When trying to maintain a balanced healthy diet it’s important to think about how much sugar we have. The first type of sugar to think about is added sugars. These are in so many things that are considered healthy such as granola type cereals and breakfast bars as well as the more obvious things like chocolates and sweets. There is also a lot of added sugars to many drinks particularly fruit juices that are described as ‘Juice drink’. Fizzy drinks, unless diet drinks, are loaded with added sugar and yet as they are not filling they can be consumed with little regard to the amount of sugar that they contain.

The other sugars to be aware of are naturally occurring sugars such as fructose, glucose and lactose. These sugars are digested quickly and rapidly release the sugar into the bloodstream giving us a sugar hit then a deficit quickly after. Fruits high in sugar include pineapple, which has 16g of sugar per slice, bananas with 17g of sugar per banana and watermelon with 18g of sugar per wedge. Now these foods are still considered healthy as they contain many important vitamins however they should be eaten in moderation due to their high sugar content and the effects that sugar can have on the teeth and in fact the whole body.