How to Lower the Sugar in Your Diet

There are plenty of reasons to lower the amount of sugar in your diet: diabetes or pre-diabetes; hypoglycemia; reduced calorie counts; low carb diets; and general maintenance of blood sugar levels. But avoiding sugar can be difficult, as it shows up in the most unexpected places.

As the owner of an insistent sweet tooth with a family predisposition towards diabetes, I've worked hard to lower the amount of sugar in my diet. It takes a while, but the long-term health benefits are worth it. Note that this guide does not subscribe to a particular diet (like Atkins) but is meant to help create long-term healthy eating habits.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• time to read ingredient labels
• patience
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• fruit

1. 

   Why should you avoid sugar? Cane sugar isn't evil, it's just somewhat unnatural for humans to eat such a refined carb. Since your body doesn't have to process it much, the sugar goes almost straight into your bloodstream, causing a spike (then drop) in blood sugar. This can have adverse effects on other health issues, and is particularly dangerous if you are hypoglycemic or prone to diabetes.

2. 

   Reducing the amount of sugar you eat is a gradual process. Chances are your palate has become accustomed (and some would say addicted) to a constant barrage of overly sweet tastes. The more sugar you eat, the higher the amount of sweetness that seems "normal" to you. You will need to work hard to wean yourself from this habit, and re-program your palate to expect less sweetness.

3. 
   Always read the label.

   The first step is to remove "accidental" sugar from your diet by reading ingredient labels carefully. If you are not reading food labels you may be eating a lot more sugar than your realize. Items such as bread, tomato sauce, and yogurt, for example, can contain surprisingly high levels of sugar--even if they are labeled "healthy"!

4. Remember that dietary sugar occurs in many forms: sugar, cane syrup, rice syrup, corn syrup, and sucrose are only some of the forms sugar can take. Honey, maple syrup, and agave nectar are also sugars, although they are not as refined as cane sugar. Many nutritionists believe that unrefined sugars are healthier; this may be true, but the overall goal is to reduce the amount of sweet food in your diet. So avoid even "natural" sugars, at least for a few weeks.

5. Take the time to read labels carefully and make a deliberate effort to choose products that have no added sugar: plain yogurt, sugar-free tomato sauce, etc. For naturally sweet products, like jams or jellies, look for reduced sugar or all-fruit versions.

6. 

   Once you have eliminated hidden sugars, the next (and probably most painful) step is to reduce the amount of sugar you add to your food. Try having your coffee, cereal or yogurt without adding sweetener. It may taste awful at first, but you need to give yourself a chance to adjust. One way to do this is to gradually reduce the amount of sugar you use--go slowly from 1 tablespoon, to 2 teaspoons, to 1 teaspoon, for example.

7. Many people rely on artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar and calories--but studies have shown that drinking diet soda still makes people crave sweet tastes. Unless you are diabetic, you should consider avoiding diet soda and artificial sweeteners altogether.

8. 

   A better alternative to artificial sweeteners is to use natural flavors that produce a "sweet" sensation on your tongue. Cinnamon and vanilla are two of the best flavors for this purpose. Try adding them to your coffee or yogurt. You'll be surprised what a difference they make.

9. 

   Deliberately seek out naturally sweet tastes, like fruit. This will train your palate to expect a normal level of sweetness, and eventually reduce cravings for sugar. Take the time to choose the ripest, in-season fruit you can find. Add this to your cereal or yogurt instead of refined sweetener. Fruit juice, on the other hand, highly concentrates the natural sugars in fruit. For this reason it can be as bad as soda in terms of sweetness; try cutting it with carbonated water.

10. 

    Once you've successfully reprogrammed your taste buds, lowering the sugar in your diet won't have to mean avoiding sweets altogether. You can choose bittersweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate, for example, or a brand of ice cream that has less added sugar.

11. Finally, if you are craving a really sweet treat (a doughnut, a candy bar, or something else) try distracting yourself with work for 10-20 minutes. If this doesn't work, it's all right to give in every once in a while (unless you are diabetic). And if you've been avoiding sugar for a few weeks, you might find the extreme sweetness less pleasant than you remember. This is precisely the point!

Tips & Warnings

• Remember, the further down the list an ingredient is, the less the product contains. So bread that has sugar near the end of its ingredient list is better than bread that has sugar near the top.
• Homemade is always better than processed food, as you know exactly what goes in it. Take control of the sugar content by sweetening your own yogurt, making your own granola, etc., as much as possible.
• Making all your own food is impossible for most people. Aim for a practical mix of sugar-free, store bought products and homemade food.
• Remember that white flour, bread and pasta are also refined carbs--just one step away from sugar, really--and are therefore less healthy than complex carbohydrates.
• Alcohol, too, quickly raises blood sugar.
• Although low-carb diets can help you to eat healthy, it is never a good idea to avoid fruit and vegetables altogether.

Resources

• Healthy Eating at DLife
• AHA Recommends Limiting Sugar for Better Health

[vnicks]

on 6/21/2009 Excellent article! This is a great source of info on lowering sugar intake! 5*