FIVE HEALTHY FOODS THAT ARE PACKED WITH SUGAR

For most of us, weight loss comes down to a simple painful truth – we need to eat fewer calories that we use. That means portion control and informed food choices.

Cutting down our sugar intake is an easy route to calorie reduction. However excess sugar lurks in many unexpected places.  Here are five foods that can give a surprise when it comes to sugar content.

1.FRUIT SMOOTHIES

These are marketed as a quick health fix. Unfortunately commercial smoothies often have a lot of extra sugar added, on top of that found naturally in the fruit. Putting fruit through a blender also loses the benefits of the fibre content. Eat fruit raw if you can.

2.SPORTS DRINKS

There may be a need for refuelling during long exercise sessions such as half marathons or big cycle rides. For the standard one hour workout, a sugary sports drink is going to undo all the benefits – and damage your teeth if you keep sipping at it.

Sports drinks can be 20% sugar, even more for the chocolate milkshakes sold as fitness recovery drinks. For hydration, stick to water.

3.CEREAL BARS

Some cereal bars are over 25% sugar by weight, which is more than chocolate biscuits. Strangely the ‘traffic light’ labelling marks the sugar in chocolate biscuits as ‘red’ for high, but the levels in cereal bars are not given this alert.

4.BAKED BEANS

UK manufacturers tend to add less sugar to baked beans than their American counterparts, but British bean lovers can still get a shock. Read labels carefully, and take care with ‘no added sugar’ varieties. Some of these add concentrated apple juice instead (so still lots of sugar). Others add artificial sweeteners which are not everyone’s taste.

5.GRANOLA

Granola is a mix of grains, nuts, seeds and fruits in varying proportions. To obtain the clumpy texture of granola, it has to be baked with oil and a sweetener, and there lies the hidden sugar. Even a plain granola mix can be nearly 10% sugar and most contain almost 20% sugar - the same as sugary childrens' cereals.

Read the labels and choose with care to keep your sugar intake down.