Sugar, Sugar everywhere but how much do we need?

We all know what sugar is, but do we really know where how we can find it in our daily meals? Sugar is a carbohydrate that is a source of energy for our bodies. It comes in all sorts of forms;

Fructose is found in fruit

Glucose in animal products

Lactose in milk

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a person with a 2000 calorie diet can have 267 calories of - approximately 8 teaspoons a day.

But where are these actually found?
Aside from naturally being in some foods, it is put into most processed foods. And it's everywhere. I was shocked to find it in a can of Kidney Beans. where it is listed as the second ingredient on the can, High Fructose Corn Syrup. By adding this into virtually any processed food, even salad dressings, it's added to the prevalence of obesity and diabetes plaguing our nation. And with our diet consisting of many processed foods, it gets harder and harder to track down how much sugar we are consuming everyday.

Important Tip: Take in some complex carbs instead.

These consists of fruits, green leafy vegetables, pastas, grains and other foods.
By taking in these types of carbs, our body uses almost 25 times more energy to try to store this as fat as opposed to simple sugars which require almost no energy whatsoever to convert and provide almost no nutritional value.

Have you found sugar added to something that surprised you?

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