If you are keeping a check on your weight, or if you are dieting, the very first change you may have done is reducing or giving up sugar. Sugar is responsible for weight gain and how much ever you exercise or control your diet, the hidden sugar will always keep you from meeting your weight loss goals. We often eat healthy foods without knowing of its possibility to have hidden sugars in them. Here are the top 10 foods that have high sugar content you can certainly omit from your diet or reduce its consumption:
FRUIT FLAVORED YOGURT
We always consider yoghurt as a healthy food right? It indeed is healthy but the only ones that are plain and do not contain any flavoured fruits. The fruit flavoured yoghurts contain artificial flavouring substances and sugars that certainly are not healthy. You can instead add fresh fruits to plain yoghurt.
SALAD DRESSING
Salads are healthy but by adding commercially available salad dressings, we turn a health food to a diet buster. Some salad dressing contains 4 grams of sugar per tablespoon, so you can imagine the amount of sugar present in it! Why not make your own healthy salad dressing other than choosing the unhealthy commercial ones? Here are some recipes for healthy salad dressings>>
SAUCES
Sauces like ketchup, barbeque sauce, mustard sauce etc. contain higher amount of sugars, even more than you think it has. Sauces actually make you eat the foodstuff even more, and you end up with extra sugar in your body! Instead, opt for homemade sauces or if you have a strict diet, give up on sauces overall.
FOODS WITH ‘FAT FREE’ LABEL
If you are choosing foods that claim to be fat-free, its time you should stop buying it and put it back in the shelf from where you picked it up. Fat-free foods are loaded with extra sugars in order to make up with the no-fat and improve its taste. So, anything that has ‘fat-free’ written on it, simply give it a miss. Read your food labels correctly>>
INSTANT FOOD MIXES
Instant food mixes like pasta, noodles, ready-to-make soups, cake and pie mixes, ready-to-make veggies etc. have high amount of sugar as a preservative and taste enhancer and also ingredients that have high amount of sugar.
GRANOLA BARS
Granola bars indeed are rich in proteins and are a serious health quotient for those who regularly go the gym and need to munch on something when they crave. Well, there are various types of granola bars out there in the market; some are sugar-free and some contain sugar. Always go with the ones that have honey and jaggery in the ingredients, or the ones that absolutely have no sugar or sugar source.
FRUIT JUICES
Fruit juices surprisingly are high in sugar. When you consume raw fruit, you actually eat the fibre and also sugar which is less and can be metabolised. When you drink fruit juice whether commercial or homemade, you end up with loads of sugar in your system and this is how- commercial fruit juices contain artificial sugars in them to enhance the taste and the ones you juice up at home contain large amounts of fruits to make one single glass, hence more sugar.
SPORTS DRINKS
Sports drinks are surprisingly high in sugars. They are meant to give you instant energy and you consume all the sugar containing sports drinks to reduce fatigue thinking it is healthy. Why not make your own sports drinks using healthy ingredients? Here are some natural sports drink recipes>>
DIGESTIVE BISCUITS
Digestive biscuits do contain fibre due to husk and other fibre rich ingredients in them, but this not cut off the high sugar content which is added to enhance the flavour in presence of fibre. Any biscuit you take whether the usual ones or digestive ones, they contain sugar.
FROZEN YOGURT
Frozen yogurt is often chosen by diet conscious people thinking they are doing a good job and eating healthy. Frozen yoghurt does contain a lot of good bacteria but they also contain high amounts of sugars. No wonder why it tastes like desert, it in indeed is a dessert after all.