The term “sweet life” usually means a life of leisure, pleasure and delicious goodies. Today, our blog is using this term to discuss the sweets you choose to enjoy: sugar. This is the part of the “sweet life” that many Americans are trying to reject. Instead, they are in search of a new style of “sweet life,” we call the “healthy life,” which is usually a longer, fuller life!

The surprising fact is that sometimes you think you are eating a lot less sugar than you are. We are smart enough to avoid candies and cakes. We might even realize that our favorite sugary soda has 15-22 teaspoons of sugar per can.

So, how much sugar should you be allowed for the choice of the healthy life? The USDA states that you should have no more than 10 teaspoons a day of added sugar.

Your very efforts to achieve the healthy, “sweet life” have been defeated by some sugary foods, which blatantly arrive in the disguise of healthy choices. Exposing some of these foods has been the topic of several major magazines recently, and now The Center for Natural and Integrative Medicine Blog will continue this new exposé. It’s time we know the truth about some of these so-called healthy foods.

From the nutritionists of the Food Net Work, we find several sugary sources in disguise as healthy choices.

1. That Bottled Salad Dressing! You make the heathy choice of a fine salad, full of yummy vegetables. Beware! If you utilize a bottled dressing, you are adding a teaspoon of sugar for every two tablespoons of the bottled dressing. Make yourself a nice, healthy dressing.

2. Those Crunchy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars! Caution! Many of these are just candy bars in sheep’s clothing! Two bites in size, they often contain 1.5 to 2.00 teaspoons of sugar. Your only protection is to read the label, and search out a brand that does not list sugar as one of its top ingredients. By the way, be just as cautious of those protein bars; they can bring up to 6 teaspoons of sugar. That many calories could defeat the calories you burn on a hike!

3. Those Healthy Low-Fat Yogurts! The Business Insider Website just revealed that many low-fat yogurts pack an 8 ounce portion with fruit flavor. Yes, but they also add up to seven teaspoons of sugar. Clearly, plain, natural yogurt with your own fresh fruit and a drizzle of honey would be a better choice. To put the sugar content of many of these low-fat, fruit flavored choices into perspective; they have the same amount of sugar in them as two chocolate glazed donuts. Time magazine’s investigation measured some typical 6 ounce brands of yogurt, and found 26 grams of sugar—that is about 6.5 teaspoons of sugar!

4. That Healthy Lunch! They also warn us against the hidden sugars of that all-time favorite lunch, tomato soup. There are 15 grams of sugar in a serving size of Heinz classic tomato soup. That’s equivalent to 3.75 teaspoons of sugar.

5. American Style Chinese food! It might surprise you that orange chicken or sweet and sour chicken could give you a sugar shocker at 88.13 grams of sugar in either dish. According to Time Magazine, the syrupy sauces makes one serving of Americanized sweet and sour Chinese food equal to a regular sized McDonald’s Chocolate, Triple Thick Shake. You can look up more of these hidden sweets at this reliable online resource.

If you were to redesign your eating habits to be in line with a healthy lifestyle, part of your consultation here at the Center would not simply tell you about what you should not eat. We teach you what healthy alternatives would synchronize with the nutritional needs of your body. You might even require some healthy natural supplements. For today, we offer you three rules of thumb for finding a healthy life in place of a sweet life:

1. Shop for organic foods.

2. Read the fine print on all food labels.

3. If you are, or will be one of our patients, the staff of doctors and nutritionists at the Center for Natural and Integrative Medicine will help educate you in choosing the healthy life and kicking the evil habits of the sweet life.  page, under the title,

Thank you for reading the Center’s blog today, and we hope you have made plans to attend our free seminar, “Listen To Your Gut,” on June 19, at 6:00 P.M.

If you miss this one, check the calendar on our home page, and we hope you will take advantage of our very special educational programs in the future.