We tend to feed this existence with things that will help us escape it. We’ll use food, alcohol, dysfunctional relationships or just ‘zone’ out right in front of our TVs. We do what we know and are stuck in this ‘comfort zone’ of ‘habitual’ existence. There’s another quote I ran across that read, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

Are you tired of living your life this way? It reminds me of that dream of running fervently and you’re not going anywhere. Have you ever had that dream? Awareness is the first step to breaking the cycle. If you don’t know something is broken, how can you fix it? Ask yourself, “What do I want?” The answer I get from my clients all the time is, “I just want to be happy”. What is going to make you happy? Is it money, or is it what money will allow you to do? If you think about it, it is what the money will allow you to do. Whether it’s spend more time with the family or go to the Caribbean, if I were a Genie and gave you either of those things you would not even be THINKING about money. You would then probably have another desire, which after inspection, would not be about the money either.

Now, I mention THINKING. Have you ever heard of a saying that goes, “Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it”? Have you ever noticed what you think about on average? Do you tend to see the glass as ‘half full’ or ‘half empty’? Humans have anywhere from fifty to sixty thousand thoughts a DAY. That’s pretty difficult to monitor. Now I have another question, how do you FEEL? Are you mostly cranky or tired and find yourself just…WANTING? Or do you mostly have a good and happy feeling inside and are grateful for the things you have? It’s either going to FEEL good or bad. Ask yourSELF.

I have another question, have you ever paid attention to the WORDS you use? When you speak to someone or especially yourself, would you say something like, “I should have done this and not that” OR “I could have done this instead of that”? I want you to sit with this for a second. Look at both statements and really put yourself in that place of FEELING whatever it is you ‘should have’ done. Now, say the other statement and sit with how it feels. Do you feel lighter? Better? CHANGING YOUR WORDS has power. Refer to problems in the past tense, and refer to goals in the present tense. If we can realize that we language our lives we can change how we feel and ultimately change our lives just by being aware of the words we choose. Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you are correct”. Think about it, if you don’t believe it, how is anyone else going to? Now let’s continue on this path and I have another question, do you ACCEPT yourself? What do you BELIEVE about yourself? Do you believe you deserve the very things you are wanting? Are you always feeling you are not good enough or thinking ‘it could never happen to me’? If these negative beliefs are strong in you, then how can you create a loving, joyous and prosperous life? Somewhere your subconscious is making sure you do not obtain your goals. It is vital that we release foolish or negative ideas and beliefs that do not support us and nourish us. Our concepts of ourselves and of life must support us not negate us. If we choose to believe that we are helpless victims and that it is all hopeless, then the universe will support us in that belief and we’ll just go down the drain. Try an exercise and do it for yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I love and approve of myself exactly as I am”. Notice how you feel. Do you find it painful or silly? Do you ever wonder if you’re killing yourself with your own critical thoughts? When we won’t love ourselves it just means that we are still believing the old limitations that someone taught us many years ago. Usually that person was someone who did not know how to make their own life work. Remember your limiting beliefs are only thoughts and thoughts can be changed. Let’s change them now. The only thing you ever have control over is your current thought. Loving ourselves begins with never ever criticizing ourselves for anything. Criticism only locks us into the very pattern we are trying to change. Being gentle with ourselves helps us move out of it. Let’s try approving of yourself and see what happens. Self-approval and self-acceptance right here and right now are the keys to positive changes. It is also important that we release the past. Be willing to forgive and the universe will take care of the how’s. Sometimes we think that we have to be angry with ourselves in order to change. I used to have a friend that had to yell at the weights and at the gym to get ‘pumped’ and ‘tough’. Anger just locks us deeper into our patterns. Your emotions are energy in motion. Are you feeling good or bad? Use your emotions as the guidance system they were intended to be. Follow your bliss and pay attention to what you are feeling. If you’re feeling bad, chances are you are in a negative thinking pattern. Release the anger and all of the negative beliefs we have about ourselves and about life and begin the process of accepting and approving who and what we are in the here and now. We are always unfolding in the best way we can. If you want more answers click to know how to change the path.

Here are 9 ideas for you to ‘chew’ on!

1. Vegetables. I know what you’re thinking—”Great! I get to force-feed my kids two more times a day!” It’s true—vegetables are usually the diciest component of kid cuisine. But it’s worth the effort because veggies give you more nutritional bang for your buck than any other food group. And if you get creative, you can usually find a way to get your kids to eat them without too much emotional scarring. Many dinner table disputes are about kids trying to assert their independence. You can get around this by letting your kids assist in the selection and preparation of the vegetables. If you take them to the farmers’ market and let them pick out the vegetables, learn about how they’re grown, etc., you’re more likely to get more buy-in back home when it’s time to eat the vegetables. You can also give them choices, like celery sticks or baby carrots. But don’t use dessert as a negotiating tool, as in the old standby, “No dessert until you eat all your vegetables.” You just end up vilifying the vegetables and glamorizing empty calories—and those are values they’ll take into adulthood. Talk up the veggies, and let kids know about all the health benefits they’ll get from eating them. If you have a little extra time, try carving or arranging the vegetables on a plate to make faces or something more decorative and fun. You can also try serving veggies with a low-fat yogurt or cottage-cheese dip. Read “4 Hearty and Healthy Dips” in Related Articles below for some dip ideas.

2. Fruits. Fruits are a marginally easier sell than vegetables. They’re sweeter and appeal more to kids’ palates. Although, one thing to watch out for is fruit juice. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking a serving of fruit and a serving of juice are interchangeable. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting juice for kids to a couple of drinks a day, as juice is a contributing factor to dental cavities and gastrointestinal problems. Whole fruit, on the other hand, provides tons of fiber and other nutrients, and kids can partake of it quite freely, without any adverse effects. As with vegetables, if you have the patience and the knife skills, fruit can be carved into fun shapes or you can make fruit kabobs. You can also come up with low-fat healthy dips like yogurt that kids can dunk their fruit into. Try freezing some grapes or bananas as an alternative to a mid-afternoon Fudgesicle. With both fruits and vegetables, you might consider setting up a big “snack bowl” in the kitchen. Let the kids help choose which fruits and veggies go in the snack bowl, and then give them permission to grab what they want from the bowl whenever they’re hungry. This will help them feel like they’re in control of what they’re eating, but without giving them carte blanche to hit the sugar or the chips.

3. Cereals. Kids love cereal, and the good news is that a lot of popular commercial cereals have made the switch to whole-grain flour. However, as nutritionist Marion Nestle said in a recent interview, whole wheat Cocoa Puffs are still Cocoa Puffs. If the whole grains are largely serving as a matrix to deliver a ton of sugar to your child, they’re not worth eating. On the other hand, there are a lot of cereals, like Cheerios and the Kashi line, that have a lot of whole grains and not so much sugar. So check the label and try to choose cereals that have a high-fiber, low-sugar content. Cereals create another opportunity to reinforce good lifelong eating habits. Try to discourage your kids from eating directly from the box. In fact, here’s a way you can replicate the convenience of prepackaged foods right in your own home! Just get some resealable sandwich bags or a bunch of small sealable containers. When you buy a big box of cereal, pour snack-sized portions into the bags or containers. You can even stuff the bags back in the box for storage. This is great for last-minute lunch packing, or your kids can grab a cereal snack for themselves. This will help fight against the temptation for unlimited munching from the open cereal box. Plus, who knows where those little hands have been? When they’re elbow-deep in the communal cereal, it’s pretty gross when you think about it.

4. Peanut butter. One of the best protein sources is a kid favorite—peanut butter. With 8 grams of protein in a 2-tablespoon serving, peanut butter’s a winner. Again, portion size is key since peanut butter is fairly high in calories (188 per 2 tablespoons) and fat (16 grams per 2 tablespoons)—2 tablespoons will usually suffice for a snack. Try making that old party favorite—ants on a log. Fill a stick of celery (the log) with peanut butter; then embed raisins (the ants) in the peanut butter. When choosing your peanut butter, try to find brands that only contain one ingredient—peanuts. Some stores even let you grind your own peanuts. Many brands contain so much sugar, you might as well be giving your kid frosting.

5. Protein. Lunch meat is a great snack, but don’t be lured into the sinister den of the Lunchables. You can read more about what makes them bad in “9 Foods Not to Give Kids” in Related Articles below. Sliced turkey and chicken are great lunch meats to have on hand. Stay away from processed meats, like bologna and salami, though. You never know what you’re getting, and often you’re getting a lot of fat and sodium. If you can’t sell a sandwich on whole-grain bread, try making a turkey roll-up—stack a slice or two of turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a low-cal condiment like mustard and roll everything in a whole-grain lavash, stuff it into a pita, or skip the bread and roll it up on its own. Tuna and salmon are also really healthy and can be doctored in a salad with some yogurt instead of mayo. Check with your doctor about how much tuna and other types of seafood your child should consume. There is a greater risk of mercury poisoning for younger children, so some limits may need to be observed.

6. Trail mix. This is another great way to involve your children in their own diets. Gather a selection of healthy snacks, like unsalted peanuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans, sunflower seeds, unsalted popcorn, raisins, dried berries, dried apricots, oats, healthy cereal, and anything else crunchy or chewy and healthy that you can think of that your kids will like. Despite their availability in commercial trail mixes, chocolate chips and marshmallows should probably be kept off the list. Put out the ingredients and let your kids choose which of their favorites they’re mixing up. For younger kids, you can even present it as if they’re making a magic potion or something. By letting them be involved in the creative stage, you’ll hopefully get better results in the eating stage. After all, they made it—who are they going to complain to? Some store-bought trail mixes and granola bars are also pretty decent. Just check the labels carefully. Some less-scrupulous companies pack their “health” foods with sugar and saturated fats, like coconut and palm oils.

7. Pizza. While most delivery and frozen pizza is packed with fat and calories, pizza can actually be pretty healthy. It’s basically a bit of bread, some tomato sauce, some cheese, and healthy toppings. And yet again, it can be a meal and an activity for your child. If you don’t have the time to make the full-on dough from scratch, you can make pizza with a lavash or a low-fat tortilla, or you can make mini pizzas with whole wheat English muffins. Add a dollop of sauce, and let your child choose toppings from a variety of healthy ingredients: mushrooms, peppers, onions, eggplant, and veggie or turkey pepperoni—the sky or the structural integrity of your crust’s the limit. Sprinkle some low-fat mozzarella on top, and stick it in the oven or toaster oven until melted.

8. Smoothies. A lot of kids will refuse to eat any fruits or vegetables unless a massive amount of processing has been undertaken. Here’s where the blender or food processor can be your best friend. By keeping a few bags of frozen fruit on hand, you and your little kitchen helper can make your own smoothies. Just pick a combination of your favorite fruits. Add a little plain, nonfat yogurt, some ice, some banana slices, or some peanut butter, and blend until smooth. It’s a sweet, cool treat that gives your kids all the fiber and nutrients from fruit that a lot of fruit juices miss.

9. Healthily packed cooler. The holidays are approaching, which means it could be time for a road trip to spend the holidays with family. Hopefully, and especially for those of you with longer road trips, you’ll have room in the car for a cooler packed with healthy snacks like the ones mentioned above, but occasionally, the siren song of the roadside mini-mart or vending machine is too much to resist. You can read more of the best and worst gas station cuisine in “Best and Worst Gas Station Cuisine” in Related Articles below. Also, the Center for Science in the Public Interest recently released a list of commercially available snack foods that are relatively decent. The list includes applesauce cups; Chex mix, traditional flavor; fruit cups; low-fat/low-sugar granola bars; and raisins. But save some money and save some calories. Pack a cooler.

1. No bottles before bed. In fact, no bottle at all seems like a better bet, as kids who are breast-fed are less likely to be obese. A bevy of recent studies, which show infant obesity rates as high as 44 percent in some demographics, has linked a large part of the problem to sending infants to bed with a bottle. Not only is the child getting more calories, it’s creating a learned response to eat before bed that is hard to reverse as the child gets older. Infants should have some body fat, but an obese infant is more than twice as likely to grow into an obese adolescent, who is more than twice as likely to become an obese adult.
   
2. Turn off the TV. The American Journal of Public Health published a survey stating that 59 percent of children watched between 2 and 4 hours of television and an additional 22 percent watched 5 or more hours of TV per day. That’s a lot—let me say it again, A LOT—of TV and this, apparently, didn’t account for time in front of a computer. Chances are that turning off your TV isn’t going to sit well with your kids, so here is some ammunition that will make it easier on both of you.Staying thin will increase your child’s confidence level. Researchers surveyed 1,520 children, ages 9 to 10, with a 4-year follow-up, and discovered a positive correlation between obesity and low self-esteem. They also discovered that decreased self-esteem led to 19 percent of obese children feeling sad, 48 percent of them feeling bored, and 21 percent of them feeling nervous. In comparison, 8 percent of normal-weight children felt sad, 42 percent of them felt bored, and 12 percent of them felt nervous.

3. Walk to school (or at least some of the way). This alone could make one of the biggest differences in activity levels. A generation ago, most self-respecting parents would laugh at their child’s suggestion to drive them to school. Nowadays, lines of SUVs stretch out for blocks around campuses filled with kids burning nary a calorie while waiting to be dropped off on the front step of the school. In some neighborhoods, this lost time alone is plenty to fill the child’s exercise requirement.Lack of busing can shoulder some of the blame, but the primary reason seems to be fear. The world has gotten scary, or so we think, and parents drive their kids to keep them safe. In reality, the damage done from lack of activity is putting them at far more risk. According to former Department of Justice statistician Callie Rennison, our fears are mainly based on sensationalism in the media, which indicates that child abduction plays well in the ratings. “99.9 percent of child abduction cases are family related,” she states. “Statistically, our kids are much safer in public than they’ve ever been.”Numbers aside, most parents will likely balk at the idea of making their kids the lab rats in some “walking to school” experiment. But, at least, you can drop them off close to school. The last part of the commute, the part while you’re waiting in line, is a place where your kids could be moving in what is probably one of the safest situations imaginable—a line of cars filled with highly protective parents.

4. Fight for recess. As schools’ budgets dwindle because “results” are based on test scores, “optional” classes like recess are being cut. But it can be argued that recess is one of the most important classes your child has. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, it’s not just how much children exercise that counts but how long they exercise that’s important. Kids should not exercise for prolonged periods of time. They benefit far more from short bursts of exercise throughout the day. This is the reason that recess periods have been included throughout a typical school day—those recess periods that are now being threatened if they aren’t already gone.Besides the obvious positive effects of recess, it has also been shown to reduce stress. And stress can influence a child’s eating habits. Researchers tested the stress inventory of 28 college females and discovered that those who were binge eating had a mean of 29.65 points on the perceived stress scale, compared to the control group who had a mean of 15.19 points.

5. Reform your school lunch program. Brown bagging is back, at least until you can fix your school cafeteria. Having your child bring his or her lunch from home can ensure that they’re eating well. School cafeterias have been getting progressively worse. Despite the huge successes enjoyed by some that have switched to healthier menus, most feel too restricted by budgets and bottom lines not to farm out their concessions to the lowest bidder.We tend to forget that parents have some say in this. Whether your child goes to public or private school, each school is accountable to its community base. Parents have banded together in many communities to change their school’s nutritional structure. You can too.

6. Get more sleep. A Northwestern University study indicates that inadequate sleep has a negative impact on children’s performance in school and on their emotional and social welfare, and increases their risk of being overweight. This study was the first nationally represented, longitudinal investigation on the correlation between sleep, body mass index, and being overweight in children between the ages of 3 and 18. The study found that an extra hour of sleep lowered the children’s risk of being overweight from 36 percent to 30 percent, while it lessened older children’s risk from 34 percent to 30 percent.
   
7. Stop drinking sugar. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that many children get most of their calories from beverages, when they’d be better off getting them from fresh fruit and other healthy solid foods. Most of these calories come from soda, but some of the blame lies with other healthier-sounding beverages, like juice and sports drinks. Take a look at the orange juice label. This former icon of a nutritious breakfast, which is still praised in some less-enlightened cultures, is mainly sugar. The refining process has leeched most of its useful ingredients and all of the fiber, turning a perfectly healthy food, an orange, into little more than a sugar rush. Sports drinks can be beneficial when you’re playing sports, but, at any other time, they’re about the worst thing you can consume. Our nutritional needs change during exercise, when we need a lot of sugar and salt. When we aren’t exercising, those nutrients in excess are dangerous.
   
8. Sign up for something. Our bodies are meant to move, and nothing makes this as easy as doing something fun. Not all of us are good at sports, but almost everyone has an aptitude for some physical activity. Start children early by allowing them to experiment with different activities. The more they try, the easier it will be for you to see which activities they excel at and which they don’t. A more benign approach to the old East German method of finding athletes at a young age, it’s a great parenting tool because it helps you guide them into things they’ll do well at. They get exposed to different things, get some exercise, and, in the end, you’ll probably find something they’ll be good at—or at least decent—which will help their self-esteem as they develop. It’s hard for kids to understand why they’re bad at something. This tactic can help them see how the human body is designed and why it’s normal to be different. We can’t all be the star quarterback, but we can all be the star something, which will be a lot easier to achieve if you’re aiming for something you have an aptitude for.Don’t be afraid to think outside the box here. Martial arts, snowboarding, swimming, dancing, gymnastics, cycling, and rock climbing are all just as effective as football and soccer for building healthy bodies.

9. Get outside. Besides chasing fast food distribution, an easy way to map the obesity trend is to follow demographics indicating that we spend less and less time outdoors. Nature forces us into action. It expands our minds to the world around us and teaches us to be less fearful. Shoot, just standing around outside burns calories, especially as the weather changes.There are an endless number of outdoor activities you can choose from, but the simplest, hiking, is one of the best activities you can do. Not only does it force you to learn more about your world, it’s great exercise, especially if you live around hills or mountains. It builds motor skills because you climb on rocks and trees, etc. For your kids, it’s a learning tool because you’ll encounter the natural world and, most likely, develop an interest in the way it works. You don’t need to have Yosemite in your backyard to enjoy hiking. Any city park will do. Natural wonders abound in all settings.

10. Get a home fitness program. We even know where you can find some. Nothing beats home fitness in both cost and time efficiency. From Kathy Smith’s Project:YOU! Type 2™ to Hip Hop Abs® to 10-Minute Trainer® and P90X®, there’s a home fitness solution that will fit your lifestyle like a glove. Most home fitness programs allow you to finish your exercise requirement in less time than it would take to drive to a gym. A proper program is researched to be time-efficient and will also come with dietary suggestions to match the program. No other option comes close to home fitness when you need to squeeze a lifestyle change into an already booked schedule.

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6 Foods with Hidden Sugar

By Joe Wilkes

The average American eats approximately 1,500 pounds of food every year. Of that, 160 pounds are primarily sugar. Of course, sugar is delicious, and I know I’m the happier for its existence, but of all the things we consume, it has the least nutritive value. In fact, except for the energy in its calories, there’s not much to recommend about sugar. It’s a prime source of empty calories, and for those of us who are trying to lose weight, sugar’s the first thing we should start trimming from our diets. But here’s the problem—despite our best intentions to remove excess sugar from our diet, the food industry has found more and more devious ways of slipping us the sweet stuff. Whether the food industry calls sugar by another name or adds it to foods we never thought would have needed it, our sweet tooth is constantly being bombarded. Fortunately, with stricter labeling laws, we have a fighting chance at cutting back on sugar.

Why does the food industry want to fill us so full of sugar?

It’s basically the same as any other industry. For the oil industry to make more money, it needs us to use more of its product by driving more miles. The food industry needs us to use more of its product by eating more calories. The problem is that the American food industry is already producing around 3,900 calories per person per day, which is way more than we need. One solution to this surplus is to sell the food cheaply overseas, which the industry does. The other solution is for Americans to eat more calories. And sugar and its corn sweetener brethren are great calorie delivery systems, as they pack a huge caloric punch, without causing much satiety, or feeling of fullness. (Check out Steve Edwards’ “Sugar vs. Fat” article for more about why sugar is the world-champion fattener.) Most people would probably stop eating steak after they reached 1,000 calories, because they’d be stuffed, but after you drank 1,000 calories from your Big Gulp cup, there’s still room for dinner. The other reason the industry pushes sugar so hard is that it’s cheap to produce, and the cheaper the calorie, the larger the profit margin.

Sugar in labels—hiding in plain sight.

One of the best ways to disguise the amount of sugar in a product is something the government already requires—printing the information in grams. Most Americans only have the foggiest idea of how much a gram is, because we’re unaccustomed to the metric system. So when we pick up a can of soda that contains 40 grams of sugar, we pretty much shrug our shoulders and pop the top. And that attitude is all right with the soda industry! But what if the label said that it contained over 10 teaspoons of sugar? If you saw someone ladling 10 teaspoons of sugar into their morning coffee, you’d think they were crazy, but that’s how much people consume in a typical 12-ounce can. In a 64-ounce fountain drink that you’d get at a movie theater or a convenience store, you get over 53 teaspoons of sugar—almost two cups! Naturally, people would probably think twice if the nutritional information on products was given in measurements that were meaningful to them. But until our heavily food industry-subsidized government decides to change its policy, it’s a metric world, we just live in it. But we can take note that four grams equals one teaspoon. So when you check out the label, divide the grams of sugar by four, and that’s how many teaspoons you’re consuming.

Sugar, by any other name, would taste just as sweet.

Another strategy the sugar pushers use to get us to consume more calories is to rename the offending ingredient. We know to stay away from sugar, but how about molasses, honey, sorghum, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, fructose, lactose, dextrose, sucrose, galactose, maltose, or concentrated juices like grape or apple? Another path to profit that the food industry has discovered is that instead of harvesting relatively more expensive sugar cane and beets, the industry can produce sweeteners in a laboratory more cheaply and with just as many calories as beet and cane sugar. And with some sweeteners, especially the popular high fructose corn syrup, it is believed that your body will be less likely to reach satiety than with sugar, so you can consume more. Mo’ calories, mo’ money. Another advantage to these doses of -oses is that, aside from the fact that many people won’t guess they’re just different forms of sugar, they can be spread out in the ingredient list required by law, so that it won’t be as obvious that what you’re consuming is pretty much all sugar. When you look at a list of ingredients on a product, the manufacturer is required to list them in order of amount, from highest to lowest. So they can bury a quarter cup of fructose, a quarter cup of sucrose, a quarter cup of dextrose, and a quarter cup of corn syrup in the middle of the list, so you won’t be as likely to notice that when you add them all up, the main ingredient in the product is sugar.

Hide and seek. You’re it.

So, if you’re like me, you may have sworn off soda except for special occasions, and turned the candy bowl into an unsalted-almond bowl. No more sugar, no more problems. Except for this problem—the food industry has cleverly snuck its sugars and corn syrups into products where we never would have thought to look for sugar. It’s good for the manufacturer. It jacks up the calorie load, can enhance the product’s appearance (high-fructose corn syrup gives hamburger buns their golden glow), and can keep our sugar jones simmering at a low boil, in case we ever decide to go back to the real thing. Here are some types of products whose labels could bear more scrutiny.

1. Spaghetti sauce. A half cup of store-bought sauce can contain as many as three teaspoons of corn syrup or sugar. While some of the naturally occurring sugar in tomatoes and other vegetables will show up on the nutrition label, most of the sugar is added. Look for brands that don’t include sugar or its aliases or make your own from fresh or canned tomatoes.
2. Ketchup. Ketchup can be 20 percent sugar or more. Not to mention that you’ll get 7 percent of your daily sodium allowance in one tablespoon. Look for low-salt, no-sugar brands, or make your own, using pureed carrots to add flavor and texture to the tomatoes.
3. Reduced-fat cookies. Most brands of cookies now offer a reduced-fat version of their product. Nabisco even offers its own line of low-fat treats, Snackwells. But while you’re patting yourself on the back for choosing the low-fat option, check the label. The sneaky food manufacturers did take out the fat, but they replaced it with, you guessed it, sugar. Many times, the reduced-fat cookie is only slightly less caloric than the one you want to eat. And because there’s no fat to make you feel full, you’ll be tempted to eat more “guilt-free” cookies. And just because there’s less fat, it doesn’t mean you’ll be less fat. Fat doesn’t make you fat. Calories make you fat.
4. Low-fat salad dressing. Like the cookies, manufacturers have taken the fat out of the dressing, but they’ve added extra salt and sugar to make up for it. Check the label to make sure you’re not replacing heart-healthy olive oil with diabetes-causing sugar—because that’s not really a “healthy choice.” Your best bet? Make your own vinaigrettes using a small amount of olive oil, a tasty gourmet vinegar or fresh lemon juice, and some fresh herbs.
5. Bread. Most processed breads, especially white hamburger and hot dog buns, can contain a good bit of sugar or corn syrup. That’s what gives them the golden-brown crust. As always, check the ingredient label, and consider getting your bread at a real bakery or a farmers’ market—it’s the best idea since, well, you know.
6. Fast food. Needless to say, fast food is generally not good for you. But even if you’re staying away from the sodas and the shakes, everything from the burgers to the fries to the salads is a potential place to hide sugar. Check out the ingredients carefully at your favorite restaurant. You may be getting more than you bargained for.