Healing Lifestyles & Spas

IS IT JAM, JELLY OR IS IT SPREADABLE CANDY?

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By on Diet, Food & Nutrition, Nutrition

healthy jam

Time to check your fridge!  Do you know the ingredients in your jam and jelly?

Chances are good that you have jam or jelly in your fridge. Have you checked the ingredient list lately? Many jams and jellies should probably be called ‘spreadable candy’ because they have so much sugar or high fructose corn syrup in them. But there are better options for healthy jam…

Fruit spreads with lower sugar (and no artificial ingredients) do exist. Below are some tips to help you find them your healthy jam.

And you can also make your own!  Before you laugh and say, “Yeah, right…like I really have time to make my own jam,” check out this simply 4-ingredient recipe for Raspberry Chia Jam from my book, Eat Clean, Stay Lean, from the Editors of Prevention that you can make in under 15 minutes flat. When you see how easy this is to make, you’ll probably just forget about buying high-priced, high-sugar store-bought jams altogether!

Shopping for Jams and Jellies

Look for:

  • Real ingredients—make sure fruit is the first (or only!) ingredient and sugar is 6 grams or less.
  • Fruit-only spreads with no added sugar.
  • Reduced sugar spreads IF fruit is the first ingredient AND they have no artificial ingredients and 6 grams or less added sugar.
  • SKIP jams and jellies with sugar as the first ingredient.
  • SKIP jams and jellies with added colors, preservatives and artificial flavors.
  • Make your own: Try the Raspberry Chia Jam from Eat Clean, Stay Lean.

About Eat Clean, Stay Lean: 300 Real Foods and Recipes for Lifelong Health and Lasting Weight Loss
Eat Clean Stay LeanThese days, a trip to the grocery store requires a little soul-searching and a lot of label reading: organic, sustainable, local, seasonal, low-carb, low-cal, gluten-free, sugar-free, GMO-free, vegan, vegetarian, raw, and Paleo.

When did eating become so fussy? It’s enough to make you throw your hands in the air–and then right inside the fridge for some pie.

Eating healthy nowadays really just means eating clean, or choosing whole foods sourced from the earth with the least processing and fewest possible ingredients that sound like hair dye. Eating clean is not about counting calories or grams of carbs, or getting tricked by “health food” imposters, so you won’t find any of that here. Real food is the science-backed way to good health and a better body.

Wendy Bazilian, DrPH, MA, RD
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