Today sees the start of sugar awareness week organised every year by Action on Sugar with the aim of raising awareness of the damaging effect of having too much of it in our diet.

The affects on your heart

Eating too much sugar can cause you to gain weight. People who are overweight or obese have more of a risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Sugar exists in many foods that you may not automatically associate with containing it such as fruit, vegetables and even milk. These food types also contain many nutrients and therefore you may not want to cut back on these at all.

Free sugars that exist in things like fizzy drinks, cakes and sweets and ready-made meals are really the sugars that we should be looking to reduce within our diet.

Some surprisingly “saucy” facts:

Did you know how many hidden teaspoons of sugar are hiding in your sauces?

Tomato Ketchup = 1 tsp in 1 tablespoon ketchup

Brown sauce = almost 1 tsp in 1 tablespoon of brown sauce

Sweet chilli sauce = 2 tsp in 1 tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce

Cooking sauces are also prone to having a lot of sugar and salt, you should always read the labels and wherever possible choose the options that are not laden with either.

How can you cut back on your intake?

It would be difficult to cut out sugar completely. Why not try a few easy swaps to help reduce the sugar in your diet:

• Tea and coffee – if you have 2 sugars, cut down to 1. If you have 1 sugar cut down to half until you can manage to have your drink without sugar at all.
• Replace sugary cereals with plain, wholegrain cereals
• Swap sugary drinks with their diet version.
• Swap sugary squash for the “no sugar” variety.
• Choose tinned fruit in juice rather than tinned fruit in syrup.
• Have low fat natural yogurt instead of low fat fruit yogurt

Information from https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport

Cardiac cover on your private medical insurance?

If you have a private medical insurance policy in place and would like to know what cover you have in place relating to medical conditions affecting your heart and circulatory system, the team at SMP Healthcare will be happy to help you navigate your way through the benefits you have in place. If you are new to private health insurance and would like to ensure you have a comprehensive policy covering cardiac conditions should they arise in the future, let us help you find a policy that suits your requirements.

You can contact us by email: enquiries@smphealthcare.com

Telephone: 01245 929129 or 0800 047 0127