By now, most of us know how bad soft drinks are for us. They are literally filled to almost saturation point with sugar. It’s shocking the first time you see how much sugar is in a soda.

What many don’t know is how many foods and other items have sugar in them that we would never think have any business having sugar in them. Sausage? Bacon? Table salt? Yep. They can all contain sugar.

One of the very first surprises for me was bacon. I thought for sure bacon would be a food that was sugar-free, but it turned out that it was harder to find sugar-free bacon than you would imagine. Of all the things: bacon.

Sausage is another one that often has sugar in it. Fortunately, there is a growing trend of sausage makers to not use sugar or even nitrates in their sausages, which is nice. I’ve also tried my hand at making bacon myself, and it’s turned out great! I will likely be doing more experimentation with making my own bacon in the future.

Lots of people mistakenly think that low-fat means low-sugar, or that whole grain or brown rice means low-sugar. Carbs=sugars. Grains have lots of carbs.

What to use when a recipe needs sweetness? Honey, agave, or natural maple syrup are three good sources of sweetness. Of course, Sherry and I try to keep sweets to a minimum, but sometimes, a recipe needs some sweetness to it. Fortunately, the three sources of sweetness I mentioned are natural and the body processes them much better than sugar.

Do some reading of labels and eliminate or at least try to greatly reduce your sugar intake. Your body will thank you for it by losing weight, processing food more efficiently, and ultimately, getting healthier.