Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Beware of Hidden Sugar!

Dr. Dolgoff's Weigh: Learn how your child can lose weight... today!

Children in America eat way too much sugar each day! Much of the sugar is obvious. Cookies, candies and cakes clearly contain sugar. Sugar cereals and soda are other large sources of obvious sugar. But there is lots of sugar hiding in non-obvious food sources.

Even sugar-free pudding has sugar in it! The sugar is in the form of lactose, a natural sugar found in dairy products. So how can they advertise the product as sugar-free? Sugar-free simply means that there is no added sugar. It doesn't mean that the food item is entirely free of sugar.

Why do we care about foods containing extra sugar? Eating too much sugar leads to being overweight, obesity, metabolic disorder, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Read on for some foods that contain hidden sugar; you will be surprised what you learn!

Foods That May Contain Hidden Sugar

Ketchup
Pasta sauce
Barbeque sauce
Peanut butter
Bread (White and Wheat)
Canned beans
Energy bars
Salad dressings
Granola
Bagels
Crackers
Vanilla soy milk
Canned sweet peas
Deli meats
Frozen pizza

When picking your food, be sure to look at the nutrition label. The grams of sugar on the label include both natural (healthy) sugars and the added (less-healthy) sugars. Obviously it is preferable to choose foods that contain natural sugars because they are usually found in foods that also contain vitamins and nutrients.

How do you know which type of sugar is in the food? Read the ingredient list. The trick is to look out for these sugar traps. If you see the following words on a nutrition label, the product contains sugar.

* Brown sugar
* Corn sweetener
* Corn syrup
* Dextrose
* Fructose
* Fruit juice concentrate
* Glucose
* High-fructose corn syrup
* Honey
* Invert sugar
* Lactose
* Maltose
* Malt syrup
* Molasses
* Raw sugar
* Sucrose
* Syrup
* Table sugar

How much sugar should a child eat each day? A good rule of thumb is to limit added sugar to less than 10 percent of total calories. Note that we said 'added sugar'; this does not include naturally occurring sugars found in dairy products (lactose) and fruits (fructose).

Maximum Sugar Intake

Daily Calorie Intake

Grams

Teaspoons

1200

30

7.5

1500

37

9

1800

45

11

2100

52

13

2400

60

15

2700

67

17