Americans ingest over 22 tablespoons of added (dietary) sugar each day on average. In fact, over the past 25 years, the intake of sugar increased by an equivalent of 70 calories. This amounts to over 350 calories per day that are added into our diet. On top of that, many Americans are overweight or obese, and are trying to diet. These extra calories count, and count significantly – this is over 10% of the recommended calories per day.
While most people do not ladle on 22 tablespoons of sugar per day, our food manufacturers sweeten food to make it more attractive. These 22 tablespoons of sugar are in our food and drinks in the form of high-fructose syrups or other sugar substitutes.
Most people do not typically compensate for the additional calories with increased exercise, and this typically results in an annual weight gain of about 7 pounds for a typical person. Please note that these are useless calories, and add no nutritional value.
We have written in other posts (see our resource box below for links!) that blood sugar is the typical input into the function of blood insulin. This is one of the key metabolic control hormones, and it is responsible for storing away extra energy within the adipocytes. Increased blood sugar is well correlated to gain in weight in typically healthy people.
How many of you bike for at least 30 minutes at a moderate pace EACH day? That is what level of activity would be required to burn off the extra calories. And, it is easily avoidable.
Smarter food choices can generally go a long way to control sugar and help in weight loss. For instance, an easy and effective substitution is to change sugary drinks for no-sugar-added drinks, such as coffee, tea, or water. Water is also very important to maintain hydration.
An example of other easy food substitutions are switching out of high-sugar sweets with fruits (which have nutritional value of fiber), and replacing white and other enriched breads with whole grain breads. Yet another positive choice is substituting highly processed foods with home cooked meals. Nobody is too busy to improve their own health.
Simple lifestyle alterations make a appreciable difference in weight loss. It is not necessary to exhaust oneself in a gym, nor is it typically necessary to starve and restrict foods (only to cheat on the diet later). Check our links below for many other suggestions for healthy weight loss.
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