If you like sweets, read this...

I usually eat healthy. Many crave sweets (simple carbohydrate snacks) . I prefer nutrient dense foods like, salad, lean protein, nuts, sprouted wheat bread, and fruit. These foods make me feel , peppy, energized, mentally sharp, and emotionally calm.

 I'm not a nutrition Nazi, I swear.  Seeing sweets makes me want to indulge a little. Sometimes a lot. I'm a former  ice cream and chocolate consumer . 10-15 minutes of euphoria quickly turns into , irritability, anxiety , and low energy. Basically I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck ! Several glasses of cold water help to revive me. 

 How does sugar affect you ? If you process sugar better than I do, you’re lucky. The average American eats 152 lbs of added sugar ( not created by nature), a year. I know…it’s hard to avoid sugar totally since it’s in just about every processed food.

Eating too much sugar can affect your tennis game and your life. Simple sugars , found in white flour, candy, and soda do provide quick energy , but you do crash fast. Your energy level plummets, and sluggishness follows.

I’ve found eating complex sugars (whole grains, pasta, fruits) help maintain better energy level .
The USDA recommends 40 grams of added sugar or less per day.

Check out sugar content ( from fitsugar.com). Wow!! Might actually be able to stay within daily limits

Slice of chocolate cake 30 g

1 oz. Dagoba organic dark chocolate 12 g

1 chocolate chip cookie 7 g

6 Oreo cookies 20 g

1 Starbucks chocolate hazelnut biscotti 10 g

1 Krispy Kreme glazed donut 13

20 plain M&Ms 9 g

1/2 cup serving of vanilla ice cream 21 g

10 oz. Coffee with 1 packet of sugar 2.8 g

12 oz. Coca Cola 39 g

12 oz. ginger ale 32.4 g

12 oz. Sprite 38 g

Quick ways to evaluate sugar content:

*Sugar should be the 4^th listed ingredient , not the first. 

*Under the carbohydrate section, compare sugar grams (carbs from sugar)  to carbohydrate grams (carbs if there were no sugar added)  

Carbs should outnumber sugar carbs by at least 3 to 1.

HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup)

Found research that this yucky ingredient (found in most processed foods) actually leaves you hungry. That’s true and I can relate to this, so stay away !!!.

 No problem for me since it also makes me ill.