HEALTH

New year, new us? Okay, you've probably heard something to that degree, like, a million times over the past few weeks, but we're *for real* about making a change in our eating choices after learning all about one sneaky thing: sugar.

The average American eats 22 teaspoons of sugar each day. That's a whooping 16 more teaspoons than women should be having to maintain a healthy diet, according to the American Heart Association. While you may not be shoveling 22 teaspoons of straight-up sugar into your body, common foods such as breakfast cereal, yogurt, and condiments all contain added "hidden" sugars.

Did you know there are more than 60 different names for the white stuff? To avoid adding unneeded sugar to your diet, here’s a list of the 20+ most common ones you should look out for and *avoid* while on your fam's next grocery run: 

1. Barley malt
2. Brown rice syrup
3. Brown sugar
4. Cane juice
5. Cane sugar
6. Caramel
7. Coconut sugar
8. Corn sweetener
9. Corn syrup
10. Dextran
11. Evaporated cane juice
12. Fructose
13. Fruit juice concentrate
14. Glucose
15. Golden syrup
16. High-fructose corn syrup
17. Invert sugar
18. Lactose
19. Maltodextrin
20. Maltose
21. Organic raw sugar
22. Sorghum
23. Turbinado sugar

With that, it's important to note that even though sugar can be bad for us, remember this: everything is OK in moderation. 

What are some of your best tips for maintaining a healthy diet? Were you surprised to see that some of these foods contain added sugars? 

by Emily Fishel | 1/11/2019