Sugar Addicts’ Diet. Nicki Waterman

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СКАЧАТЬ added sugars per day, 30 per cent more than the recommended maximum. A can of cola contains just over 10 teaspoons of sugar (200 calories) so you can see how easy it is to go over the advised amount. Have a think about how many cans of soft drink, biscuits, cakes, sweets and bowls of cereal you eat in any one day and you’ll probably find this is way more than one-tenth of the food you eat, and far in excess of 10 teaspoons of sugar.

      Nicki’s Tip

      Want to work out how much sugar there is in a food? Take a look at the label. Where it says ‘carbohydrates’, it generally says ‘of which sugars – Xg’. A teaspoon of sugar is around 5g so divide X by 5 to find out how many teaspoons of sugar it contains. So if it says ‘of which sugars – 15g’, divide 15 by 5 and you’ll know it contains 3 teaspoons.

THE SUGAR CONTENT OF FOODS
Food	Rounded Teaspoons of Extrinsic (Added) Sugar
1 digestive biscuit	½
1 chocolate digestive	1
1 slice (45g) of jam-filled sponge cake	4
Mars Bar	7
1 milk chocolate bar (50g)	5½
1 scoop of ice cream	1½
1 bowl of cornflakes	½
1 teaspoon of jam	¾
Half a tin (200ml) of cream of tomato soup	1
Half a tin of baked beans	2½
1 glass of Lucozade	6
1 glass of Ribena	4
1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup	1
1 tablespoon of sweet pickle	1
1 tablespoon of salad cream	½
1 can (300ml) of cola	7

      Where Sugar is ‘Hiding’

      Even people whose diet consists mainly of savoury rather than sweet foods are probably eating more sugar than they realize, especially if they are fans of processed foods such as ready meals. The last thing you expect to find in a savoury ready meal is sugar, right? Wrong! They can contain up to 20 per cent sugar. And what about the sugar found in a dollop of tomato ketchup? Remember: even so-called ‘low-fat’ foods can be high in sugar.

      The problem is that sugar is often added to foods where you’d never expect to find it. Would you, in a million years, ever imagine that there’s sugar in some sandwich meats or certain varieties of cottage cheese? For further jaw-dropping revelations about where you’re likely to find sugar when you least expect it, see Chapter 7.

      If you really want to avoid sugar, you have to learn how to decipher labels and get to the root of what you’re being fed. Sometimes it can feel like you’re reading another language! In later chapters, we’ll show you how to be a label ‘detective’ and work out for yourself if a food contains sugar, even if it looks like it shouldn’t.

      DOES OUR LOVE OF SUGAR REALLY MATTER?

      Does it really matter that we’re eating so much sugar? It tastes great and it makes us feel happy and content. Many of us would say there’s no high that compares to the buzz of eating sugar. But the satisfaction comes at a price.

      If you have a major love affair with sugar, chances are you’re also having major problems with your weight. Later (see Chapter 3), we’ll be explaining that sugar is a carbohydrate and that some carbohydrates in the diet are good. Chosen properly, they can actually help you maintain a steady weight and improve your health. We will also see that some sugars are preferable to others. But at the moment, all you need to know is that, by and large, sugar added to the diet is bad and is one of the main reasons we’re now fatter than ever before.

      As you’ll see in Chapter 4, there is also a huge range of health problems that are either brought on or exacerbated by eating too much sugar. For every medical study that suggests sugar is good for you (and these are generally funded by the immensely powerful sugar industry), there are dozens more that warn of the negative impact of high-sugar diets that are now so familiar to us.

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       How This Book Can Help

      So you’re a sugar addict. Perhaps, after doing the questionnaire in Chapter 1, you’ve admitted this to yourself for the first time. That’s an amazing first step – realizing you have an issue with sugar is a huge leap forward because it means you’re now in a position to do something about it.

      There are lots of self-help books about addiction, habits, cravings and, specifically, sugar. We should know – we’ve read them all. But we found most of them so difficult to read and understand that you could be forgiven for reaching for the sugar as a reward! This book intends to give you all this help and more in an uncomplicated way. The plan is based on Nicki’s success at beating her sugar addiction, following her lifelong struggle with it. She says, ‘When I decided to deal with my sugar addiction, I was faced with lots of conflicting messages about it – take this supplement, don’t eat this, increase the amount of that. It was a nightmare. Having done it all and been through hell and back, I now feel I can share with you what works and what doesn’t. You all know what sugar means to me, and if I can manage to kick the habit by following this plan, then so can you.’

      OUR PHILOSOPHY

      The aim of this book is to get you on the road to making the right food choices and eating regularly to help break the sugar habit and lose weight. Sounds simple, but so many of us with sugar addictions don’t do this. By making these two things a habit, you can help to ensure you never feel that roaring hunger that so often accompanies diets. As a result, you should – like Nicki – start to feel more physically and emotionally balanced as your body responds to the good things you’re feeding it and your need for sugar reduces. Stick with this and you’ll eventually be at the stage where you can allow yourself a sugary treat (come on – we’re all human!) and it won’t draw you back into your old ways. Plus, you’ll be losing weight without tedious calorie-counting. How’s that for an incentive!

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