Kitchen Overhaul: Sugar Seems To Be Everywhere
It’s time to clean out our cupboards of all those unhealthy foods
If anyone of us even wants the slightest chance of getting healthy, the first thing you’ll need to do is clean out your kitchen of all the unhealthy foods. But where would you start?
We all like to believe that our kitchens are full of healthy nutritious foods but most of us don’t even know that there are conspirators hiding in just about every ready-to-use, prepared product out there, and sugar is one of the biggest culprits. Sugar has so many different names that most people don’t even know they’re eating sugar. I once challenged a colleague, because she didn’t believe me that there’s sugar in almost everything, to read the labels of the food in her kitchen and see for herself. I even went one step further, I asked her to place every item containing sugar on her kitchen counter, that is, every item from both her fridge and her cupboards. (You really should do your freezer too…but I didn’t want to push it.) She agreed because she really, truly didn’t believe me and thought I was over exaggerating. Well, she did it, and the result? Her kitchen counters were covered in food products and her cupboards and fridge were almost empty! She was not impressed. Not with me being right, having told her the truth but just the simple fact that she thought she was eating healthy foods but instead she was consuming far more sugar than she ever imagined. She stopped drinking sugary beverages and she only ate dessert once in a while, so she thought her sugar consumption was minimal. Far from it! The generally accepted amount of sugar is 6 teaspoons per day as being the maximum amount anyone should eat before it begins to trigger any number of health issues. I personally think it’s still too much, at least on a daily basis.
The issue with sugar is that it’s being added into so many of our foods, even some that you would never expect it to be in. I’ve seen it in canned peas, prepare chicken stock or broth, marinated meats, and fish, which I didn’t expect. The common places where I do except it like salad dressings, dips, sauces, crackers, and breakfast cereals. Some breakfast cereals have so much sugar that, you will exceed the 6 teaspoons in just one serving!! I have to read every label of every product that I am considering purchasing and often I find myself giving up and making from scratch. It’s the only way to have it without sugar.
I’m not saying that I don’t eat sugar. I do. I just know when I am and how much I’m eating and how often I’m eating it. This alone can give you so much power over your health. Just knowing what you’re doing right or wrong is your guide to better health. When a celebration is coming up on the calendar, I know there’s going to sweets, I make sure I don’t overindulge the week before or at least days before. I give my body the right foods that will help it to function well, not make it struggle, this way when I’m celebrating, I can indulge and I don’t have to feel guilty or won’t feel unwell. Afterward, life goes back to normal, with very little sugar to no sugar on a regular basis.
Sugar is one of those things in life that gives us pleasure and as I’ve said, I still eat sugar but I don’t let it dominate my diet. I have my sugar where it belongs…in my dessert! By reducing your intake of sugar, you will reduce your cravings for sugar, and then you can have control over it and over your health. Soon you’ll find yourself craving healthier foods because your body really does know the good stuff when it gets it!
Take the clean out your kitchen challenge! I challenge you to go through all the food in your kitchen and put everything containing sugar on your counters. This will give you a good idea of what’s really going into your body!
While you’re at it, you should remove all foods containing artificial sweeteners, too. There’s a good chance that the food items containing some form of sugar or sweetener will also contain additives and preservatives. Think of this as an extra bonus!
