Happy Groundhog day!
I hope you had a fab Monday and an even better Tuesday!
You’ll be happy to know my class devoured the Banana Chip Cookies! I managed to resist and not eat a single one (except for the one I ate hot out of the oven on Sunday)!
Yesterday, I talked about my lack of February challenge. Even though I don’t have an official one, I really like Anna’s from Newly Wed, Newly Veg. For the month of February, she is cutting back on added sugar (it’s in the most unexpected places sometimes!). This doesn’t include natural sugar in fruits and veggies.
I think this is a great idea! Out of curiosity, I decided to count how many grams of added sugar I consume on an average day.
I don’t usually post everything I eat but for today’s experiment, here are today’s eats along with the added sugar count.
Breakfast: Coffee, PB Toast and Green Monster
Lactaid (3.3g) + GM (0g) + PB (0.5g)+ Toast (2g)= round to 6g
I’m shocked at how much sugar Lactaid has! 7g for 1 cup! Luckily, I only put 1/3 cup in my coffee each morning! Actually I sort of knew this… the added enzyme apparently starts to breakdown the sugar in the milk while it’s in the carton.
For mid-morning snack I had an unpictured apple and string cheese: 0g added sugar.
Lunch: Wrap, Fruit and Yogurt
Wrap: Honey Wheat Flat Out Wrap (3g)+ Hummus (0g)+ Pepper Jack Cheese (0g)+ Tapatio (0g)+ Cucumbers (0g)+ Tomato (0g)+ Lettuce (0g)= 3g
Kiwi: 0g added sugar
1/2 cup Plain Non-Fat Greek Yogurt (4.5g) + Strawberry Jam (6g)= 10.5
Total Added Sugar in Lunch= 13.5g
I had no idea plain Greek Yogurt would have 9g of sugar per cup! It doesn’t taste sweet!
Afternoon Snack: PB Toast + Tea
Wegman’s Omega-3 Bread (3g) + PB (0g) + Tea (0g)= 3g
Ugh, I’m pushing through this bread that is not very tasty 😦 Wegman’s you failed me!
Dinner:
After my afternoon snack, I was still starving, so I decided to have the first part of my dinner early. I started with some Kale chips.
Usually I just use some rice wine vinegar then throw them in the oven for 10 minutes. But today I decided to try out a sauce that I got from Tina‘s Open Sky dealio she had a few weeks ago. It was only $0.99 and free shipping so I figured why not.
I think had I seen the nutrition information beforehand, I would have saved my dollar. A serving (2oz) of this sauce has 120 calories, 2000mg of sodium and 28g of sugar! Essentially it’s sugar, salt and water. I’m a little shocked that this was on Tina’s Open Sky page (by no means am I trying to judge!). I suppose anything is okay in moderation. On my kale chips I used a little less than half a serving. Honestly, it did make the Kale Chip ridiculously delicious!
Kale (0g) +Wild N Mild Sauce (13g) = 13g added sugar
The other half of dinner was a corn tortilla with cheese both of which had 0g of sugar.
Although I may have something else later, probably a piece of fruit or something…
The Grand Total Added Sugar Consumption for the Day = 35.5g
That’s 142 extra calories, about 9-10 teaspoons.
I’m not entirely sure how to analyze this but it doesn’t seem like THAT much to me. What are your thoughts?
Is it realistic to not eat added sugar? Obviously it should be avoided where ever possible but is there such a thing as too healthy? Any thoughts?
Ugh so much to do tonight! Hope you’ve had a great day!!
Anyone else SUPER EXCITED about Lost?!?!?!
Foodologie 
Thanks for the shout out!That’s about what I’ve been hitting too– and the max daily recommendation is 40 grams, so it’s under that! I think anything under 40 is fine, honestly! I’m just curious to see how low I can go for this month, you know? Kind of like the sugar limbo 🙂
Now you both have me interested in tracking my sugar intake. Mine is probably off the charts. I likely consume 60+ g of sugar every day. yikes!
I wonder how much sugar I eat per day.. I bet that I’d be surprised at how much I actually eat. 🙂
Does agave or maple syrup count as added sugar as well?!? (Sry, I just have no idea! ;))
Oh I’m still super behind with Lost!! I haven’t watched season 4 yet! 😦
I would definitely count maple syrup and agave as added sugar. You have so much Lost left to enjoy! Lucky duck!
i try to avoid added sugar because sugar has no nutrient and it can get the aging process faster (I read it somewhere). it’s not hard for me to do so because I’m not a sweet tooth person per se.
No, that doesn’t seem like a lot of added sugar to me. Are you counting dairy as added sugar?? Because there’s a lot of naturally occurring sugars in dairy. It’s not realistic for me to not eat added sugar, but there are a lot of people that eat “clean” and pull it off. That type of diet/lifestyle just isn’t for me. I’m not overly concerned with every little thing, I look at the big picture, the balance. 🙂
Jenn
I try to avoid a lot of added sugar but do get too much sugar in my diet because of fruit — I *love* it but the sugar adds up quickly.
And PB toast is one of my fave foods. So simple yet so yummy. 🙂
I think TOO much added sugar could be a problem if you’re feeling a lack of energy- but you seem fine to me! We learned in our food prep. class that Lactose is the sugar with the least amount of sweetness (probably why you don’t even taste it in the milk/yogurt). I think sugar is one of those joys in life that goes with “moderation” 🙂
I am never one to count calories or sugar. However, I did experiment counting the last couple of weeks. It is scary when you really look into some of the stats. I really had no idea. Brought a new awareness. That tortilla and cheese looks perfect to me 😮