Give Me Some Sugar, Baby

I confess - I have a sweet tooth. I love pie, cookies, cake, pastries. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water. Of course, all of these foods have one ingredient that helps to make them so delicious: SUGAR!

As Americans, we eat an ENORMOUS amount of sugar each year, about 156 pounds per capita annually. That's thirty-one 5-lb. bags of sugar per person, per year! Think about that the next time you're strolling down the grocery store aisle with the sugar bags... count them out, all thirty-one of them, and then think about ingesting all that sugar!

We don't get most of our sugar, though, from adding it to our foods. No, the majority of sugar that Americans eat is in their food and drinks already. The #1 culprit in America: sugary drinks, including everything from soda (Coca-Cola, Pepsi) to "fruit" drinks (Hawaiian Punch) to even so called "healthy" drinks (flavored water).

This is why reading labels is so important. You'll find sugar listed on the label under the carbohydrates - pay attention - some foods and drinks are nothing BUT sugar!!

I've been doing a great job keeping the sugar out of my diet by eliminating sugary drinks, reading labels carefully and not adding any sugar to my foods. But the last few days have been stressful and I'll admit to letting a couple sugary snacks cross my lips for comfort.... (we'll talk about emotional eating in a future blog post).

However, the fact I allowed myself a sugary snack isn't bad news and here's why: first, even though I had a couple sugary snacks, I didn't go over my total calories allowed for the day - discipline prevailed. Second, the snacks I had were very small portioned - a couple months ago, that wouldn't have been the case. So I consider this a personal victory.

But here is something I noticed: after a couple days of sugary snacks being included in my diet (even just a small amount), I felt like CRAP! When I was out walking, I could feel the lethargic impact of all that sugar running through my veins. It was quite dramatic and helped me get back on track by cutting those snacks out.

Bottom line: To win my battle against FAT and to feel good while fighting the battle, I'm going to have to keep cutting the SUGAR from my diet. That doesn't mean I can't ever eat a cookie again, it just means that moderation is the key along with knowing exactly WHY I'm eating that cookie in the first place!

Do you have a sweet tooth?



-- Kristin