You could be addicted to sugar without even knowing it! Food companies have been sneaking more and more sugar into our foods over the last several decades. They put it in everything. We encourage everyone to dig down into the lables on the foods they eat. Go past the Nutrition Facts and look at the incredients. Anything ending in “ose” is sugar. If that “ose” is surrounded by the words “high fructose corn syrup”, keep walking. Here’s a great article from Mark’s Daily Apple with more information about the dreaded “HFCS”.
Here some images that will give you an idea of the sugar content of some popular foods and beverages that we come across in our daily lives. There are more below. Now you may be thinking that you can just get the Diet version of these things and cure your sugar addiction. Some diet drinks are actually more addictive than the regular drinks. What’s more, they are filled with chemicals that can slow your metabolism and actually cause you to gain weight. That’s right, diet soda makes you gain weight. Here’s some more information on how that happens: http://www.thefitclubnetwork.com/2009/11/how-diet-soda-makes-you-fat/.
So, now that we know that the sugar content of the foods we eat commonly is very high, let’s figure out why sugar is such a problem. Watch this video that explains how your body responds to sugar by creating insulin. That metabolic process causes your body to store fat.
So you can get an idea of what I’m showing here. A 12 oz coke has 39 grams of sugar. Mountain Dew has 46 grams in the same 12 oz can. Thinking about a Sprite or 7 up instead? Try again, they have 38 and 39 grams of sugar respectively. The Red Bull below has 27 grams of sugar in it. That should give you an idea of what these pictures represent and also how many grams of sugar you are looking at when you check the Nutrition Facts.
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