Stop for a second and rethink your drink

Designer sodas, chocolate frappes and bubble teas are so indulging. The warming temperature makes that cold, sugary soft drink more appealing.

Not so fast. You might want to read the labels first and find out how much calories from sugar you are gulping in. If you are watching your blood pressure, it’s not just salt that you have to worry about — sugar, too.

Yes, sugar. The American Heart Association issued a scientific position statement about the sugar and high blood pressure connection. In an 18-month study, researchers found a measurable reduction in blood pressure when sugar intake was reduced by about a can of sweetened beverage a day.

The Institute of Medicine suggests that no more than 25% of calories come from added sugars. Read the labels and pay attention to the serving size. Multiply the sugar amount listed per serving if you consume a package that contains two servings. If sugar is listed as the first ingredient, it is the main ingredient. Make another choice.

A 12-ounce can of sugar-sweetened soda contains about 130 calories of sugar, equivalent to eight teaspoonfuls. According to the study, an American adult drinks an average of 28 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages a day. The younger population drinks even more.

Excessive consumption of sugar on a daily basis buys you increased inflammation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and some types of cancer.

Sugar is called many different names, that might contribute to the confusion in reading food labels. Simple carbohydrates are purely sugar. They are also called monosaccharide and disaccharides in the form of glucose, galactose and fructose, as well as sucrose, lactose and maltose. Complex carbohydrates refer to glucose-containing polysaccharides, such as starch.

Sugars can also be naturally occurring as present in whole fruit, vegetables and milk products, and it can also be added as in the case of sugars and syrups added to foods during processing or preparation. Fruits, vegetables, dairy and whole grains contain different amounts of simple to complex carbohydrates, but these foods also contain fiber and/or protein, and therefore your body digests them slowly, giving it a steady sugar supply.

On the other hand, added simple sugars digest quickly, causing blood glucose spikes and crashes. Food labels may give only the total sugar count, including the naturally occurring and the added sugars, which can be misleading.

The Journal of American Heart Association offers the following tips to generally reduce sugar in your diet:

• Cut back on the amount of sugar added to things you eat or drink regularly, such as cereal, pancakes, coffee or tea. Try cutting the usual amount of sugar you add by half and wean down from there. Or consider using artificial sweetener.

•Buy sugar-free fruits or fruits canned in water or natural juice. Avoid fruit canned in syrup, especially heavy syrup.

•Instead of adding sugar to cereal or oatmeal, add fresh fruit (try bananas, cherries or strawberries) or dried fruit (raisins, cranberries or apricots).

•When baking cookies, brownies or cakes, cut the sugar called for in your recipe by one-third to one-half. Often you won’t notice the difference.

•Instead of adding sugar in recipes, use extracts such as almond, vanilla, orange or lemon.

• Enhance food with spices instead of sugar; try ginger, allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg.

• Substitute unsweetened applesauce for sugar in recipes (use equal amounts).

•Try non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose or saccharin in moderation. Non-nutritive sweeteners may be a way to satisfy your sweet tooth without adding more calories to your diet. The Food and Drug administration has determined that non-nutritive sweeteners are safe.

The general AHA guideline for an average American woman with a sedentary lifestyle is a daily limit equivalent to six teaspoons of added sugar (excluding naturally occurring sugars) or about 100 calories per day. For men, it’s 150 calories per day or about nine teaspoons.

So again, be cautious with the sweetened summer beverages — limit your intake. Furthermore, weight gain may occur with greater caloric intake from fluids rather than from solid foods because of the weak “feeling full” signals induced from energy-containing beverages. One study also associated reduced intake of calcium, vitamin A, iron, and zinc with increased intake of added sugar.