Today I thought I will have little to no sugar. The reason is my trainer told me to cut my sugar intake and to not eat anything with more than 2 grams of sugar. This morning I walked into the kitchen at work and a box of doughnuts were awaiting. I haven't had much willpower this week, and before I knew it, I ate the entire apple fritter. Which by the way has around 12 grams of sugar. I wanted to know exactly what sugar does in prohibiting weight loss. According to slcfitcollective.com In order to maintain a healthy body and weight blood sugars in the body need to be regulated throughout the day. One of the biggest indicators of fat loss is learning to understand how to naturally regulate your blood sugar. The article above if you read it in it's entirety also states that eating more frequently and consuming low Glycemic foods will help keep a steady level of blood sugars. This article suggest eating foods with values under 55. This got me thinking about the foods I eat and how they compare on the Glycemic index. While trying to find the most comprehensive list online, I found this http://www.glycemicindex.com/, I was blown away with this website, and all the information that was available to me. The trick I discovered when using the search function is not to get too specific. For example if searching for a Fuji apple, it's better to type in "apple" to get a comprehensive list for you to review. One great feature on this website I personally like is the "less than or equals" option. I chose this feature and entered 55. I got a list of all the foods that have a Glycemic index of 55 or less. This will help when I go grocery shopping. Okay, now that I know I need to reduce my sugar intake and eat different foods, I then wondered how much sugar should I have in a day? I found that there is a difference between added sugar vs naturals sugars in fruits and veggies. It is the added sugar in processed or packaged foods that is important to pay attention to. Authoritynutrition.com states in women we should only eat a maximum of 100 calories per day in added sugars. What is a Safe Amount of Sugar to Eat Per Day? Now that I know how much sugar I should have in a day. I needed to do some math, since labels on food are measured in grams, I needed to find the conversion to from grams to teaspoon. Wow this is a lot of work. But don't fret, I am helping all you readers. Below is the conversion table I found on http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/convert/measurements.html
Let's put all this into perspective. Now knowing that I should only consume about 25 grams or 6 teaspoons a day of added sugar for women and according to the measurement chart there are 4.76 grams in 1 teaspoon. Let me break it down more simply. Remember sugar cubes? One sugar cube is 1 tsp. should only have 6 sugar cubes a day. Look at the picture below to see how many teaspoons are in everyday products we consume. Makes me think of what I eat, how I eat and knowing this information, how I can reduce my sugar intake, be mindful of the types of sugars I consume and now I feel as though I understand better how sugar can impact my weight loss.
I hope you too have learned something, please feel free to comment or ask questions. Cheers! Jenniffer
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