11 HEALTHY Foods Where SUGAR Is HIDING!

Today, I'm going to be sharing 11 healthy foods you're eating that have hidden sugars. And if you're struggling with sugar cravings, I'm going to show you how to get off sugar, because you're no longer going to have sugar cravings. And this is because once you start realizing all of the foods that you're eating that sound like they're healthy, that you've been taught are healthy, but are actually breaking down to sugar, it's going to be so much easier to get off of sugar, because sugar makes you want sugar more often. Often. Now, when you feed your body sugar, it is a drug. It's breaking down, and it's creating a desire for your body to have more of what you're giving it. When you start realizing these are the foods that are breaking down, these are foods that are not sweet foods, you will be more aware of what is creating those sugar cravings so that you can easily make sugar swaps and start eating other foods that are going to actually take away those sugar cravings. I want to introduce myself. I am Nagina Abdullah. I am a weight loss and metabolism coach for midlife women. I have a degree in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley, and I've helped over 1, 500 women in midlife get off of sugar, lose weight, boost their metabolism, and live in the body of their dreams. Now, I used to work for a top consulting company in New York City, where I worked for Fortune 500 companies, and it was all in the area of healthcare. So I've learned so much over the course of my degree and the course of my career and the course of my experience. The thing is, nothing will take the experience of actually going through it yourself. And I personally struggled with sugar cravings. I thought that I was born with sugar cravings and I couldn't control it because I had tried so hard for so many years, and nothing had worked for me. I tried every single diet out there, and all I was faced with was more belly fat, more body fat, more back fat, more bra fat. I had fat everywhere, and I was trying so hard, but I couldn't control my sugar cravings. So I tried all the diets out there, from Atkins to Weight Watchers to. To south beach to eating less and exercising more, and nothing would get my weight off and keep it there. I would always crave those foods that I had to restrict in order to lose any weight that I would lose. So nothing worked until I started actually finding what I'm going to teach you today to get off of Sugar and also boost my metabolism using a method I created by myself because I couldn't handle eating boring, bland food for the rest of my life. So now let's get into the 11 healthy foods that you're eating that have hidden sugars. And many of these are going to surprise you, because like I said, these are healthy and most of them are not even sweet. Let's start with number one. All right, I want you to stay till the end. I have 11 of these, and my last one is the most surprising. The last one is going to blow your mind because you're probably eating it and thinking that you're healthy, thinking that it's healthy, but it's actually really spiking your blood sugar. So number one are smoothies. So smoothies are something that we think that we should be having more of because they're healthy. Well, guess what? Some smoothies are often packed with sugar in the name of fruit. Now, fruit is good. Fruit is definitely something we want to have in our life. And I don't want you to take fruit out. When you're having a smoothie and you're following a recipe to add cups and cups of different kinds of fruit, and then you're not adding any protein to that smoothie, it is going to drastically spike your blood sugar. There's no purpose in you having the smoothie because it's absolutely unhealthy for you and it is causing you to gain belly fat. For smoothies, you really want to make sure that balanced with the fruit, maybe having some veggies, having some protein in it, those are so important. And I had to create my own smoothies in order to lose weight because I searched the Internet far and wide and I still look for recipes on the Internet and it's rare, in fact, impossible to find recipes for smoothies that are high in protein and lower in sugar and balancing it out so that you're actually not increasing your sugar. Stick with me. And I have so many smoothie recipes that are amazing for you. So smoothies, I want you to make sure that you're not having those high fruit, low protein smoothies. You are conscious that there is a lot of sugar in smoothies. Secondly, the next thing that is, whereas a hidden sugars is cereal or oatmeal. Cereal or oatmeal. And this may surprise many of you because I know that we've been taught that oatmeal is healthy and oatmeal can be healthy for you if you are having certain goals in your life. Like if you're In a place where you're actively building muscle and you're strength training, you're lifting weights, you need that oatmeal so that you can build your muscle. But if you're looking to lose weight and you're not not strength training, well, what's going to happen is oatmeal is going to drastically spike your blood sugar, and then it's going to store that fat on your belly, and so will cereal, even the healthier cereals. Cereals and oatmeal are packed with carbs that break down quickly to sugar. And yes, oatmeal has complex carbs, but it's not complex fibrous carbs, as much as is possible. And so you're getting a lot of these carbohydrates. And all carbohydrates are going to break down to sugar, but if you don't have the right things with it, it's going to break down more quickly. I want you to have carbohydrates in your diet. It's extremely important that you do. But you want to know which are the carbs that are not spiking your blood sugar. And oatmeal is not one of them unless you pair it with a healthy fat or protein, such as peanut butter or nuts for healthy fats, or eggs or Greek yogurt for protein. And that way you can balance it out so that you're not spiking your blood sugar and your body is not getting those sugar cravings later. Those are. Those are a couple tips for you around that next, bagels and bread. So bagels and bread is going to break down to sugar. Now, even if it's not sweet, it's most bagels or bread don't have a lot of fiber in it. Now, fiber slows the digestion of carbohydrates breaking down. It slows the spike in blood sugar. So you really want to look to foods that have more fiber. Fiber is also keeping us more full with less calories. And so it's much easier to lose weight when you have a diet that is nutritious in fiber, around 25 grams a day. When you're having most breads or bagels, they're not having a lot of fiber. They're breaking down quickly. And if you're eating it with just like a little pad of butter and then maybe a fruit with it, you're definitely getting that increase in belly fat. But you're also going to feel the sugar cravings that are going to come onto you in a few moments later. I mean, it could happen as quickly as 30 minutes. After that, you'll start to feel these uncontrollable cravings for sugar. Really knowing, you know, what are the higher fiber breads, what are the breads or the bagels that don't have as much carbs that are breaking, breaking down to sugar, that's going to be really key for you or finding some replacements for that. So I want to take this moment to ask you to like and to subscribe because I'm going to be sharing so many amazing tips and strategies. In fact, I'm going to be doing my next video on 15 sugar swaps, which is all of the things I'm telling you today. I'm going to be sharing what to swap it with or other foods that are normal foods that are high in sugar, what to swap it with so that you don't even notice, but yet your weight is going to drop, your blood sugar is going to get even, and your metabolism is going skyrocket. Okay, so take this moment to like and subscribe. And I have so much more information to share with you. In today's video as well as my future videos and my past videos, the next thing is peanut or almond butter. So peanut or almond butter, those are healthy fats. Those are really great to have or, or any other nut butter in fat. Many of them are actually made with added sugars in them. And so you think you're eating something healthy, but what's actually happening is that you're eating more sugar. And so you really want to look at those ingredients on your nut butter package and make sure that sugar isn't one of the main ingredients. In fact, hopefully it's not even there at all. Now, next, granola bars. Granola bars have been taught to us that they are so good and healthy, but guess what? They're healthier than a cookie. And that's the advice that we're getting. We're hearing advice that's telling us it's better than the worst option, but it's not actually helping you get off sugar. And it's definitely not helping you lose weight when you're eating granola bars. And that's because granola bars are breaking down to sugar. And all you have to do is look at the back of a granola bar package, look at the level of sugar that it has in it, and you're going to see how high that is. And that is really having an effect in breaking down quickly and making you have more cravings for sugar quickly. When you have these spikes in blood sugar that are happening with these foods I'm sharing. What's happening is that you, your body is releasing insulin because your blood sugar's spiking. It's starting to store it in your cells and, and get it out of your bloodstream, because that's not healthy for your body. And then as a result, you start to feel hungrier. And so then you want to eat more calories. So that's why this is actually working against you in so many ways, because you're going to start craving more sugary foods, and you're going to start craving more food, and it's going to be easy for you to eat more of those unhealthier foods that are really making a difference in causing you to gain weight and causing you to stick to sugar. All right, so the next one is crackers and chips. So crackers and chips are. They sound. They're not sweet, right? But if you look at the boxes, if you see the sugar that's in it, if you see the level of carbs without fiber, without an adequate amount of fiber in it, what that means is those carbohydrates are going to break down pretty quickly and they're going to cause that blood sugar spike. All carbohydrates are made of glucose molecules, so they, they break down to glucose. And glucose is sugar. So sugar is spiking your blood sugar. And so when you're having too, when you're having, you know, a decent amount of crackers or chips, that's not healthy. But you can always use my strategies that I share in my other videos, which is to pair any of these carbs with a protein or a healthy fat. So if you have it with a nut butter, if you have crackers with a nut butter, if you have crackers with cheese, if you have more of a flaxseed cracker that has more fiber, that has more healthy fats in it, it's going to cause you to not cause your body to not break it down as quickly. And that's going to make a big difference. Now, the next one is jam, jelly, or syrup. Even maple syrup that's from Vermont. Or natural, natural maple syrup. So jam, jelly and syrup it is. It does have sugar in it. All you got to do is look at it. It's going to spike your blood sugar. It's going to keep you on the cycle of wanting more sugar. And if you're using something like maple syrup as a natural sweetener, well, that's fine, but it's still spiking your blood Sugar, it's still breaking down to sugar. And there's a lot of alternatives out there that are a lot smarter for you. And I talk about them in my videos. Now, another item that is a healthier item that's going to break down to sugar. Most of you know that non diet beverages are full of sugar, right? But this is one of the first things that you should absolutely take out or swap with something else is a non diet soda. You really actually want to swap that out for something completely different. Not just do diet, because diet sodas have artificial sweeteners which keep you addicted to sugar because your brain is still wanting that flavor of sweet. But I just want you to know that non diet beverages actually are packed with sugar. And also so is iced tea. A lot of times you might look at iced tea as a good alternative, but those are actually packed with sugar as well. Unless you specifically look for the unsweetened iced tea or ask for the unsweetened iced tea. And it's usually not the raspberry iced tea. Look for the unsweetened, but plain iced tea. And that could be an alternative for you there. But most iced teas are also very high in sugar. All right. Another thing that is healthy that you might be trying to have so that you can add more of this to your diet is salad dressings. And salad dressings are something that you want to add to your salad so that maybe you're having, you know, you want to have more salads. Salad dressings have healthy fats, which we need to absorb the nutrients from the vegetables. But they can also be high in sugar, especially with a lot of the sweeter dressings like raspberry or honey mustard or other things like that. And so you really want to look at that sugar and, and keep that down. And I will let you know at the end what I recommend for each serving of sugar that's ideal for you to have. Okay? So stick with me. All right, so salad dressings are something you can absolutely have them, but look for the ones that are zero or very low in sugar. And I'm going to tell you at the end of the video the numbers that I want you to look for for serving sizes of anything that you're having for sugar. All right, so now we're on number 10, and that is our packaged sauces. So you may be buying some packaged sauces. It makes it easy to make dinner for yourself, to make food for you or your family. All you do is you open up a package, you put it on there, things Like Alfredo sauce, certain curry sauces, just different kinds of flavorful sauces. But these are often packed with sugar. And that's why it is better to use ingredients that you are very knowledgeable about and that you are put in by yourself. Because when you use these packaged sauces, they're very high in sugar, not to mention very high in sodium, which creates bloating as well. And so you really want to look at that and make sure that you are using either a lower sugar sauce, which they do have some of those now, or you want to make it by yourself. And this is for even things like marinara sauce. You want to notice the sugar in them because they can be packed with sugar, even though they don't, they are not sweet. And then finally, the number 11 food that is healthy but breaking down to sugar and making you stuck on sugar and addicted to sugar is dried fruit. And dried fruit is something so many people are eating because it sounds like it's healthy, it's fruit, it's natural sugar. That's what we hear, that's what we tell ourselves. But fruit is dried at its height of sweetness. And so you're actually eating the sweetest portion of the fruit that you could. And when you're eating it alone, you're really spiking your blood sugar. You're really creating that gut biome where you're going to want more sugar. And so what I recommend for, for dried fruit is for you to have lower quantities of it and combine it with seeds or nuts so that you are lowering that digestion of it. So these are 11 healthy foods that you may be eating that have hidden sugars. And I just want you to be aware of these. Once you start being aware of what foods are creating this addiction to sugar, it's going to be so much easier to get off of it. Now I definitely want you to like and subscribe. My next video is going to be about 15 sugar swaps to quickly make without even noticing the difference. And you're going to be able to see powerful and easy sugar swaps that you can quickly make to reduce the sugar in your diet without noticing the difference. So I can't wait for you to check that out. And meanwhile, I would love for you click on the description below and check out my five day metabolism boost, where I'm going to be going in depth about how to get off sugar cravings without feeling tired or hungry and showing you multiple combinations of foods that you can have so that you lower your blood sugar and you burn fat faster. This is a five day live event that I'm hosting and I am personally inviting you right now and I would love to see you there. Thanks so much for being here with me today. I'll see you in the next video.