How much sweet is too much for you..

You may say you don't have a sweet
tooth, yet you begin your day with
sweetened cereal, sweetened milk,
tea or coffee, eat salads with
dressing, a soft drink or a cup of
fruit yoghurt during the day, and
finally end your day with the sinful
dessert.
With the festive season on. it is
impossible to resist those exotic-
looking sweets and chocolates. And
then there is hidden sugar added to
processed foods and drinks that can
sabotage your diet. Indeed, sugar
gives you energy and pleasure but
how much is enough? Unless you
know the source of 'sneaky' sugars,
you will end up consuming a lot of
sugar, which can be harmful to your
health.
Feeding your sweet tooth
Sugars in all forms - sucrose,
fructose, glucose or lactose, exist
around you in juices, sauces, jams,
jellies, cakes, pastries, puddings,
kheers, honey, jaggery, ice creams -
the list is endless. These are a quick
source of calories. But excess
caloric intake results in putting on
the pounds and obesity, which is the
main risk factor for diabetes, heart
disease etc. Only if you are a highly
active person, burning a lot of
calories, there's nothing to worry.
For those of you who have diabetes,
you need to watch your sugar and
carbohydrate intake to properly
manage your blood sugar levels.
The recent trend of eating out,
consuming packaged foods and
drinking more beverages than ever
is a disturbing one. You may be
actually eating almost 20 spoons of
sugar every day! According to the
WHO, the recommended sugar level
is a maximum of 12 teaspoons of
sugar (48 grams) in a 2,200-calorie
diet for a normal person, which
translates to roughly 9 per cent of
your daily calories.
Sugar occurs naturally in foods,
especially in fresh fruits and
therefore you do not require added
sugar. The sugar that you eat in
whichever form gets converted to
glucose in the blood, giving you
energy. The American Heart
Association recommends that a
woman's added sugar intake should
not be more than six teaspoons a day
(100 calories); for men the number
jumps to nine teaspoons (150
calories) per day.
When you pick up packaged foods
check the labels first. Look out for
carbohydrates and words that end in
'ose' or 'ol' - glucose, fructose,
dextrose, maltose, sucrose, lactose,
mannitol, sorbitol, which are all
forms of sugar. Corn, sorghum and
fructose syrup are added as
sweeteners to drinks. Honey,
molasses and brown sugar, too, give
you calories. According to health
experts, two to 10 gm of added
sugar per 100 gm of food is
moderate amount of sugar; seven
gms of sugar, is equal to one
tablespoon of sugar.