When you are asked to cut back on the sugar you eat on a daily basis, it goes beyond removing the spoonfuls of sugar from your coffee or tea.
This substance, so friendly to the eye, can cause many problems over time, mainly health.
It is important that you know how to identify the hidden sugar in edibles that are consumed regularly in the usual diet.
In a normal diet, sugar represents only 10% of the total daily energy requirement. This means that if a person must acquire 2000 calories per day, the amount that must be consumed is a maximum of 50 grams.
This figure is well below what the Mexican consumes: it reaches more than 120 grams a day (Mexico is the main consumer of soft drinks).
THE DAILY RECOMMENDATION DEPENDS ON GENDER AND AGE
Children, 12 grams per day
Women, 20 grams per day
Men, 36 grams per day
HOW DO I IDENTIFY IT?
The nutrition label of each food indicates the amount per serving or per 100 grams (remember to divide that number by the servings in the package). If a product has 15% or more sugar (15 grams in 100) it can be identified as a food with high content.
In contrast, a product with 0.5 grams or less of sugar per 100, is one identified as 0% sugar.
It is important to know that there are several terms that describe this ingredient on nutritional labels and that not only sweet foods can contain it in their composition.
When reading the list, where the sugar contained in the product is also identified, not only the name appears, it may also appear with others such as: brown sugar, glucose, sucrose, fructose, dextrose, maltose, corn syrup, honey, honey cane, high fructose corn syrup, corn juice, fruit juice concentrates, invert sugar, molasses and granulated white.
PAY ATTENTION
We often identify foods that are high in sugar, such as soft drinks, industrialized breads, sweets, chocolates, candies, and other products. But it is also very important to know those who hide the sugar; that is to say, its existence is not evident, but it is present.
An example is what we find in a soda can: if for each gram of sugar there are four calories and four grams of it make up 1 teaspoon, 330 ml of a cola drink contains almost 10 teaspoons of sugar. With that amount, you go over your daily consumption even when the rest is within the healthy range. Even though obesity and being overweight consists of carrying excess fat in several areas of your body, the midsection is the spot most associated with being overweight. Both men and women pack on excess abdominal fat as they gain weight, but it is men who seem most at risk when it comes to serious health issues brought on by extra abdominal fat.