Hidden sugars are one of the roadblocks that keep us from losing the weight we want and feeling healthy overall. What is most frustrating about these foods is that we think we are making a good choice, when we are thwarting our efforts for good health. Women should not have more than 24 grams of added sugar per day. Added sugars do not includes sugars that are found naturally in foods like fruits or milk. These are the sugars that are added to packaged foods. Keep an eye out for these extra sugar health busters that are lurking on grocery shelves.

Oatmeal

When you buy all-natural, plain oatmeal, you don’t have to worry about added sugar. But if you get oatmeal at a drive through restaurant or you buy pre-packaged oatmeal, there is often added sugars that are unnecessary. Maple syrup, brown sugar cinnamon, and apple cinnamon are some of the common flavors that can have way more sugar than you need. Buy the plain oatmeal and make your own flavorings by adding fresh fruit, nuts, and spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.

Yogurt

Particularly with low-fat yogurt, manufacturers add sugar to give yogurt a more palatable taste. Plain yogurt is great as far as added sugars go, but not a lot of people like the tart taste. You can add fresh fruit to plain yogurt instead of buying flavored brands and help your diet immensely.

Meal replacements

This one is probably a shocker but many of the top meal replacement shakes have much more sugar than you need in a day. Again, the reason is palatability as companies haven’t figured out how to make healthy shakes that taste great. Fortunately, one company has cracked the code here and offers shakes that are nutritionally sound and also taste great. Isagenix 30 Day Cleanse is an awesome health kick that doesn’t overdue it with sugar and makes you feel amazing.

Fruit juices

The sugar you eat when you bite into an apple and the sugar you drink when you take a sip of apple juice are two different things. The sugar in the whole fruit is offset a bit by the amount of fiber in the apple. The juice doesn’t have the fiber to act as this buffer between the sugar and your body. You’re left with an insulin spike that has you craving all sorts of unhealthy foods in a short amount of time. Don’t drink your calories and you the sugars will not do as much damage.

Spaghetti sauce

This one goes for many jarred and canned foods, actually. Sugar, salt, and fat are the three flavorings that manufacturers add to foods to make them taste great. Unfortunately, they have added so much of these over the last few decades that our palates don’t even recognize whole, natural foods as delicious anymore. It takes a good cleansing of the palate to get back to that state. You need to kick some foods off your diet list for a while to go back to appreciating the sweet taste of an apple or the crisp flavor of a green pepper.