If my kids were allowed, they would sit and dip their fingers in sugar and just lick it off for hours!
Most of us love anything sweet and all the more during that afternoon slump or when we’ve got PMS!
So when we hear about choosing low GI foods and cutting down on sugar, it can be confusing to know which foods are which and how much sugar we should be cutting down.
I’ll go into GI, or Glycemic Index in more detail next week, but first let’s look at sugar.
Our bodies don’t need – but can handle – let’s say 9 teaspoons of sugar a day. There are lots of different numbers and recommendations out there, but from my reading, 9 teaspoons is a pretty good reference point.
This is for adults, for kids, I would say around 6-7.
Carbohydrates (a carb is basically anything that grows), eventually break down as sugar, or glucose, in the blood stream which is why we don’t need extra sugar in our diets if we are eating our fruit and veg and some good grains, legumes and nuts.
Over time and if we eat more than the 9tsp/day regularly, we will put on weight (sugar not used by the body will be stored as fat) and our blood glucose may start to go a bit nuts.
This is especially true for kids, we’ve seen the evidence after those birthday parties!
So, what do we do?
Well bear with me while I give you a little formula and we can go from there.
9 teaspoons of sugar roughly equals about 34grams.
So, something like a 600ml soft drink for example which contains 70 something grams of sugar, has a whopping 18 teaspoons right there.
A can has about 11.
Going back to last week….case in point, not only do many soft drinks contain caffeine and all sorts of weird chemicals, the amount of sugar in my kids bloodstream would be off the scale!
Save it for party time. Too many kids (and adults) are guzzling loads of the stuff….enter obesity and Diabetes.
Ok, getting back to what we do about this – Start to read labels and understand them.
That way you can limit and reduce the amounts if sugar your family is consuming and prevent obesity, disease and behavioural problems, rather than have to fix them once they’re there.
Go and get a packet of something from your pantry and have a look at the nutrition label, and see how much sugar is in that product PER SERVE.
A packet of biscuits for example may have 11 grams of sugar per serve, then we see at the top of the label that their idea of a serve is one biscuit!
Check your breakfast cereals and low-fat-so-it-must-be-good-for-me sweet products and you will find enormous amounts of sugar.
Look at the amounts in sweetened yoghurts. Even the ones with just fruit have a days worth of sugar.
A teaspoon of jam has the equivalent of 3 teaspoons. One cup of ‘no added sugar’ juice has 5.
“Sports” drinks are just watery, coloured, flavoured sugar (about 15tsps worth) and are only necessary to replenish your sweaty body if you are an olympic athlete!
Add up the amounts of sugar your family is consuming in a day and see how you fare. It’s very easy to hit 9tsp of sugar in one go!
I’m not telling you all this to depress you, rather to empower you to be able to make smart choices.
If your kids love the sweetened yoghurts, then give them one a day and other sugary foods are limited or saved until it’s ‘sometimes’ day or party time (see last week).
My kids and I came to an agreement – they love juice so that’s their sugar for the day. They are allowed one cup and only if they’ve finished the water in their drink bottle at school.
Other than that, for sweetness, they have slushies made from frozen fruit and maybe something involving honey on bread.
And…..on the weekends ice cream and chocolate chip cookies may make an appearance!
Again, this is not some sort of regimented thing, I eat chocolate with the best of you, just know what your boundaries are, stick to them most of the time and enjoy the times when you don’t!
I’d love to hear your comments and talk more about how this can work in your family!
Next week GI…
Lv Jane
Most of us love anything sweet and all the more during that afternoon slump or when we’ve got PMS!
So when we hear about choosing low GI foods and cutting down on sugar, it can be confusing to know which foods are which and how much sugar we should be cutting down.
I’ll go into GI, or Glycemic Index in more detail next week, but first let’s look at sugar.
Our bodies don’t need – but can handle – let’s say 9 teaspoons of sugar a day. There are lots of different numbers and recommendations out there, but from my reading, 9 teaspoons is a pretty good reference point.
This is for adults, for kids, I would say around 6-7.
Carbohydrates (a carb is basically anything that grows), eventually break down as sugar, or glucose, in the blood stream which is why we don’t need extra sugar in our diets if we are eating our fruit and veg and some good grains, legumes and nuts.
Over time and if we eat more than the 9tsp/day regularly, we will put on weight (sugar not used by the body will be stored as fat) and our blood glucose may start to go a bit nuts.
This is especially true for kids, we’ve seen the evidence after those birthday parties!
So, what do we do?
Well bear with me while I give you a little formula and we can go from there.
9 teaspoons of sugar roughly equals about 34grams.
So, something like a 600ml soft drink for example which contains 70 something grams of sugar, has a whopping 18 teaspoons right there.
A can has about 11.
Going back to last week….case in point, not only do many soft drinks contain caffeine and all sorts of weird chemicals, the amount of sugar in my kids bloodstream would be off the scale!
Save it for party time. Too many kids (and adults) are guzzling loads of the stuff….enter obesity and Diabetes.
Ok, getting back to what we do about this – Start to read labels and understand them.
That way you can limit and reduce the amounts if sugar your family is consuming and prevent obesity, disease and behavioural problems, rather than have to fix them once they’re there.
Go and get a packet of something from your pantry and have a look at the nutrition label, and see how much sugar is in that product PER SERVE.
A packet of biscuits for example may have 11 grams of sugar per serve, then we see at the top of the label that their idea of a serve is one biscuit!
Check your breakfast cereals and low-fat-so-it-must-be-good-for-me sweet products and you will find enormous amounts of sugar.
Look at the amounts in sweetened yoghurts. Even the ones with just fruit have a days worth of sugar.
A teaspoon of jam has the equivalent of 3 teaspoons. One cup of ‘no added sugar’ juice has 5.
“Sports” drinks are just watery, coloured, flavoured sugar (about 15tsps worth) and are only necessary to replenish your sweaty body if you are an olympic athlete!
Add up the amounts of sugar your family is consuming in a day and see how you fare. It’s very easy to hit 9tsp of sugar in one go!
I’m not telling you all this to depress you, rather to empower you to be able to make smart choices.
If your kids love the sweetened yoghurts, then give them one a day and other sugary foods are limited or saved until it’s ‘sometimes’ day or party time (see last week).
My kids and I came to an agreement – they love juice so that’s their sugar for the day. They are allowed one cup and only if they’ve finished the water in their drink bottle at school.
Other than that, for sweetness, they have slushies made from frozen fruit and maybe something involving honey on bread.
And…..on the weekends ice cream and chocolate chip cookies may make an appearance!
Again, this is not some sort of regimented thing, I eat chocolate with the best of you, just know what your boundaries are, stick to them most of the time and enjoy the times when you don’t!
I’d love to hear your comments and talk more about how this can work in your family!
Next week GI…
Lv Jane
©thefamilyroom 2006 
6 comments:
Jane can you explain the carbohydrates are anything that grows - I'm a little confused by that. I know that rice, potato, that kind of stuff is carbohydrate but where does bread fit in? Everyone is so freaked out about bread. What else is a carbohydrate. Sorry to sound like a fool but I find all of this stuff totally confusing.
sorry i forgot to leave my name - Sally
Hi Sally,
It can all be very confusing! Carbohydrates are literally anything that grows.
So fruits and veggies, rice, wheat, legumes including soybeans, are all carbs.
Each food has a different carb content and carbs, when broken down after digestion are basically glucose/sugar.
The body needs this glucose, but if we're not active or eat too much, the body can't use it all and stores it as fat for the next time you're in a famine situation.
So Atkins and these other low carbs diets base their idea on reducing carbs so that the body will use fat stores for energy instead.
This is fine for a time but the body needs good carbs like fruit/veg/brown rice/wholewheat breads to function properly and let's face it, who can sustain no carbs??! I can't!
These good carbs have a whole host of other vitamins, minerals and nutrients too that we miss out on if we bar carbs.
B-A-L-A-N-C-E is key.
Carbs, protein and good fats are ALL essential for good health.
Hope that makes sense, please ask again if not!
Jane
PS. Sally, sugar is a carbohydrate, so low fat is great, but look at the sugar content of low fat (packaged) foods.
Cutting out bread and pasta doesn't mean you're carb free.
Marketing is a powerful thing hey?
Jane
After reading this I am setting aside the weekend to go through my pantry and fridge and get sorted once and for all. I know if i put in the effort my family will benefit. Thank you Jane. I am really enjoying reading your posts.
- Lisa.
Thanks Lisa, I'm enjoying writing them!
Have fun in the pantry this w/e!
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