How to Actually Reduce your Sugar Intake
So you know that too much sugar isn’t great for your skin. You understand that concept, but now what?
How much is ‘too much’ and what do you eat instead when all your body is begging for is a doughnut and an iced coffee?
Sugar is hidden in a lot of sneaky places that you would never expect. It is also glossed over on the nutritional information - because what does a reasonable amount of sugar look like in grams and who is really eating the recommended serving size anyway?
* insert drool emoji here *
First things first:
When reading the nutrition information on the back of your breakfast cereal, you need to look at the ingredient list first and foremost. The ingredients are listed in order of highest concentration to lowest. I used to DEVOUR a certain ‘Iron-Man’ cereal as a kid. The first ingredient of that product is cereals (46%) made up of wheat, oatmeal and maize. The second is sugar. Which means that sugar makes up the majority of the recipe, second to the cereals. There are over 50 other code names for sugar that can be on the back of your packaged food. Whether its cane sugar, glucose solids, maltodextrin, fructose or whatever, its still sugar and its still added into your food.
How many grams of added sugar is acceptable?
According to the American Heart Foundation, added sugar should not exceed 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men. That’s roughly 24g per day for women and 36g for men. To put this in perspective, a serve of the above mentioned cereal amounts to 10g. A regular can of cola is about 35g. On a solid ration of one can of soft drink per day? It’s too much.
The best way to cut down on sugar is to avoid packaged foods and drinks.
Full stop. Including jars of pasta sauce, curry sauce, pre-prepared meals, breakfast cereals, cookies, spreads, lollies, chocolate, pastries, flavoured yoghurts - literally anything that hasnt been made from scratch.
Other ways to reduce your sugar intake:
Cook your meals at home from whole ingredients - meaning you’ve taken a bunch of individual foods to create a meal. Check out my favourite recipe website for recipes that are based on the concept of eating whole foods: www.cookieandkate.com
Include a source of protein (animal meat, eggs, fish, legumes, tempeh, tofu etc) with every meal as well as a source of healthy fat (avocado, fish, olive oil, nuts, seeds). This will stabilise blood sugar levels to reduce cravings and keep you full.
Remove temptation - if you hate waste, eat through your pantry stores and don’t replace the items you now know are full of sugar. Replace them with whole ingredients and you wont have access to the sugar in future.
Flavour your food with spices like cinnamon - it helps to regulate blood sugar and adds flavour without the sugar.
Avoid the middle aisles of the supermarket. Shop around the edges - stick to the fruit and veg section, the deli, the nuts, the frozen veg if that’s easier. Don’t even venture into the snack or lolly aisle if you’re hungry while you shop!
A little bit is okay. Life is for living! Just make sure your sugary treat is really going to feed your soul and enjoy it! Choosing sweets that also contain nuts is a good way to help your body deal with the sugar.
Got serious sugar cravings, can’t help but binge eat or at a loss as to how to cook from scratch? It’s worth investing in some professional 1:1 advice, whether its with me or somebody else.
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