Reducing Your Sugar Intake

Understanding the Hidden Sugars Found in Foods

It’s a fact: people love sugar.

But while an occasional candy bar, slice of pie or can of soda is relatively harmless, Americans consume much more sugar every day than is considered healthy—virtually all in the form of added sugars.

Often we unknowingly consume these added sugars, with food manufacturers finding clever ways to sneak sugar into foods you’d never otherwise suspect.

We’ll explore this and other interesting facts about the stuff we all love so much—sugar.

While sugar is found in obvious places like soda pop, candy, and cookies, it has slowly crept into other seemingly harmless packaged foods. This is due in large part to the lowfat craze that has taken America by storm in recent decades. When fat is removed from foods, flavor suffers. In response, food manufacturers began replacing fat with sugar.

Foods you’d never suspect now contain added sugars, including many brands of ketchup, yogurt, and even salad dressings!

Recommendations for the maximum amount of added sugars a person should consume vary.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends no more than 6 teaspoons (25 grams) per day for a person with a normal body mass index (BMI).

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends no more than 100 calories (6 tsp) per day for women and no more than 150 calories (9 tsp) per day for men.

To put this into perspective, consider that a 12oz can of regular soda pop contains between 35 and 41 grams of sugar, on average.

Our understanding of how sugar affects the body is changing virtually by the day. Sugar is linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer. It has also been implicated in fatty liver disease, obesity, and even dementia.

The overweight and obese are higher risk candidates for disease; however, a significant number of normal weight individuals have metabolic syndrome and are at increased risk for diseases like diabetes.

The dramatic increase in sugar consumption is in part responsible for America’s obesity epidemic and for the increase in diseases like diabetes, especially Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes.

The goal is to get pumped, not plumped. That’s why Promax Nutrition™ created a line of lower sugar (LS) protein bars with 3-9 grams of sugar and 12-18 grams of protein each.

The number one way to reduce your sugar intake is to eat whole, unprocessed foods. o Limit consumption of cookies, chips, and refined grains like white bread and white pasta. o Ditch the soda pop altogether.

Choose lower sugar options like Promax Lower Sugar Protein bars, which deliver 12-18 grams of protein per bar and 3-9 grams of sugars.

A caveat to limiting or eliminating consumption of added sugars revolves around exercise. When we exercise our muscle glycogen stores are depleted, especially with vigorous endurance workouts.

Muscle glycogen stores provide essential fuel for our muscles. Building and replenishing these stores by eating carbohydrates (including sugars) before and after exercise is important for preventing “bonking,” or “hitting the wall.”

The nutrition bars in the Original and Pro Series lines by Promax Nutrition are ideal for fueling the body and replenishing glycogen stores before, during, and after workouts.

Since 1996, Promax Nutrition™ has been making some of the best-selling protein energy bars. The company has developed a reputation in the industry for high-quality, great-tasting protein bars that offer trusted nutrition. With a wide range of products, PromaxŽ is more committed than ever to developing innovative, convenient, and portable nutrition products for active people striving stay fit and achieve a healthy lifestyle.

For more information, please visit www.promaxnutrition.com.

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http://www.drperlmutter.com/about/grain-brain-by-david-perlmutter/ http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyE ating/Added-Sugars-Add-to-Your-Risk-of-Dying-from-HeartDisease_UCM_460319_Article.jsp http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2708080/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15333488