Written by Breanne Curran of Burn Brighter Coaching
Packaged Foods are bad for us and Sugar is evil… right?
That’s the reaction I get from most people. They know that sugar is bad, but aren’t sure of what exactly should concern them and why.
Now, as a girl that likes to stay lean, strong and healthy...I totally get watching sugar intake I read labels wherever I go and put a lot of products back on the shelf.
But we busy people, gotta keep it real! Sugar is in everything.
We gotta stop freaking out when we see more than 4 grams of sugar on our favorite Kombucha.
That just makes us feel like there’s no good choices in our daily life. Soo wrong! There’s tons of good choices, we’re just missing them because we’re staring at those sugar grams.
Plus deprivation will always wreck you. If you run from that sugar all day, you’re just gonna end up face first in a bowl of ice cream or giving yourself a mental lashing for that chocolate you snuck last night. I know I’ve been there.
How to stop freaking out about sugar WHILE keeping lean, strong and healthy!
Ideally, we want to eat more foods that don’t have labels… but let’s face it, busy days call for foods we can grab and go with and these are often packaged options.
Even the most healthy packaged options have sugar in them. Let’s look at bars and smoothies. I’m guessing you often buy protein shakes and nutrition bars.
First, let’s look at mēle, my favorite on the go smoothie.
I love mēle - specifically, the supergreen shake. This company found a great way to get high quality veg, protein and healthy fats in the hands of busy folk trying to eat healthy.
Ingredients: grass-fed whey protein isolate, pineapple, mango, coconut milk, almond, organic carrot, organic flaxseed, organic wheatgrass, organic barley grass
Did you see those fantastic ingredients? Ya got clean, lean proteins, healthy fats, high nutrient veg and fruit.
Now let’s check out that nutrition fact label.
There’s 18g of sugar in one serving. Does that freak you out? It should NOT
But, I know it’s turned many away
Again, I say “Noooo!”
This is a great on the go choice.
So, how the heck do stop fearing sugar and stay lean and healthy?
5 Steps to read labels and easily make the best choice
One that fills you up, keeps you lean, boosts your energy and makes you look gorgeous!
I’ll keep it quick and painless:) Read labels in this order of steps for best results
1. Stop looking at just the sugar grams
Look at WHERE the sugar came from -- start looking at the INGREDIENTS.
Did you know that carbs are simply chains of sugar molecules? And guess what – carbs are in almost everything!
Heck, even spinach and celery has carbs! So you cannot completely avoid them.
As you can see the only sweet ingredients on the mēle labels are fruit!
We don’t see any High Fructose Corn Syrup, cane sugar, saccharin, etc. If you’re reading this post, chances are you know a bit about nutrition and know what the bad (non-nutritive sweeteners are).
If the sweeteners came from a few all natural foods, your body will burn through these and your gut will feel great.
2. Buy stuff that your brain and body can pronounce
Pronounce and Understand! When we buy foods with ingredients we don’t understand or can’t pronounce, our bodies freak out.
Do you really know what “disodium phosphate dextrose” is? What about “yellow 5 lake”?
If you don’t get it – you can bet you’ll have a pissed off body if you eat that stuff.
3. Avoid products with sugar in the first 5 ingredients
The most prevalent ingredient is always listed first. You want those first 5 words to be super healthy foods (see how the mēle label has grass-fed whey protein isolate as #1)!
There is usually a sweetener by the 3rd ingredient listed in many products. Just make sure it’s not a simple sugar. You want those first 5 ingredients to actually some nutrients in them!
- organic cane sugar OR brown rice syrup at #2 = no nutrients in these = NO Good
- organic honey OR pineapple at #2 = tons of great nutrients in these = GREAT!
I’ll make it super easy for you. At the end of this post is a list of sugars you should avoid AND a list of safe sweeteners you can enjoy (in moderation)
Just use your noggin! Looks like plain old sugar in the first few ingredients? Put it back!
4. Two-Three fruits MAX in the ingredients
Let’s keep it simple here. Fruit is healthy, we get great vitamins from it. But we get even more vitamins and minerals from veggie sources and proteins.
Fruit has all natural sugar (good) but it’s job is to keep you moving.
Not moving much? (sitting in meetings, airports, subways, couch…) then you are just gonna store that energy as inches on your body.
You know who needs fruit? KIDS -- they are constantly moving
Give those over 2 fruit ingredient smoothies and bars to the kiddos.
Notice mēle has only 2 fruits on the ingredients listed above.
5. Look at sugar grams and stay under these:
- Bars – Sugars should be under 23g
- Smoothies – Sugars should be under 30g
Okay – so I know I told you to not look at the sugar grams –
But if you are over these numbers – you better be about to run a marathon or Pulling a “Wild” hiking for weeks.
A Quick Review! Whenever you pick up a product, look at the label and check all 5 in order:
1. Read the ingredients
2. Make sure you can pronounce them
3. Put back anything with sugar (not fruit) in first 5 ingredients
4. More than 3 fruits = for the kids
5. Stay under 20 g on bars AND under 30g on Smoothies
There you go! Now you know exactly what to look for and can stop feeling freaked out when you see that sugar # on the label 🙂
OH! here’s those bad and good sugars:
Bad Sugars (No nutrients. Absorbs quickly. Quick energy then a crash)
- High Fructose Corn Syrup – Duh!
- Sugar
- Sucrose
- Brown Rice Syrup
- Agave Syrup (barely any nutrients here)
Good Sugars (Tons of nutrients. Absorbs slowly. Gives you stable energy)
- Dates
- Fruits
- Raw Honey
- Molasses
Okay sugars (Very little nutrients. Absorbs quickly. Quick energy then a drop)
- Date Sugar
- Coconut Sugar
- Stevia ** has minerals that are absent in other artificial sweeteners (quercitin and tannins are a couple)
- Agave
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Breanne Curran is a Nutrition Specialist, Health Coach, NSCA Trainer and Kettlebell Coach. She loves finding awesome tools that make it easy for busy people to stay lean, strong and happy with everyday. Find more game changing skills at burnbrightercoaching.com