Posts Tagged by sugar
Putting on Sugar Consumption on Check
| September 22, 2011 | Posted by Alex under Lifestyle |
According to some recent statistics, Canadians consume on average more than double the recommended maximum daily intake of sugar, largely through liquids.
According to the recommendations set down to prevent and avoid complicating diabetes, Canadians should ensure that less than 10% of their daily caloric intake comes from sugar. This amounts to roughly 10-12 teaspoons worth, which at first glance seems like quite a bit in raw form. No one would ever put that much sugar in a single coffee or tea, but spread out over the course of the day it’s something that we should pay attention to.
For instance, a single can of cola contains between 35-45 grams of sugar, which amounts to 9-11 teaspoons of sugar… basically an entire day’s worth! A lot of people have more than one can a day, not including coffee with a double double going for it. Heck, if you go to the movies and buy one of their monster sized drinks there, you could be looking at a couple of day’s worth of sugar intake!
Currently, the demographic which consumes the most sugar are males between the ages of 14-18, who consume a whopping 41 grams a day. The group who consume the least are elderly women, 71 or older, who consume just under 20 grams a day on average.
These statistics are pretty frightening because it just goes to show how much sugar we consume in our diets, often without even noticing it! Of course, that’s not to say that all sugars are necessarily bad. There is quite a bit of natural sugar in wheats, fruits and veggies that we would be consuming regardless. It’s the extracted sugar and the sugar that’s added into products that we need to be careful of.
It could be a good time to start taking into account the sugar contents of the food we eat and watching out. At least you can be sure that the meals in our meal delivery service menus don’t have any added sugars.
Mixing Caffeine and Sugar – It can take its toll
| April 3, 2011 | Posted by 21st Century Food under Lifestyle |
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the excessive amount of coffee we (or I) drink on a regular basis. It was a bit spooky to realize that many of us (me in particular) drink several times the daily recommended caffeine intake before lunch most days.
As if that wasn’t enough to encourage me to curb my coffee drinking habits, I’ve come across quite a few articles over the past few days which suggest that drinking coffee with foods high in fat can actually slow down our bodies’ metabolism levels and force to take even longer to burn off those extra calories.
According to some of these studies, drinking highly caffeinated beverages alongside foods high in sugar and saturated fats can interfere with our bodies’ natural process of creating insulin and distributing the sugar to the right places in our system. The problem with this is that a) we are not properly metabolizing the sugars, and thus not “burning it off” as quick as we should and b) our bodies generally try to burn away sugars as fast as possible, so consistently having sugar in our bloodstream for too prolonged of a period can eventually take a toll on our organs.
That’s some pretty frightening stuff, especially as I sit here drinking a mug of black coffee with a croissant.
The study itself was primarily aimed that the emerging trend in which most fast food outlets now serve coffee (a move made popular by McDonalds a few years ago). Fast food french fries and hamburgers are loaded with sugars and saturated fats, as are the donuts we often consume alongside with our coffees.
I’m not telling everyone to stop drinking coffee, or to avoid every single sugary snack for the rest of your life, but maybe instead just to think twice sometimes. I’m sure for quite a few of us, buying coffee and a snack to go with it is just part of our daily routine. If you grab a coffee everyday at breaktime, try cutting back on the snacks a day or two a week. I know its fun to have something to go with a drink, but try a healthier alternative, such as some of the snacks we offer through our lifestyle menu. I’m sure your body will thank you in the long run 
For the original post please visit http://www21stcenturyfood.blogspot.com/2011/04/mixing-caffeine-and-sugar-it-can-take.html
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