Reducing sugar is a diet goal that many people think about but struggle with. Indeed, sugar is addictive, and eliminating it from your diet requires self-restraint, patience, and perseverance. Some practical tips can help you reach your goal step by step.
How do you cut out sugar?
Read below for some habits that will help you both in cooking and shopping at the supermarket:
- Replace sugar with dates in cakes and bars. Dates are rich in fiber, magnesium, copper and other trace elements and provide the sweet taste you are looking for. Tip: They usually need to be soaked in hot water before using them in recipes.
- Substitute poached apples for sugar in cookie recipes. Fruits in general, like overripe bananas, are often used in recipes to give a sweet taste without adding sugar.
- Prefer foods with less than 6g. sugar per head 100g food, and you’ll see this by looking at the food label, where it says “carbohydrates of which sugar (…)”. According to the British Dietetic Association, the recommended daily intake of added sugars (eg honey, sweets, soft drinks) and added sugars we add to food should not exceed 10% of total daily energy intake.
- Use vanilla powder or extract, spices, and citrus fruits because they can add sweetness to foods without adding sugar, and certainly without the extra calories.
- If you want to cut sugar from your coffee, you can add a little milk and vanilla to make the taste smoother.
- Other names for sugar in packaged foods are: glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose, sorbitol, mannitol, starch syrup, malt, malt extract, rice syrup, rice extract, maltose.
Last and most important: You don’t need to obsess over and avoid sugar, but at least be careful not to add it yourself to begin with – you’ll find it in many foods anyway.
Remember: If you want, eating something with a small amount of sugar is better than eating a large amount of food that does not contain sugar.