Do you have a sweet tooth? I sure do!
But… there’s a long history in my family of diabetes. I do worry about how much sugar I get in my diet — both added sugar and natural sugar. Naturally sweet produce like fruits and some veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots, etc) make up a big part of my diet.
There is a big difference between natural sugars and added sugars. The sugars in fruits and vegetables certainly aren’t as dangerous as added sugars. In fact, nutrition experts say that natural sugars don’t raise your diabetes risk the same way added sugars do. There’s no health organization out there that suggests limiting naturally occurring sugars. Hooray! It’s totally okay to fill your shopping cart with fruits and vegetables of all colors — they are full of vitamins, minerals, and disease-fighting antioxidants. Eat up!
Good thing, too — my local food store was selling crates of little easy-peel tangerines (called satsumas) and I’ve been eating them three at a time. They’re delicious! And I got a smoothie maker from Santa — so I’ve been experimenting with berries, apples, and green tea. Some of my creations are better than others.
Added sugars are the sugars you should limit in your diet. The World Health Organization suggests keeping added sugars at 10% of your diet or less — that means between forty and forty-five grams of added sugar per day.
It can be hard to know how much added sugar you’re getting without reading the ingredient label. Even then, it’s not always called “sugar”. Some things to watch for:
- Sugar and/or brown sugar
- Corn syrup and/or high fructose corn syrup
- Dextrose, sucrose, and/or glucose — an -ose usually means you have a sugar on your hands
- Invert sugar
- Malt syrup
- Molasses
Read your food labels when you’re shopping. Watch your portion sizes. Those are the two best things you can do to keep your added sugar intake at a healthy level! You can also try substituting natural sugars when your sweet tooth demands a treat. Try a piece of fruit or even a stick of gum to fight off your cookie cravings once in a while.