Having a healthy lifestyle is difficult enough now when we are all focused on working 8 to 12 hours a day, and some even more. People often don’t have time for long exercise sessions, and their physical activities have become just another chore that needs to be gotten over with. Adding food to the mix and trying to prepare every meal for yourself, so that you know what you’re eating is just making things more complicated and practically impossible.
Giving up on living healthy, though, is not an option, so we all still struggle to maintain as active a lifestyle as possible, and to eat as well as possible. Eating well, among other things, implies not consuming added sugar. Far too many people don’t really understand this substance at all, leading them to not taking things that seriously and not worrying about ever checking the labels of what they’re eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You have to get familiar with added sugar and what to know about it if you want to make a big difference in your lifestyle and consequently become healthier.
In different words, you need to understand what added sugar is, as well as why you should avoid it. Unfortunately, even people who already know this and who are doing their best to avoid this substance can get tricked into consuming it, thanks to the sneaky labels and, well, synonyms that people don’t understand are synonyms. So, today I’ll tell you what added sugar is, why you should avoid it, as well as which food to say goodbye to when you want to avoid it.
What Is Added Sugar In The First Place?
There’s natural sugar and then there’s added one, and while the former is fine for you, the latter one should be avoided at all cost. As opposed to the natural one, this is the sugar you can find in processed foods, and it has no nutritional value whatsoever. It does nothing good for you, while it has a great potential for harming you. You see why avoidance is the right thing?
Why is this substance even used, given that it has no nutritional value and given that it’s so harmful? Well, it can serve some purposes, the main of which related to processed foods preservation. In short, companies use it to extend the shelf-life of their products, as well as to add to their flavor, so as to make it more appealing to the human palate and the human brain for that matter.
Here’s more on what it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Added_sugar
Why Should You Avoid It?
For one thing, foods containing added sugar are considered empty calories. They up your calorie intake, but they provide you with no nutrients your body needs. So, consuming it is practically pointless, if we exclude the fact that the foods using it often taste quite amazing and that we can’t resist them. Resisting it, however, is necessary if you want to stay healthy.
So, health is why you should avoid added sugar. If you overconsume it, you risk developing serious diseases including diabetes, heart diseases and similar ones. Even when you consume it in lower quantities, albeit on a regular basis, you still increase your risks of developing those ailments. Not to mention what it can do to your teeth.
How To Avoid It?
In order to avoid eating this substance, you’ll have to know precisely which foods contain it. This is the easy question. All processed foods and drinks, including juices, allegedly healthy protein bars, candy, desserts made with dairy products are to be avoided if you want to stay clear of this substance. Furthermore, you should also refrain from adding sugar to your food when baking and cooking, but that should be clear. Read more on why that’s bad for you.
I’ve mentioned above that sneaky labels could sort of trick us into eating added sugars while thinking that we aren’t. Well, that’s another thing to get to the bottom of. Basically, any label containing words such as sucrose, glucose, dextrose, syrup, honey, fruit juice concentrates and similar things are actually trying to hide the sugar by using those cleverly chosen words. Don’t fall for it, though, and if you’re not sure about certain labels, always consult someone who can help you.
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.
