You may have a sugar addiction—but here’s the thing… it may not be your fault. Because while we try to eat organic and whole foods whenever possible, sometimes even seemingly healthy foods have additives like sugar added to them.
“To make food taste better, the food industry often adds substances that turn into sugar,” says Mariana Pérez Trejo Soltwedel, a dietitian in Mexico City. She explains that these sugars are hidden under different names in processed products, making it difficult to know how much sugar we consume per day. Excess sugar can cause a host of ailments: acne, headaches, excessive cravings, chronic fatigue, mood swings, premature aging and inflammation. If any of this sounds (and feels) familiar to you, it may be time to look for those sugar culprits hiding in your pantry.
First, you should evaluate all processed foods in your pantry. Read the labels on products like meal bars, bread, beer, cereal, cookies, granola and canned spreads—sugar is the master of deception and includes sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, lactose, coconut sugar, maltose, invert sugar, fructose, maple syrup, molasses, evaporated cane juice, rice syrup, honey or agave honey disguised in many identities. These are all different names for the same thing…sugar.
Second, remember that just because something is labeled or branded “healthy,” it doesn’t necessarily mean it is “healthy.” If you’re in doubt, Perez recommends choosing foods straight from nature, like fruits, proteins, whole grains, and legumes. In an ideal world, spices, juices, and sauces would be made at home, he said, but that’s not always possible. Instead, label reading comes into play again. “If you look at the label of something and it has a long list of ingredients whose names are hard to pronounce, that means it contains preservatives, colors, and sugar,” he said.
Follow these two rules, and you’ll take a step toward making better choices — and starting to break your relationship with sugar.
