Would you eat 10 teaspoons of sugar? Would you even eat one teaspoon of sugar?…
If you drink one can of fizzy drink, you are actually consuming around 8-10 teaspoons of sugar, depending on the brand. If you eat one cup of plain whole wheat pasta you are consuming about 6 teaspoons of sugar. I know crazy right?

There is so much sugar hidden in our foods these days, whether it be just bad or really really bad. We never say to avoid sugar entirely, because it is virtually impossible, but with a little bit of knowledge, you make sure that your intake of sugar can be significantly less with drastically changing your lifestyle. And as we like to say here, knowledge is the key to looking and feeling your best.

Below is a quick calculation you can do to determine how many teaspoons of sugar are in the foods you eat. Once you start doing this, it becomes really easy to work out at a glance when you are doing your grocery shopping of buying takeaways.

But first here are a few things to remember:
1) All sugars are carbohydrates.
2) All carbohydrates break down into sugar in the body
3) Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Vegetables are great carbohydrates. Foods made with flour and/or sugar are not so good.
4) The more fiber a carbohydrate has the better. Fiber slows down the rate at which the sugar is released into the bloodstream thus allowing your body to process it and get rid of it instead of storing it.
5) If you have too much sugar at once, your body’s way of dealing it is to spike your insulin levels. Which in turn makes your body panics and turn it in to fat.

How to calculate the sugar content.

Here’s the calculation: (this calc is not perfectly exact but close enough to use as a general rule)
1) Check out the nutritional label on any food packaging and find the amount of total carbohydrate in grams
2) Add the Sugars and Carbs together
3) Subtract the fiber grams. If the fiber is less than <1 gram it may not be listed.
5) Divide the result by 4 (or a 1/4 of)
6) The answer you get is the number of teaspoons of sugar that you will ingest from the carbohydrate in one serving of that particular food.

But remember the more fiber the better. Foods higher in fibre and usually higher in good carbs.

Examples of sugars content worked out on a per serving basis.

So how much sugar do we actually need?

At any given time of any day, we need about one teaspoon of sugar in our bloodstream to keep all systems in check. To do this, we need to eat or drink around 10-12 teaspoons of sugar per day. BUT not table sugar. The sugars that our body’s need are the naturally occurring sugars in quality carbohydrates like vegetables, whole fruit, whole grains, nuts, seeds, etc.

Our bodies do not need table sugar and get zero nutrition benefits. I know! It sucks right!
Sugar is highly addictive and is why it is used in so many fizzy drinks and fast foods. The effects sugar has on the brain have shown to trigger to brain the same way that cocaine does. Sugar in excess is toxic and highly inflammatory and addictive.

On average, we Kiwi’s take in about 35-40 teaspoons of sugar per day. And this is the bad sugar. With many people ingesting upwards of 100 teaspoons of sugar a day.

Here are a few more examples of the sugar content of certain foods: (these are averages)

• Cup of raw spinach (1 gram carb, 1 gram fiber) = 0 teaspoons of sugar
• 260ml glass oz orange juice (26 grams carb, 0 fiber) = 5 teaspoons sugar
• One slice whole wheat flour bread (12 grams carb, 2 grams fiber) = 2 teaspoons sugar.

Another great way to check is to use the website MyfitnessPal. This has every food known to man on it. Really, it’s crazy! They even have an app that lets you scan the barcode with your phone, and it will give you all the nutritional information you need. And it’s free.

We all need to be more aware of what we eat. Start by becoming a label reader. Better yet, eat foods that don’t come with nutrition labels. Ever seen a nutrition label on a piece of salmon? Or broccoli?

If you are looking to try the Our HCG Diet program, please check it out here.

Or call us to speak with one of our success team members on 0800 035 594

If you like the article and think it could help your friends, please share the love below.