I’m confused! What is a Low Sugar Food?
You can be forgiven for not knowing what a low sugar food is because we are sold supposedly healthy foods by the food manufacturers and retailers of this world that are packed with sugar.
Go into any supermarket and you’ll see cereals and snack bars, for example, depicting cute squirrels and farmyard scenes that make you think that they are healthy but which are in fact packed with sugars.
You can also be forgiven for thinking that products stating that they are ‘lite’ and ‘fat free’ would be good for you. Well, unfortunately many are not and contain high levels of sugars and sweeteners – all of which help to strap you into the blood sugar roller coaster and cravings ride!
Foods with added refined sugar places glycaemic stress on the body.
We need to be aware of this marketing hype and start reading labels carefully so that we can navigate our way through the mis-information and buy the truly health-giving food.
Guidelines for Recognising Low Sugar Food
Low in fat sometimes means high in sugar, so it is important to read the entire label in order to identify whether the product is high in ‘added sugar’ or high in fat. A good rule of thumb for you might be:
• The more chemicals in the ingredient list, the more it is to be avoided.
• The higher the amount ‘of which sugars’ you find listed in the carbohydrate content, the higher the GI rating of the product.
• A low sugar food is: a food in which there is no more than 8 grams of sugar per portion
Aim for products which have less than 10 grams refined sugar per 100 grams of product.
So, for example:
Shredded Wheat has 66 grams of carbohydrate per 100 grams of which 0 is added sugar which makes it part of a healthy breakfast.
whilst
Cornflakes have 66 grams of carbohydrate per 100 grams of which 15 grams are added sugars making this a high sugar food (remember we want less than 10 grams of added sugar per 100g).
Once you’ve started to check out what you’re really buying you’ll be quite surprised at how much sugar is actually added to foods that we don’t associate with being high in sugar.
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