise pasta sauce: Some of the sugar content will be due to the natural sugars in tomatoes, but there’s likely to be lots of sugar added to boost the taste. One serving of ready-made pasta (roughly one cup) can be hiding nearly six teaspoons of sugar.
Cereals: Some types contain lots of sugar, even ones that aren’t overly sweet. A 100g serving of corn flakes includes around two and a half teaspoons of sugar before you even sprinkle extra sugar on it.
Fruit juices: These seem good for you because of the fruit they contain and it is the type considered to be “good sugar”. However, because juicing fruit removes fibre, the sugar that is left is deemed to be just as bad as the more harmful “added sugars”.
**Tips:
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Read labels and try to steer clear of foods with more than 15g of sugar per 100g.
Avoid processed foods. Some types are often high in sugar.
If you have a craving for something sweet, try fruit. Dried fruit contains a lot of sugars but these are better for you than refined sugars found in sweets and biscuits.
