It's delicious in Woodbury MN, but it's not your friend.

I get it. I have a huge sweet tooth myself. I need a treat. Just a little pick me up. It's the only unhealthy thing I put into my body. I've had a rough day. It's hard to avoid. I don't want to be rude and refuse something someone made. If it is that bad, why doesn't the government regulate it?

The answer to that last question is politics. This changed in May, and we will soon be seeing changes in government literature and nutrition labels. You will be able to see what percentage of the suggested daily allowance your soda contains, as well as how many sugars occur naturally in the food and how many were added.

Sugar in Woodbury MN

Sugar in and of itself is not evil, it obviously occurs in nature, but the sheer volume that the average American consumes on a daily basis is staggering. Diabetes and obesity are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact sugar has on your health. Long before you are pre-diabetic it sends your blood sugar on a roller coaster that leaves most people reaching for more coffee mid morning, and again mid afternoon. It is one of the top foods that cause inflammation all across your body - amping up pain from injuries and arthritis, headaches, digestive discomfort in inflammatory digestive disorders, and raising the risk of heart disease. Sugar increases your chances of catching a cold or flu, and makes everything worse once you've caught it.

The new nutrition labeling will make much easier to perceive how much sugar you eat and drink each day. Many foods that promote themselves as healthy still contain huge amounts of sugar and cleverly disguise it in the labeling. The FDA recommends no more than 6-9 teaspoons (depending on body size) of sugar per day. A can of soda contains over 9 teaspoons of sugar. Soda being sugary is not news to most people. But yogurt is supposed to be healthy. Your average yogurt contains over 5 teaspoons of sugar - that's pretty much the whole sugar allowance of a small person for the day in one yogurt! Until now, the percentage of the daily allowance hasn't been listed next to sugar on nutrition labels because seeing 240% would encourage people to imbibe less, which is bad for the sugar industry. Luckily, national economics has won out. The savings in healthcare costs outweighs the cost to food manufacturers, so labeling is finally getting an upgrade.

I'm not saying you have to stop eating sugar. I'm just saying think about eating less of it. Be aware of how much is present in your foods, and understand the consequences of massively overdosing on sugar every day. Drink one less soda. You body will thank you.