Always Check the Dressing! [Self-Love Letter]

Hi Byte Wellness Fam!

How are you feeling?

I feel a recharging happening. That’s partly thanks to Juneteenth weekend (!!) and also to the energy you’ve brought to our weekly conversations. You are giving “taking our health into our own hands” energy... and it feels so good!

Discussion Question

  • Think about your family history and your personal experience. What diseases are you at risk for? How does that affect your eating choices?

In this week’s #PhyteWellWednesday Workshop, we examined how to find added sugar in our food by checking the nutrition facts. Using the Chipotle menu as an example, we figured out how much sugar is in a Chipotle Salad Bowl (and learned how to shift it).  If you want invites to the Wednesday Workshops at 8pmET/7pmCT/5pmPT every week, join the community by texting TEXT to 1(866)717-1919.

How to Check Restaurant Nutrition Facts

Scenario: You go out to eat or you pick up a take-out meal. You’re taking a break from eating your usual home-cooked meals, but that doesn’t mean you’re willing to let your health goals fall by the wayside. You want to get enough whole food fruits and veggies and enough high-quality protein in this meal. And, depending on your health risks, you might also want to watch the amount of sodium or sugar you get in this meal. 

But, restaurant meals don’t come with a nutrition facts sticker. 

So how on earth will you figure out whether this meal brings you closer to or takes your farther from your wellness goals?

Turns out, in the U.S. there’s a law that requires large restaurant chains to post basic nutrition facts for their meals. At the very least, you should be able to see calories posted on a physical menu if you’re at the restaurant. 

Most large chains go even further. They’ll post all the major macronutrient categories online.

What does that look like? 
You might see total calories, grams of carbs, grams of protein, and grams of fat. On some advanced restaurant nutrition sites, you’ll find details like sodium, saturated vs. unsaturated fat and natural vs. added sugars.

 Check the #PhyteWellWednesday Workshop recording above to walk through the full nutrition facts exercise.

We focused on added sugar this week because eating too many added sugars can put us at risk for a whole host of chronic diseases. 

Let’s pause for a reminder: Added sugars are standalone sweeteners like table sugar, honey, syrups or other sweeteners added to foods during processing. Added sugars aren’t the same as sugar found in its natural form in whole foods like fruit. While eating lots of added sugars boosts our chances of suffering from the negative health outcomes below, studies show that eating the same amount of sugar in the form of fruit doesn’t have the same impact on our bodies. That’s because natural sugar in whole foods comes with guardrails like fiber and phytonutrients that help our bodies prevent a big blood sugar spike.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), here’s the list of conditions connected to excessive added sugars:

  • Heart and Blood Vessel Disease

  • Dementia

  • Colon Cancer

  • Type 2 Diabetes

  • High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)

  • High Cholesterol 

  • Kidney Disease

  • Liver Disease

  • Excess Fat Gain (Obesity)

  • Pancreatic Cancer

  • Eye Disease (Retinopathy)

  • Nerve Damage (Neuropathy)

Who Should Watch Added Sugars?

So, who should watch their added sugar intake? According to the American Heart Association (and lots of scientific research), we all should!

In fact, the AHA isn’t the only organization that says we should be careful not to get too many added sugars. The ​CDC​ and ​World Health Organization​ all recommend that adults keep their added sugar intake below 10% of their daily calories.

Eating 2000 calories per day is the standard used by nutrition labels. 10% of 2000 calories is 200 calories from added sugar or 50 grams. 

The AHA has even more conservative guidelines for added sugar intake, setting the upper limit at 5% of daily calories. 

On 2000 calories per day, 5% is 100 calories from added sugar or 25 grams of added sugar (the equivalent of 6 teaspoons of table sugar). 

In the Standard American Diet, added sugar hides in plain sight.

When we reach for the foods, drinks, and condiments that are the easiest to find at restaurants and 25-50 grams of added sugar is way too easy to reach throughout the day. Hard to believe?

One can of soda or sweetened iced tea might deliver more than the recommended daily limit of added sugar. In our Chipotle example, it’s the salad dressing (honey vinaigrette) that drops a load of added sugar onto our salad bowl.

Just check the nutrition facts on the next packaged drink or salad dressing you grab.

Happy Healthy Living,

Dr. Wuse

Self-Love LettersDr. WuseDementiaComment