Truth About Sugar - The Paleo Diet

    For years, we've heard that if you want to reduce your chances of getting heart disease and other chronic diseases, then you must follow a diet that is low in saturated fats and cholesterol. However, recent studies suggest that we should actually scale back our intake of added sugars in our diet.

    Added sugars are those sugars that manufacturers put in to our food during processing to enhance flavour. You can identify those added sugars within an ingredient list - they can come in the form of corn syrup, dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, glucose-fructose, honey and sucrose, just to name a few. In fact, high- fructose corn syrup, often under the guise of HFCS, is predominately used as a sweetener of choice because it is so cheap.

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     What is also interesting about this study is that people with the highest intake of refined sugars actually had higher blood fats and triple the risk of having a low level of good cholesterol (HDL). The more sugar you consume, the higher the bad blood fats in your arteries and the higher the risk of heart disease and other diseases. Excessive sugar in our diets has also been linked to higher calorie intake, higher body weight, higher obesity rates, increased risk of diabetes and a lower intake of vitamins and minerals.

    It's estimated that the average Canadian consumes about 16 teaspoons of added sugar per day, which is way too much. Did you know that a can of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar? Even beverages with artificial sweeteners or diet drinks are equally dangerous.

    In addition to soft drinks and fruit drinks, added sugars are found in baked goods, chocolate bars, breakfast cereals, salad dressings, frozen dinners, peanut butter, pastas, breads - and the list goes on and on.

    So, what to do?

• Check the ingredient label on the foods that you eat to see how much sugar is contained in each serving. You might be surprised to see how many different types of refined sugars are added to the product.

•  Replace soft drinks and fruit punch with real fruit juice (you may also want to have the actual fruit instead of the fruit juice), or make homemade smoothies with frozen fruit and low-fat milk. You can even use almond or rice milk as a substitute for milk.
• Also, choose boxed cereals made from whole grains with less than 8 grams of sugar and 3 or more grams of fiber. 
• Limit sweet treats to once a week and reduce sugar in your recipes.

    After doing this for over 18 years, I have found that the majority of individuals struggle with their weight because they consume way too much sugar. Bad fats and excessive portions is often not the culprit. So, if you want to lose weight and stay healthy in 2012, check ingredient labels and scale back your sugar consumption. Furthermore, you may follow healthy sweet recipes like the Paleo Sweets Recipe.

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