Category Archives: Sugar
Sugar, in any of its forms, is inflammatory and is responsible for many of our diseases today.
America’s Worst Addiction
- Would you say alcohol abuse?
- What about marijuana or other drug addictions?
- What about sugar addiction?
Sugar – It’s About Heart Disease
We all know that sugar can be bad – it causes weight gain and can lead to diabetes. But what you really need to know is that sugar is highly inflammatory and is a leading cause of heart disease.
Nectresse™ – The Newest Sugar Substitute
Agave – Worse than Sugar
Sugar! Most of us love it – too much. So much that, at the request of one mom, I wrote a post on cutting sugar out of your diet. But the sweetness is addicting so we are forever in search of the healthy sugar substitute.
Enter Agave Nectar:
Is Stevia a Good Sugar Substitute?
Cutting Sugar Out of Your Diet
I’ve written before about some of the reasons to cut back on sugar. You can read them here: Sugar, Sugar Everywhere!
The fact is, we consume way too much sugar. You would probably be surprised at how many foods contain sugar, especially processed foods. Another source is fast food restaurants – which are all processed foods. Check the ingredients list of your favorite fast food restaurant, if you can find it. But you’ll need to know all the names for sugar first because sugar has many names. I’ve created a PDF that lists all the names for sugar.
Here are 5 suggestions for reducing sugar painlessly.
- Go easy on the processed foods. Read labels for hidden sources of sugar.
- Skip the fruit juice and serve whole fruit instead. With juice you get much more sugar because it’s from several pieces of fruit. Plus you lose the benefit the fiber in fruit has in slowing down sugar absorption.
- Serve sweet vegetables: cooked onions, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, etc.
- Read all your labels. Even ketchup has sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Check the list of sugar names.
- Make sweets an occasional treat, not a daily habit.
One more thing, I don’t recommend using sugar substitutes in place of sugar for a number of reasons:
- They really aren’t good for you.
- You’re still eating sweet, which just feeds the addiction.
- They don’t satisfy like sugar so you still have that sweet craving.
Sugar, Sugar Everywhere!
As a nation, Americans are addicted to sugar. Estimates are that each one of us consumes over 100 pounds of sugar per year. And it’s really no wonder because it is found in so much of our food today. You expect to find sugar in cakes, cookies and candy. But you can also find it in some canned vegetables, baby food, cereals, peanut butter, bread and tomato sauce. Even some so-called healthy foods contain sugars.
We all know that we shouldn’t consume so much sugar. Sugar has been implicated in obesity, osteoporosis, diabetes, depression, headaches, migraines, and many more illnesses. For a comprehensive list, see Nancy Appleton’s 141 Reasons Sugar Ruins Your Health.
One problem with sugar in foods is that it is often disguised by using some fancy term – such as corn syrup, dextrose, maltose, glucose, fructose, etc. In fact, below you will find a list of the many names of sugar. Read the ingredients on the label of foods you buy to see how many you can find.
Agave
Agave Nectar
Barley malt
Barley Malt Extract
Beet sugar
Brown Rice Syrup
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Cane juice crystals
Cane sugar
Caramel
Carob syrup
Castor sugar
Confectioner’s sugar
Corn sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup
Corn syrup solids
Crystalline Fructose
Date sugar
Dehydrated Cane Juice
Demerara sugar
Dextran
Dextrin
Dextrose
Diastatic malt
Diatase
Ethyl malItol
Evaporated Cane Juice
Fructose
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Galactose
Glucose
Glucose solids
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Grape sugar
High-fructose corn syrup
Honey
Icing sugar
Invert sugar
Lactitol
Lactose
Levulose
Malitol
Malt syrup
Maltitol
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Mannitol
Maple syrup
Molasses
Muscovado sugar
Panocha
Powdered sugar
Raw sugar
Refiner’s syrup
Rice syrup
Saccharose
Sorbitol
Sorghum syrup
Sucrose
Sugar
Syrup
Treacle
Turbinado sugar
Xylitol
Xylose
Yellow sugar
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