RECIPE

You may have cut your intake of sweets, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that sugar is absent from your diet. Sugar is added to foods that don’t even taste all that sweet, like breads, condiments and sauces. And it adds up. Most Americans consume almost double the amount of sugar that is recommend by the American Heart Association. A high-sugar diet boosts your odds of tooth decay, heart disease, and diabetes, not to mention weight gain. Here are some tips on how to cut back your sugar intake: • Read food labels – if sugar is near the top of the ingredients, that’s a red flag • Learn sugar’s aliases – high fructose corn syrup, molasses, sucrose, brown rice syrup, honey, maple syrup • Buy unsweetened – look for unsweetened products like applesauce, oatmeal, canned fruit, almond and soy milk, nut butters (look for those made with only nuts and salt) • Don’t go cold turkey – make small changes first; use one packet of sugar instead of two • Avoid faking it (diet/sugar-free) – avoid artificial sweeteners; when eating sweets, the body expects calories and nutrition, but artificial sugars don’t give the body those things which may be why fake sugars are associated with weight gain • Add more flavor – use vanilla bean and vanilla extract, spices, and citrus zests to add sweetness to foods and drinks • Watch out for liquid sugar– avoiding soda is a good idea, but that’s not the only sugar-packed drink out there; even “healthy” drinks can contain a lot of sugar: “enhanced” waters, bottled iced tea, energy drinks, coffee drinks and smoothies • Stick with it – it won’t be easy at first but eventually your taste buds will adjust to less sugar

RECIPE Peanut Butter Oats

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Ingredients: 1 cup skim milk (or unsweetened soy milk) 1/2 cup rolled oats 2 Tbsp. natural almond or peanut butter Ground cinnamon to taste Pinch of salt IN a medium microwavable bowl, combine milk, rolled oats and salt. MICROWAVE on high for 2 minutes. STIR in almond/peanut butter and cinnamon.

Servings: 1 Nutrition Information:

MICROWAVE on high for another 30 seconds or until oats are soft.

300 Calories 8 g Fat 4 mg Cholesterol 107 mg Sodium

STIR before eating.

42 g Carbohydrate 5 g Fiber 16 g Protein 13 g Total Sugar

Recipe and image from Health, www.health.com