It’s really important when planning food choices for children or diabetic family members to watch out for hidden sugars. A lot of foods you wouldn’t expect to be sweetened ( like breads, pastas, or tomato sauce which can contain up to 15 mg of calories of added sugar per serving)…are. This is another example of how label and ingredient reading can be beneficial. Look for words like honey, high-fructose corn syrup, molasses, cane sugar and glucose. These are all names for sweeteners. There are natural sugars in milk and fruit, but I’m talking about sweeteners that are added to foods.
Try planning the meals for you and your family by clean eating. Try making foods from scratch or at least be a good detective.
Some sweetened cereals have fewer calories from sugar then some yogurts. Try a low calorie, plain or vanilla yogurt. It sounds tasteless but they are really not. Try different brands. You can add fresh fruit to them to increase the flavor and nutritional benefits (blueberries are great). You’ll save a lot of calories from sugar here.
Switch from fruit juice and soda pop to milk, water, or green tea. If your kids plan a mutiny for some juice, at least pick a 100% fruit juice and put ice in it, or add some water to reduce the concentrate of sugar for them. Getting them off juice is a challenge but if you don’t buy it, they can’t drink it at home.
Surprisingly, a low sugar cookie vs. a granola bar can be a better choice when focusing on calories from sugar. In the organic aisle you can find cookies made with agave nectar (a natural sweetener).
Try sweetened plain homemade oatmeal. They make a 5 minute variety but the rolled grain oatmeal or Irish oatmeal (takes 30 minutes to cook) is very filling, a good source of whole grain and no sugar added. Again you can add agave nectar, maple flakes, or fresh fruit to sweeten.
You will find that after eating a clean diet, things that were bland to you before are sweeter, and things that were great before, are too over-sweet now!
5/25/10 - Tuesday Workout:
Recumbent bike- 30 minutes
Strength train- back/biceps [home + gym]
back row- 2 tubes
barbell curl, E-z bar + 15lb
Single arm biceps row on Bosu- 12 lb
overhead lat pull down- 2 tubes
-------
Hoist mid row-102 lb
Hoist biceps curl- 45 lb
Technogym- vertical traction- 50 lb
Low cable row-20 lb
5/25/10- Tuesday Food Diary:
Breakfast-
grapefruit (40 cal)
1 cup egg whites, 1 cup spinach (120 cal)
whole wheat toast, 1 tbls no-sugar added jam (90 cal)
A.M. Snack-
large apple (57 cal)
protein shake (90 cal)
Lunch-
5 oz Tuna steak (196 cal)
8 asparagus (25 cal)
P.M. Snack-
non fat frozen soft serve (150 cal)
1/2 cup raspberries/blueberries ( 40 cal)
Dinner-
Spinach salad with pine nuts, strawberries and gorganzola (115 cal)
Stuffed squash with basmati rice, shrimp, spinach {Cooking Light Magazine}( 130 cal)
Dessert-
greek yogurt, 1/2 cup high fiber cereal, 2 tbls strawberries(130 cal)
1/2 apple ( 45 cal)
TOTAL CALORIES- 1288
Subscribe