PLAYING HIDE & SEEK WITH SUGAR

I think it’s safe to say nowadays many of us are trying to avoid a diet high in sugar, obviously for health reasons and also personal fitness. It’s hard enough trying to crush that sugar craving, without the added weight of the additional sugar that we don’t know about, hiding in a fair share of packaged foods we eat. This is why it’s always advisable take a look at the ingredient panels of the items we pick up when shopping. 

Unfortunately, the panels might not always tell a vivid story and don’t always differentiate between added sugars and naturally occurring sugar. It’s really no one’s fault though, sugar has a way of playing hide and seek under the guise of derivatives, such as dextrose, maple syrup, caramel etc.

Here we have compiled a list from research of packaged food items that are mostly guilty of shipping in that extra added sugar that you don’t know about, or as we would like to call it “Hidden Sugar”.

Granola & Protein Bars:

Some bars contain as much sugar as you can find in your sweetest candy. And just because some bars are labelled as organic doesn’t necessarily mean they’re healthy. Always scrutinize the ingredient panel whenever you pick up that granola / protein bar.

Flavoured Yogurt:

Basically most brands of yogurt you’d buy off the shelf at your neighbourhood supermarket or nearest convenience store are flavoured. Most flavoured containers are super sugary even more than you might imagine.

It’s best you choose a variety of plain yogurt. Then you can decide to add you own healthy toppings to give it some flavour. E.g. honey.  This way you get to manage how much added sugar winds up in your body.

Fruit Juice:

Ingredient scrutiny is very important when it comes to buying that fruit juice and other fruit-based products at the store. You’d be surprised that the sugar added to the fruit juice is equal to what you'd find in a can of soda or fizzy drink.

Your best bet is to enjoy a whole freshly squeezed fruit juice, preferably homemade. So investing in a juicer won’t be a bad idea right now, matter of fact it’d be a great idea.

Pea Nut Butter:

This was probably one of your favourites while growing up, and for some, even till now. This is so for a reason, many brands of peanut butter contain certain amounts of added sugar and molasses which is suitable enough to satisfy our childhood sweet tooth.

In this case our advice would be to find peanut butter that contains 100% nuts with no added sugar.