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Breaking the Sugar Habit...

Friday, 13 January 2017 23:10

By Matthew Kadey, MS, RD (triathlete.com)

Life is sweet, all right—so sweet that the average American now eats about 129 pounds of caloric sweeteners each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While a dedicated triathlete can get away with consuming a bit more sugar than a couch potato, it’s still a good idea to limit intake for overall better health and performance; a diet high in the sweet stuff is linked to everything from weight gain to diabetes to recovery-impairing inflammation. Plus, high-sugar foods may crowd out other more nutritious options that can better fuel workouts and help repair muscles. But the ubiquitousness of added sweeteners hidden in our food supply can make it a challenge to scale back. Presenting 10 tactics to make your diet a little less saccharine....

Read the fine print

About 75 percent of packaged foods on store shelves contain sweeteners, a 2012 study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reveals. Added sugar can sneak into foods you might not expect to have it, such as peanut butter, bread and tomato sauce.

Know the lingo

By 2018, all food companies must list the grams of added sugar in their products on packaging. Until then, learn to recognize the many euphemisms for sugar that can populate ingredient lists, and avoid purchasing products that list them. These double agents can include maltodextrin, fruit juice concentrate, barley malt, dextrose and maltose.  READ MORE