I met a friend for a quick catchup today, as she wanted an opinion on a dress to wear for a wedding. This chick could wear her pyjamas and everyone would comment on how amazing she looked (b*tch…) Anyway after we decided which outfit transformed her from beautiful to disney princess gorgeous, I decided to punish her by making her quickly duck into Woolworths with me and push my 1 year old in the trolley (that will teach you for being able to pick an outfit in 5min when it takes me all day). We chatted whilst I got my fruit and vege and then I declared that it was time to play a little game. The first person to find a loaf of bread (there was no sour dough left) that has the lowest sugar content wins!! It had to be under 3gms of sugar per 100gm quantity . The 7 year old and I were like seasoned pro's picking up loaf after loaf our eyes locking into the magic numbers straight away. My friend on the other hand panicked (for the record she is extremely competitive and has been known to take out people on the netball court). She didn't even know where the label was and was flipping it around and when she found it, she wasn't sure what she was looking for. The 7 year thought this was amazing and even shook his head in amusement. He claimed victory with some gluten free bread that was 2.5gm/100gm. He then declared that "she was the worst person he has ever seen at this game". This put the fire in her belly and she was raring for the next product to find. It actually turned into a loud, funny game, that I pretended I had nothing to do with. I was just an innocent shopper, pushing her one year old around next to these 2 loud bogans, screaming out "3.4!!! I got 3.2… Dammm Wait 3.1!!" I'm pretty sure they both thought there was going to be a podium to stand on once we got to the checkout, where they would be awarded medals and have to sing the national anthem.
After we left the store (to every other shoppers delight..) my friend told me that she had never read a label before. The only thing she looks for is "Sugar free" and "fat free" and that is how she buys her products. She is also genetically blessed and probably couldn't put on weight if she tried. My 7 year old then schooled her that sugar free doesn't mean it has no sugar it just means it has no ADDED sugar, so it could really have a lot. (I was a little bit proud).He then told her that "Fat free" means you can't get fat from it, but it still has sugar (ummm, nice try buddy). The one year old at that moment started ranting in some unknown language and I'm pretty sure she was trying to say that "Fat free" means, it is probably laden in sugars….. that or she was trying to let us know she had just done a poo. We then had a little chat which involved the 7 year old putting in his 2 bob every now and then, because lets face it, he is now a Mini Sugar Guru.
So how do you read a label??
I still remember when I first started this journey sitting at the table thinking WTF am I doing and where the fark do I start??? I had my "That Sugar Book" and my "I Quit Sugar Books" but I still felt like I was learning a different language.
The easiest thing I found, was when looking at the list of ingredients, if sugar is mentioned as the first or second ingredient, then you need to put that product down or drop kick into the next isle (probably just put it down if you don't want to get banned from the supermarket).
The only downside to this, is that sugar is marketed with all different names, so half the time you are reading the ingredients thinking what the hell is that???
You really can't go wrong if you stick to one rule. Funnily enough, two sugar gurus don't agree on the same amount for this rule, but I have always went with David Gillespie because it gives me that extra 2gm buffer to be safe.
So what you need to do, is pick up your food and scan the content label
Scan those eyes of yours over to the "per 100gm quantity column". This is where the magic begins. In that column, you want the sugar content to be sitting under 3gm/100gm quantity (David Gillespie) or 5gm/100gm quantity (Sarah Wilson).
You need to remember that 4gm equates to 1 teaspoon of sugar and you only want to be having 6 teaspoons (women) 9 teaspoons (men) a day. This would easily be covered if you were eating 2 pieces of fruit a day.
So if you pick up something with 15gm/100gm quantity well obviously it is over your limit, so you would put it down. As 15 divided by 4 is roughly nearly 4 teaspoons of sugar in the 100gm serve of that product.
The only time the 3gm rule changes is with dairy, as it is lactose. Dairy guidelines sit at 8gm/100gm quantity.
When it comes to drinks, it basically just easier to stick to 0gm/100gm because you will be able to down 100gm in liquid form quite easily.
If you suck at maths and your not good at scanning labels, I was told that if it tastes "Sweet" then it has sugar in it. Don't eat it…..
Enjoy your weekend, we are off to the park!
After we left the store (to every other shoppers delight..) my friend told me that she had never read a label before. The only thing she looks for is "Sugar free" and "fat free" and that is how she buys her products. She is also genetically blessed and probably couldn't put on weight if she tried. My 7 year old then schooled her that sugar free doesn't mean it has no sugar it just means it has no ADDED sugar, so it could really have a lot. (I was a little bit proud).He then told her that "Fat free" means you can't get fat from it, but it still has sugar (ummm, nice try buddy). The one year old at that moment started ranting in some unknown language and I'm pretty sure she was trying to say that "Fat free" means, it is probably laden in sugars….. that or she was trying to let us know she had just done a poo. We then had a little chat which involved the 7 year old putting in his 2 bob every now and then, because lets face it, he is now a Mini Sugar Guru.
So how do you read a label??
I still remember when I first started this journey sitting at the table thinking WTF am I doing and where the fark do I start??? I had my "That Sugar Book" and my "I Quit Sugar Books" but I still felt like I was learning a different language.
The easiest thing I found, was when looking at the list of ingredients, if sugar is mentioned as the first or second ingredient, then you need to put that product down or drop kick into the next isle (probably just put it down if you don't want to get banned from the supermarket).
The only downside to this, is that sugar is marketed with all different names, so half the time you are reading the ingredients thinking what the hell is that???
You really can't go wrong if you stick to one rule. Funnily enough, two sugar gurus don't agree on the same amount for this rule, but I have always went with David Gillespie because it gives me that extra 2gm buffer to be safe.
So what you need to do, is pick up your food and scan the content label
Scan those eyes of yours over to the "per 100gm quantity column". This is where the magic begins. In that column, you want the sugar content to be sitting under 3gm/100gm quantity (David Gillespie) or 5gm/100gm quantity (Sarah Wilson).
You need to remember that 4gm equates to 1 teaspoon of sugar and you only want to be having 6 teaspoons (women) 9 teaspoons (men) a day. This would easily be covered if you were eating 2 pieces of fruit a day.
So if you pick up something with 15gm/100gm quantity well obviously it is over your limit, so you would put it down. As 15 divided by 4 is roughly nearly 4 teaspoons of sugar in the 100gm serve of that product.
The only time the 3gm rule changes is with dairy, as it is lactose. Dairy guidelines sit at 8gm/100gm quantity.
When it comes to drinks, it basically just easier to stick to 0gm/100gm because you will be able to down 100gm in liquid form quite easily.
If you suck at maths and your not good at scanning labels, I was told that if it tastes "Sweet" then it has sugar in it. Don't eat it…..
Enjoy your weekend, we are off to the park!
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