ADDED INGREDIENTS
HIDDEN SECRETS OF ADDED SUGARS By Hunter Harrell
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merica’s relationship with sugar is toxic. It’s full of empty promises – all calories and no nutritional value.
“The choice is yours,” said CustomCare Nutrition founder Kirsten Chesney. “You can eat well and pay the farmer, or you can eat unhealthy and pay the drug companies.” Chesney received her master’s degree in nutrition and functional medicine, then opened her own business offering a variety of services, including meal planning and grocery tours, in Flagstaff Arizona before moving to Durango in 2020. Chesney said many foods, including fruits and vegetables, naturally contain sugar, like the fructose in fruit that we eat. However, there’s a difference between natural sugars and added sugars. Natural sugars contain calories and nutrients, while added sugars contain all the calories without the nutritional value. Unfortunately, sugars are added to many of the items on the grocery store shelves. Sugar is often used for giving baked goods flavor, texture and color. Sugar feeds yeast to make bread dough rise. While making jams and jellies, sugar is added as a preservative. It is also used to balance acidity of foods containing vinegar and tomatoes. It’s also very common in beverages, like soda, juice and energy drinks. “Food is made to be sold rather than to be nutritious,” Chesney said. “It’s easy and cheap to put high-fructose corn syrup in a product rather than cane sugar.”
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FO U R C O R N E R S H E A LT H Y L I V I NG
