It is an undeniable fact that your body needs a lot of sugar, consuming an excessive amount of it can easily lead to your health breakdown.
Sugar has been recognized as the number one source of energy for your body and the main boost your brain cells need to function effectively. Your body needs sugar to be present in abundant amounts.
However, consuming it excessively can easily lead to many negative effects on your health — obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
The American Heart Association recommends 9 teaspoons (36g) and 6 teaspoons (24g) of total sugar per day for men and women, respectively.
In this post, we will list some Nigerian foods that are high in sugar.
1) cereals
Cereals are popular foods in many Nigerian homes. They are often eaten for breakfast. However, most cereals contain a lot more sugar than you think. Common breakfast cereals like Golden morn and corn flakes contain a significant amount of sugar.
2) Soda
Soda drinks are quite popular beverages in Nigeria. Just about, everyone drinks them from time to time. Sometimes as refreshment and sometimes as a substitute for water when eating a meal.
Beverages like Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and so on are known to contain a high amount of sugar, which is the primary reason for their sweet taste. The amount of sugar in most soft drinks, on average, is about 44g per bottle of the drink — about 9 tablespoons of sugar per bottle.
95% of the time, this is about 90% higher than the usual dose you would get from eating the quantity amount of foods such as yam and other carbohydrates.
A good substitute for these sugary drinks is their diet counterparts. Instead of binging on regular coke, you might want to consider the Zero sugar diet Coke or Fanta.
3) Low-fat Yoghurt (Parfait)
Low-fat yogurt (parfait) seems like the perfect friend to those who might be watching their weight, are on a diet, or trying to protect their heart.
However, low-fat yogurt is not as innocent as they seem to be when it comes to sugar content. On average, a cup of low fats yogurt weighing about 225g contains about 7 teaspoons of sugar.
Fat is the natural sweetener in yogurts. Therefore, when manufacturers remove some of these excess fats, yogurts lose their sweet natural tastes. This is compensated for by adding more sugar to the yogurts.
Most times, It is best that you go for unsweetened yogurts. Those are near natural and contain more probiotics.
4) Fried Plantain
Another commonly consumed meal by Nigerians. Even though green or unripe plantains might be good for your blood sugar levels, fried ripe plantains might not. There is about 22g of sugar in 100g of ripe fried plantains, and that makes it a little high in sugar.
Conclusion
While sugar is significant for your health, excess consumption of sugar is often bad for your health and can lead to obesity, increased blood pressure, and diabetes. If you want to control your sugar levels, you should either avoid or minimize eating the above Nigerian foods high in sugar.