Labels~ Sugar~ how to figure out how much sugar is in your food

Whole Wheat And Home made bread

I hear to often "ew I hate whole wheat" I hear you. I was once there myself. You have to re train your taste buds. 

Remember to read the label. The stores will trick you. There are some of you right now I'm sure eating multi grain bread. That my friend is white bread with sprinkled grains. You might say, "no it's brown bread?" Yes, colored usually with molasses or similar darkening ingredient.
Read the label the first ingredient should be 100% whole grain/wheat.

The food companies trick up the labels to confuse the consumer. They want you to purchase their product. Don't be fooled.

Enriched~ What does that mean?


Enriched wheat basically means it's white bread stripped of nutrients and then they re sprinkled wheat back in. 

Ok, not ideal but a step in the right direction for those who can't stomach wheat.

Years ago we started on "Enriched wheat" 

Basically, the body turns white products "bad crabs" into SUGAR. Not good for anyone watching their weight. Especially not good for a diabetic.

I've actually seen diabetics turn down a  piece of fruit because of sugar yet reach for white bread? White bread will skyrocket your sugar faster than fruit. 
Fruit has fiber to slow the process and is a natural source.

I've heard sugar referred to as "legal cocaine" 

Sugar wreaks havoc on the body and is hidden in almost ALL foods. Foods you would never think of contain sugar.

Ketchup, juice, salad dressings,nuts,cereal,tomato sauce,dips,chips, desserts,hamburger/hot dog buns, soda, EVERYTHING!!! If you think you don't consume sugar daily you are not reading labels. 

When you make bread in the bread machine. You may notice wheat, rye basically any bread has some white and wheat flour combo. Yes, that's fine and I enjoy this type of bread. 
However it contains flour, water, yeast, salt, sugar. This bread is yummy and we enjoy it often. It has very few ingredients and I know exactly what's in it. You will never find this type of bread at the store. It won't last more than a few days (not profitable). It has no preservatives. 
We know exactly what's in it and we can pronounce all the ingredients. YEAH!!

Sugar let me show you how to identify it on a label. 

First, by law the ingredient label is listed by most to least. If sugar shows up in the top 5, that product is mainly made up of sugar. sugar has tons on hidden names. Any thing ending in "ose" is a sugar. 

Label companies know that consumers are reading labels. Yeah, for awareness!  They will actually try to add in several types of sugar so they fall further down the label. 

You may first see HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) then further down the list you might also see cane sugar, molasses, brown rice syrup, or agave,or evaporated cane sugar, the list goes on and on.Hidden names of sugar

Sugar is sugar no matter how they label it.


















Sugar used to be a treat back in the day. Now it makes up most of our diet. Wonder why you can't lose weight, rid the body of cellulite, wonder why your tired during the day, mood swings, craving and experience a sugar crash

To reduce sugar in yogurt
buy plain yogurt and sweeten with honey or sweetener of choice. You will use way less then any pre packaged variety, Starbucks coffee omit the whip cream, always opt for a small. It will satisfy craving and keep calorie and sugar to a minimum.

Now, I am not saying go and use a sugar substitute. I avoid that stuff like the plague. If I'm going to use sugar, I use sugar, honey, pure maple, or molasses to cook with.

How do I know how much sugar is in my food:

Ok, on the label you will find




You see this ingredients list above is all sugar with hidden names.

You have to locate grams of sugar. In picture above there are 24.6 g of sugar PER serving.  Remember if you are eating more then one serving you have to multiply it by 2,3,4, etc

1 teaspoon= 4g of sugar/cube

you would divide the total sugar by 4. Example-  4(g)/24(total sugar) = 6 tsp of sugar/cube in this one serving

Today read all labels and divide your total sugar/4 for each meal.
You will be shocked at how much sugar you are eating without even knowing it