Here we are at the end of January. If you're one of those people who made a New Year's resolution, or goal, to “lose weight” or “give up sweets” chances are high that you're either struggling right now or you've given up completely.
As I've talked about before, this is in part a matter of making absolute statements. But a significant part of reaching your health and weight goals is to understand where sugar is coming from. Especially fructose as excess fructose consumption can put a strain on your liver.
Sadly sugar is highly prevalent in our diet. We are predisposed to want it from a biological perspective. Manufacturers capitalize on this by including it in many foods. Additionally food producers will often break up the sugar in processed foods using a variety of types of sugar, especially fructose. As you know, the more of a particular ingredient that is in a food the higher on the label it needs to appear. By using different kinds of sugar they can make it look like there is less in the product. You can learn more about this in Chapter Five of The Pantry Principle. There's also an appendix that lists all of the different types of sugars so you can learn properly identify them.
In addition to reading the label we need to learn where sugar hides in our diet. We often don't realize how much is contained in everyday foods, even something simple like unsweetened apple juice. The infographic below highlights sugar content in common foods. Learning to be aware if where sugars appear in your diet will help you make healthier choices so you can eat well to be well.
Discover the fructose content of common foods, beverages, sauces, and even sugar substitutes in our infographic “Fructose Overload.” Use the embed code to share it on your website or visit our infographic page for the high-res version.
<img src="https://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/fructose-overload-infographic.jpg" alt="fructose overload infographic" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;"><p style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin:0 auto; text-align:center;">Discover the fructose content of common foods, beverages, sauces, and even sugar substitutes in our infographic "<a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/fructose-overload.htm">Fructose Overload</a>." Visit our infographic page for the high-res version.</p>