Easy Tips To Help Reduce Sugar From Your Diet
Did you know that high-sugar diets boost your odds of tooth decay, heart diseases, and diabetes and weight gain? Even though sugar is added to some of the foods that don’t taste all that sweet, you need to consider consuming a certain amount of sugar every day. According to recommendations from the American Heart Association, women should consume no more than six teaspoons of added sugar per day (or about 100 calories). If you have been struggling to cut the amount of sugar you consume each day, try these tips!
Read Food Labels
When you take your time to read the labels of any product you want to buy, you will be surprised that even the foods you didn’t imagine have added sugar. If you look at the ingredient list of tomato sauce, crackers, condiments, and salad dressings, you will realize that they contain added sugar to make them sweet. Look at the list carefully, if sugar is at the top, that's a red flag.
Learn Sugar's Aliases
When confirming if a product has some added sugar, you don’t have to be more concise on the word ‘sugar.’ You might be consuming foods with high sugar levels if you are not aware of sugar aliases. Fructose corn syrup, dried cane syrup, invert sugar, molasses, sucrose are some of the words manufacturers use to list sugary ingredient. Be cautious and find out if several sugars appear on the label as that is an indication that the food is less healthy than you may think.
Buy Unsweetened
You now you are aware of the sugar aliases and know the content of sugar when you read the food labels. What’s next, go for foods labeled "no added sugar" or "unsweetened." If you visit most grocery stores, you will come across such names, and they are the best foods to help you cut down sugar from your diet. Buy non-dairy milk like almond and soy, nut butters, applesauce, oatmeal, and canned fruit; they should be packed in juice—not syrup.
Don't Go Cold Turkey
Going cold turkey will make you scratch your head more and might not be realistic. You need to consider what you can and what you can’t cut out at the beginning. If you can cut down sugar in a fortnight, lucky you. But if you can’t, find out how much sugar you consume, for instance, every week, then try reducing your consumption by cutting half of that every week. It will be better if you add natural sweetness with fresh fruit if you crave for sweet foods or beverages.
Think Protein And Fat
Proteins and fats are key players in your body as they minimize the rapid rise and fall of blood sugar by slowing down the release of blood sugar levels in your body. On the other hand, unhealthy carbs loaded with sugar rapidly increases the blood sugar levels and dive just as quickly, leaving you hungry within a short period. Keep yourself from unhealthy sugary foods and go for fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, and heart-healthy oils like olive oil, walnut oil, and coconut oil.
Never Go Fake
Diet sodas and other artificial sugar beverages may seem a great choice during the day, but you will be messing up your taste for sweet. If you consume something sweet, you don’t offer your body the calories and nutrition it needs, in fact you will be messing it up. With the increased sugar levels in your body, you are tempted to consume more unhealthy foods that might be associated with weight gain and other diseases.
Add More Flavor
Vanilla bean and vanilla extract, spices, and citrus zests are some natural additives that you can use to substitute sugar. When you purchase an unsweetened latte, you can use either cocoa or vanilla powder to add sweetness. This should not be confused with flavored oatmeal. The natural sugar additives have been proven to naturally regulate blood sugar, which helps control your appetite.
Don't Drink It
If cutting sugar from your diet is your priority, then you are probably aware that sodas are not the only beverages that contain added sugar. Most drinks that are considered healthy contain more of the sweet stuff than you're supposed to have in an entire day. Bottled iced teas, energy drinks, bottled coffee drinks and store-bought smoothies are some of the common drinks you should avoid as they contain an unnoticeable amount of sugar.
Enjoy Dessert
Slashing down sugar from your diet doesn’t mean you have to do without sugar forever. All you have to do is have your rules in place and stick to them. You can consider a sweet treat at some point in your life. The idea is to take care of your cravings, but you need to consider your rules. If it’s once a weekend, so be it.
Stick With It!
It is evident that cutting down sugar can be an unbearable burden to go along with. However, you will have to train your taste buds, and you will surely realize and enjoy the results that come forth. If you were fond of super-sweet foods like ice cream and candy or cakes, you will realize how sweet they are if you only take a bite. This will help you achieve your goal as you will be more determined to consume natural sweetness in fruits and vegetables.