Spotting
high-sugar foods
On their nutrition labels, food
manufacturers (in the UK) are not
currently required to separate added
sugars from the naturally occurring
ones. You can find out how much total
sugar is in a product by looking at the
‘carbohydrates (of which sugars)’
section of the Nutritional Information
label. More than 15 g of total sugars per
100 g means it has a high sugar content,
whereas 5 g or less means it has a low
sugar content.
Hitting the wall
The primary fuel used by a long distance runner is glycogen – it’s sugar
that has been stored in the liver and muscles, bound into long chains.
While your body can burn fat instead, it prefers to burn glycogen simply
because it’s easier (lazy, or what?). Most runners’ glycogen stores will last
for about 18 or so miles, but it depends how hard you are running and
how well adapted your body is to endurance training. When a person’s
glycogen stores are depleted they will feel completely drained, fatigued,
heavy limbed and even dizzy – this feeling is known as ‘hitting the wall’
or ‘bonking’. You can come back from this by consuming simple sugars
such as a sports’ drink, some jelly sweets or some slices of fruit; this needs
to be repeated every 15 to 20 minutes until the race is finished. However,
the best thing to do is not to hit the wall in the first place by consuming
calories earlier, not starting the endurance race at too fast a pace and
making sure you have trained sufficiently beforehand.
It all adds up
Match the number of teaspoons of sugar
to the food or drink – you may be
surprised!
Because a lot more of the food on
offer now is processed and packaged,
added sugar is used not only for taste
but also for colour, flavour, bulk,
texture and to preserve!
Our advice is to eat fresh, natural
foods as often as possible and save
that bar of chocolate for an end of
week treat!
15