I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and she told me that she doesn’t eat much sugar. This surprised me, as I had just been in her fridge and saw store-bought muffins, ketchup, BBQ sauce, and spaghetti sauce. She told me proudly that she had given up candy, chocolate, or cookies. And suddenly, I realized, so many people have no idea what sugar looks like in our everyday lives.
The Down and Dirty about Sugar
Now, if you’ve read our site, you likely know that I have a real hatred of sugar. I was addicted to the sweet stuff, and while I’ve been off it for over 2 years now, I still have cravings occasionally. It wasn’t this hard to give up smoking! Not only does it make you crave sweet foods, it has been linked to diseases such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cancer.
How much sugar should you take in? Well, zero. Sugar does not do anything positive for our bodies. The American Heart Association recommends that adult women take in a maximum of 6 teaspoons of sugar a day. They recommend men take in a maximum of 9 teaspoons a day.
What We Think Sugar Looks Like
So, my friend thought she was doing well by giving up the stuff we associate with sugar in our everyday lives. She wasn’t eating candy or chocolate bars. Baking was off her to-do list, so her intake of goodies such as cookies, cakes, and pies had gone down a lot. Water was her drink of choice, and she didn’t drink sodas. She thought she was doing all the right things. And I’ll admit, I had gone through the same process when I tried to give up sugar when we started keto.
What Sugar Looks Like In Reality
I’m going to go through a few of the products I used to eat, thinking I was making healthy (or at least healthier) choices. Just to illustrate the point, I’ll use the specific brand I enjoyed. This doesn’t mean other brands are better or worse, it just shows how hidden sugars can be. I’ve taken the nutritional information from Fat Secret Canada.
- Activia 0% Yogurt – 6 grams sugar in small container
- Heinz Ketchup – 4 grams of sugar in 1 tablespoon
- Diana’s Chicken and Rib BBQ Sauce – 7 grams of sugar in 1 tablespoon
- Ragu Spaghetti Sauce – 8 grams of sugar in ½ cup (note, I used to add sugar to this)
- Five Alive Passionate Peach Citrus Juice – 31 grams of sugar in 1 cup
- Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars – 6 grams of sugar in 1 bar
- International Delight French Vanilla Coffee Creamer – 6 grams of sugar in 1 tablespoon
- Tim Horton’s Fruit Explosion Muffin – 25 grams of sugar in 1 muffin
- Campbell’s Tomato Soup (canned) – 24 grams of sugar in 1 cup
- Heinz Baked Beans (canned) – 18 grams of sugar in 1 cup
- Ben’s Smart White Sliced Bread – 4 grams of sugar in 2 slices
- Quaker Harvest Crunch Cereal – 23 grams of sugar in 100 grams of product
You can imagine how these items add up over the run of a day, week, and month. These are all things I thought I was eating to be healthier. I picked granola bars over chocolate bars, muffins over donuts, oat-based cereal over “sugary” cereals. That was better, right?
The Realization of What Sugar Looks Like
Once I started keto, I had to read food labels and I started realizing how much sugar I had been taking in without knowing it. I felt duped! Okay, some things I know aren’t great, like the coffee creamer, but I chose the 0% yogurt and the cereal specifically to get healthier. There was a period of time when I was really, truly pissed about all this.
And, oh, the withdrawal from sugar was brutal. My body was craving the sweetness and the spikes in blood sugar that sugar provides. I wanted sweet and sour sauce, chocolate, candy, and ice cream. I dreamed about eating sugary items by mistake and then panicking because I had eaten it and would be kicked out of ketosis. That lasted a good 6 months.
It has now been about 2 years since I have taken in anything but minimal, natural sugars. I did have a day when I decided to have an off-plan day and I ate a Skor Blizzard from Dairy Queen. It really didn’t taste that good. I mean, it was good, but it wasn’t what I had built up in my mind. It certainly wasn’t worth how sick I felt afterwards.
A Final Thought About My Journey with Sugar
I’ve noticed that my tastes have changed since I gave up sugar. I enjoy spicier foods and foods that are a bit more bitter. That includes low-carb beer, which is weird. Beer has always been a no-go for me. Now that I can taste other flavours than sweetness, I’m enjoying a wider variety of foods. Giving up sugar has been so positive for me, but my first step was learning where sugar hides in our everyday foods!
Wendy
