Horseman #3: Sugar

Sugar

Continuing this series, The 4 Horseman of the Foodocolypse, today’s post looks into the next item to avoid in order to live a more exciting life full of possibilities. The last post looked at Horseman #2 – Processed Foods. Today’s looks at one of the most dangerous of processed foods: processed sugar.

Sugar is sneaky. You’d be surprised where you can find it. Let’s look at 8 items: Whole grain bread, Turkey bacon, Kidney beans, Peanut butter, Special K. and a few others. What percentage of these do you think have sugar in them?

Whether you struggle with math or not, this one is easy: 100% of these have added sugar in them. Personally I have gone down the Walmart cereal aisle with 100 or so cereals, I only found 2 that didn’t have added sugar. In Target, looking at all the peanut butters, out of 30 odd kinds including those that are labeled “organic” or “natural”, I only found 1 that didn’t have added sugar.

So how do you spot the sugar? There are over 40 names of sugar, so it’s not so easy, but here are 6 easy rules to spot the sugar. To find almost all sugars, you simply want to look for these:

  • Sugar. Now this sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised what sugars you’d find, such as beet sugar and castor sugar.
  • Syrup. This includes anything with syrup in the name like corn syrup, malt syrup, and the infamous high fructose corn syrup.
  • Juice. Anything with juice in the name is a sugar such as fruit juice or cane juice.
  • Dextr—. This and the next are a little more difficult, but they’re not too bad. Watch out for anything with “dextr” in the name such as dextran, dextrose, and maltodextrin.
  • ose. Anything that ends in “ose” such as fructose or glucose.
  • Don’t forget the Obvious. Finally, don’t forget the obvious ones such as carmel, honey, and molasses
  • .

    We’ve covered the sneakiest of the horsemen. The next post will look at the the most obvious: fried foods.

David Bishop

David is CEO of Cedowin Productions, dedicated to helping you live your best life through positive habits. He has inspired tens of thousands to improve habits and communication through books, articles, workshops, and apps. He is the creator of AweVenture, helping families enjoy fantastic, active experiences and Zombie Goals, literally making building healthy habits a game. He’s authored several books including How to Create Amazing Presentations, 7 Steps to Better Relationships, and The Man in the Pit, which helps people who have loved ones struggling with depression.

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