Sugar plays an essential role in sweetening various dishes and processed foods. When you are tired or exhausted, when you consume sweet foods and drinks with high sugar content, it has the advantage of relieving fatigue through rapid energy supply and improving mood by relieving stress. However, eating habits that consume too much sugar cause excessive accumulation of fat in the body, causing overweight, and acting as a cause of various diseases such as diabetes, chronic diseases, and metabolic diseases. In addition, it is recommended not to consume excessive amounts of sweet food as it can also act as a cause of amplification of depression if it becomes too habitual to relieve stress. In order to properly consume these sugars, it is necessary to control the intake of foods containing excessive sugar. Confectionery, bakery products, cakes, chocolate, ice cream, and carbonated drinks are known as foods with a lot of sugar, but even foods that contain a lot of sugar and are consumed without thinking about them usually contain a lot of sugar. There are cases. So today, I would like to take a look at some of the foods that contain a surprisingly high amount of sugar.
Foods that are surprisingly high in sugar
1. Salad Dressing
Salads are made with various vegetables, fruits, and meat with low fat content as main additives. Salad dressings are often sprinkled on salads to enhance the flavor of salads, but it is said that dressings can counteract the health benefits of eating salads. This is because salad dressing contains a lot of sugar, liquid fructose, food coloring, and oil. Therefore, it is recommended to carefully check the ingredients of the salad dressing you want to purchase and choose a product with as little sugar as possible. It is also a good idea to make your own salad dressing with low sugar content and eat it.
2. Vitamin Water
It is said that vitamin water that you drink a lot contains more sugar than you think because it replenishes moisture in the body and supplies vitamins. Vitamin water usually contains more than 30g of sugar and about 6 sugar cubes, so drinking just one bottle of water instead of water will significantly exceed the recommended daily intake. Therefore, it is recommended to reduce excess intake and drink plenty of water to replace it. Ionic drinks and sports drinks to drink during or after exercise also have the advantage of providing quick hydration and energy, but they contain more sugar than you think, so you need to control your intake.
3. Dried Fruit
Dried fruits are fruits from which almost all moisture has been removed during the drying process. Because it has a longer shelf life than fresh fruit, it has useful value as a food with excellent convenience. However, dried fruit loses moisture during the drying process and the sugar content is concentrated up to 50-70%. Also, sugar or additives are often added during the drying process. Dried fruits are high in calories as well as sugar, so it’s best to avoid eating them in excess, as eating too much can lead to weight gain and other health problems.
4. Cereal
Cereals are a popular food for a quick and easy breakfast and are said to be high in sugar. In particular, it is said that granola, a form of cereal that is consumed as a meal replacement, contains a large amount of sugar, mainly made from various grains, dried fruits, and nuts. These cereals usually contain 20-30g of sugar per 100g, so it is not recommended to consume too much. In the case of energy bars made by agglomeration of cereals and dried fruits in the form of sweets, it is also a food with a high sugar content, so you should not consume too much.
5. Sauce
Various sauces such as barbecue sauce and steak sauce also contain sugar equivalent to 4.5 sugar cubes, so you should not consume too much. In addition, ketchup, a representative tomato sauce made with tomatoes as the main ingredient, and salt, vinegar, and spices, is also used as the main ingredients such as sugar and starch syrup during the manufacturing process. One tablespoon of ketchup contains about 4 grams of sugar, so it is not recommended to consume too much.