The average North American takes in 150 to 200 pounds of sugar a year. Most of your sugar intake comes from added sugars in drinks and packaged, frozen and canned foods that you buy in grocery stores or eat in restaurants. More than 75 percent of the packaged foods in your grocery store have added sugar in them. \u00a0Many of these foods do not taste particularly sweet, so you don’t even realize that you are eating sugars.<\/p>\n
Check These Foods for Hidden Added Sugars<\/strong> Read the List of Ingredients on All Packaged Foods and Drinks<\/strong> Why You Should Limit Added Sugars<\/strong> \u2022 Diabetes<\/strong><\/em>:<\/strong> Added sugars, particularly in sugared drinks, cause high rises in blood sugar which can damage every cell in your body. To protect you from a high rise in blood sugar, your liver converts sugar almost immediately to a type of fat called triglycerides. Then the fatty triglyceride molecules are stored in your liver. Your liver is supposed to regulate blood sugar levels. When blood sugar levels rise, your pancreas releases insulin into your bloodstream and it lowers blood sugar levels by driving sugar from your bloodstream into your liver. However, when you have fat in your liver, the fat prevents the liver from accepting the sugar from your bloodstream and blood sugar levels remain high, which leads to diabetes. See Sugar-Added Foods Increase Diabetes Risk<\/a><\/p>\n \u2022 Heart Attacks<\/strong><\/em>:<\/strong> High rises in blood sugar can punch holes in the inner linings of your arteries. The holes bleed and clot and start to form plaques in the arteries leading to your heart. Then a plaque can break off from the inner lining of a heart artery and travel down the ever-narrowing artery until it blocks the artery completely to cause a heart attack. Diabetes is the most common known cause of heart attacks.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 salad dressings and barbeque sauces
\n\u2022 yogurts including those with added fruit
\n\u2022 frozen and microwave meals
\n\u2022 canned fruit
\n\u2022 breakfast cereals
\n\u2022 breading on frozen foods and restaurant foods
\n\u2022 processed lunch meats, bacon and canned meats
\n\u2022 peanut butter and other nut butters
\n\u2022 ketchup
\n\u2022 canned cranberry sauce
\n\u2022 packaged diet foods
\n\u2022 gluten-free foods
\n\u2022 canned or packaged soups and sauces
\n\u2022 power bars, energy bars, diet bars and “health” bars
\n\u2022 bakery products
\n\u2022 soft drinks
\n\u2022 non-dairy milks
\n\u2022 fruit-flavored drinks
\n\u2022 many alcoholic drinks including wines<\/p>\n
\nThe Food and Drug Administration requires all packaged foods and drinks to list the sugar content per serving, and to show all sources of sugar in the list of ingredients. If you see any of these ingredients, you are eating added sugars or sugar alcohols: anhydrous dextrose, brown sugar, cane crystals, cane sugar, caramel, carbitol, concentrated fruit juice, corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, diglycerides, disaccharides, evaporated cane juice, erythritol, Florida crystals, fructooligosaccharides, fructose, fructose sweetener, fruit juice concentrate, galactose, glucitol, glucoamine, granulated sugar, hexitol, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, inversol, isomalt, lactose, liquid fructose, malt syrup, maltodextrin, malted barley, maltose, malts, mannitol, maple syrup, molasses, nectar, pancake syrup, pentose, raisin syrup, raw sugar, ribose, rice malt, rice syrup, rice syrup solids, sorbitol, sorghum, sucanat, sugar syrup, white sugar, xylitol, zylose and many more.<\/p>\n
\nAll calories are not equal. Added sugars are much more harmful than the sugars or starches in unprocessed whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Added sugars cause higher insulin and blood sugar levels that precede diabetes, metabolic syndrome and extensive cell damage, harmful fat storage, particularly in the belly, and inflammation and high blood pressure that lead to heart attacks. Killer diseases associated with high sugar intake include:<\/p>\n