Sugar may be sweet, but the effects it can have on your health certainly aren’t.
While some foods naturally contain fruit and milk sugar, for example, many foods have added sugar to enhance their flavor, including some that you might not suspect because they taste too much. They are not sweet. Processed foods, baked goods, and even condiments like ketchup and salad dressing often contain added sugars.
Added sugars help make foods sweeter and tastier, but don’t add any beneficial nutrients. That’s why they’re called empty calories, says Brittany Paulson, RDN, CDCES, a diabetes care and education specialist in Grantsville, Utah.
The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that you limit added sugars to no more than 10 percent of your total daily calorie intake, which is about 12 teaspoons of sugar for a standard 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. If you’re not careful, you can reach or even exceed those limits very quickly. In fact, according to data published in Frontiers in nutrition As of June 2021, Americans are consuming an average of nearly 17 teaspoons of added sugar per day.
Excessive sugar consumption is linked to a wide range of health problems. Anumbrella review published on BMJ As of April 2023, excess sugar in the diet has been linked to 45 different health problems, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular problems, asthma, cancer and depression.
Sugar is thought to contribute to these and other health problems by wreaking havoc on blood sugar and causing cellular inflammation, which is a hallmark of many chronic diseases, according to a study published in the journal. Frontiers in Immunology In August 2022
Lauren Harris-Pincus, RDN, founder of Nutrition Starring You in Greenbrook, New Jersey, says breakfast provides a great opportunity to cut back on added sugars. Many traditional breakfast foods, including cereal, pastries, pancakes, French toast, and even yogurt, can be loaded with sugar and lack nutrients like fiber or protein that lower blood sugar (due to the sugar that naturally naturally found in fruits and vegetables usually do not have the same negative effects).
Poulson says replacing added sugars with natural sugars, like fruit, boosts nutrients while bringing plenty of sweetness to their breakfasts.
Luckily, whipping up a no-added-sugar breakfast is easier than you think, and it doesn’t mean sacrificing taste. These 15 recipes prove it.
1. Raspberry quinoa porridge
Refresh the classic oatmeal with this quinoa-flaked version that adds protein, since quinoa is technically a grain, not a grain. Raspberries add natural sweetness along with an array of nutrients, including fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, Poulson says. The best part is that you can make this healthy breakfast in just two minutes.
Nutrition at every meal (2 servings): 124 calories, 1 g total fat (1 g saturated fat), 3 g protein, 26 g carbs, 5 g fiber, 5 g sugar, 8 mg sodium
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