avoiding sugars…a never ending series

The biggest tip I can give you about avoiding sugar is….JUST ASSUME IT IS IN EVERYTHING!! Below I will go into a list of foods that I’ve found refined sugars in. I have spent countless hours reading package labels on foods at the grocery store. When I first became paleo my trips to the store often took two hours. I’ve saved some of that hassle for you by sharing my findings. Another thing that can be really tricky is eating out. I will go into that in a separate article.

First off, you need to retrain your brain on what are “healthy” sugars. I remember 10 years ago when I worked at a fancy vegan restaurant in LA, agave was all the rage. Trader Joe’s started carrying it and you started seeing it at coffee shops next to the sugar. One of my biggest disappointments is picking up on of my favorite beverages, such as Turmeric Temple drinks only to find I have just consumed agave. The tricky part is, not all of their drinks have it. Some have honey, some have agave. In my magical paleo fantasy land this would never happen, but here we are. It can be exhausting to remember which things you can have and ones to avoid, especially when the same brand goes back and forth between their juice blends. Hello, are you listening Turmeric Temple? Things get even more fun when you try to send someone else to the store for you.

Me – “Can you grab me a turmeric drink?”
Husband – “Sure”
Me – “Oh but I can only have the Super Turmeric Juice, not the regular Turmeric Juice”
Husband – “They are sold out of that, how about I grab you another flavor”
Me – “Nevermind, grab me a water”

Now don’t get me wrong, I love this stuff. I drink it all the time, I would just prefer it to be all one way or even the other so I could just avoid it all together.

1. Assume it is in everything
2. Read labels
3. Ask questions

Food list:
Bacon
Deli meats, even organic
Sausages (pro tip: go for spicy)
Ketchup (even organic)
Mustard
Salad Dressing (pro tip: make your own)
Condiments (Dressings, horseradish, mustards, etc.)
Protein powders
Medicines, Cough drops

In the next part of this series I will start to share a comprehensive list of foods I have found that I love and that don’t have refined sugar.