Millions of people make sugar, or trying to intake less of it, part of their New Year’s resolutions; they give it up for lent, and it tops the list of things that we feel contribute to our weight gain and poor health. Yet even when we are trying our best to avoid it, if most of us took stock we’d find that we are still on an unknown sugar high. According to the USDA, Americans consume more than twice the maximum recommended daily limit of 40 grams. It’s no wonder we see our dental bills rising and an increase in the cases of heart disease and diabetes. In fact, the truth is the average woman consumes 69 pounds of sugar every year.

Most of these extra grams are hidden deep in the last place you’d expect to find them. When you can identify the places where sugar hides you can make choices that will drastically reduce your intake and improve your overall health and weight.

One of the most educational things you can do is learn to read labels and understand what the words mean. Most of us can easily identify sugars when they are labeled as granulated, brown and raw. But how about maltose, dextrose, glucose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, corn sweetener, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup (you know what they say about it), maple syrup, honey, malt syrup and brown rice syrup. That’s a long list of ingredients, some of which are not terribly offensive to your health, that contains high doses of sugar calories and effects on weight and your heart. While moderation is always the key, you have to be aware that you may go through an entire day eating only sugar-packed foods.

You may not suspect foods such as barbeque sauce, pasta sauces, hot sauces, ketchup, relish and salad dressings to contain high amounts of sugar, but they do. Many of them get over half their calories from sugar alone. Soft drinks, fruit juices, blended coffee drinks and energy drinks are also enormous culprits of hidden sugar. So you have to consider moderation in two stages: How much sugar is in the foods or condiments I’ve chosen? And how much of that food am I ingesting every day?

Also be aware of fat-free or low-fat foods. They may seem like a healthier choice but they are often much higher in processed sugar to mask the missing taste normally provided by the fat. You have to have a balance of low-fat and low-sugar to really make a healthy choice.

Healthier choices come from knowing what companies mean when they say “all-natural”. There are no industry guidelines for this term, so it can mean just about anything: “It came from a cow and a cow is found in nature.” Never mind that the cow’s been pumped with hormones its entire life. Be sure to look for the key words that indicate how many sugars have been added and how many total calories come form sugar. “All-natural” often translates to packed with sugar.

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