Man is what he eats.
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
The above quote, to put it simply, means that your physical, mental and emotional health rests on what you eat or put in your body everyday.
And one of the worst things you can eat too much of, is refined sugar.
Let's take a dive into sugar, refined and natural to understand how one differs vastly from the other.
Refine Sugar, Natural Sugar, HFCS
We can find sugar in a variety of foods such as, seeds, nuts, grains, dairy, vegetables and fruit. But one of the most widely eaten sugars is the refined kind. Also known as table sugar, which is widely used on the US market as HFCS (High-Fructose Corn Syrup).
Table Sugar or Fructose
Sugar is taken from sugar beets or sugarcane plants, then washed and sliced in hot water, juice is filtered. Then turned into a syrup, where the crystals are taken. Then dried and cooled and placed in a little bag. And that's how you get your little bag of white sugar.
HFCS (High-Fructose Corn Syrup)
A refined sugar, milled to make corn starch, and then more processing is done to turn it into corn syrup. During the process enzymes are added to boost the sugar and fructose content, to make it sweeter to taste.
Check out this list of foods, condiments, and snacks with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Some of the HFCS foods on this list will surprise you!
- Applesauce
- Baked Beans
- Baking Mixes
- Barbeque Sauce
- Bread
- Breakfast cereal
- Candy (of course!)
- Canned fruit
- Canned tomatoes (especially tomato soup!)
- Cereal
- Cereal bars
- Chicken nuggets
- Chocolate milk
- Coca-Cola
- Cocktail sauce (Eat the shrimp, avoid the sauce!)
- Coffee creamer
- Cookies
- Cottage cheese
- Crackers
- Cranberry sauce
- Donuts
- Dried fruit
- English muffins
- Frozen meals
- Fruit Juice
- Ham (lunch meat)
- Hot dog and hamburger buns
- Granola
- Ice cream
- Juice
- Ketchup
- Macaroni and cheese
- Maple syrup (some brands)
- Mayonnaise
- McDonald’s Hamburger
- Muffins
- Mustard (sweetened)
- Nuts (cocktail nuts)
- Oatmeal (any flavoured kind)
- Peanut butter (some brands)
- Pickles (sweet pickles)
- Protein bars
- Protein powder
- Relish
- Salad dressing
- Soup
- Steak sauce
- Strawberry jam
- Turkey lunch meat
- Yogurt
Excerpt taken from thejeansfit.com.
Natural Sugar
Natural sugars can be found in fruit, starchy vegetables, pasta, and dairy products. Sugar is a byproduct of photosynthesis. The only non-plant source of sugar is created when bees produce honey. A sugar that is easily digestible to the human body, and high in glucose.
Avoiding Refined Sugar
Avoiding refined sugar is easier said than done, and requires a lot of will power to break the habit that many of us have picked up over a lifetime.
One of the best ways to start is by gradually cutting out processed foods, and slowly bringing in more fruit, home-made meals and snacks. Once you start making your own meals, you begin to realise how much sugar you've really been consuming over the years, and how easy it is to make your meals and know the sugar content.
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