Need Ideas on How to Cut Back on Sugar

fitacct

I am watching my sugar to prevent diabetes and because I believe it acts as an inflammatory in my body. That being said. . . I love good tasting sweet things. I prefer my fruit in pie. Kinda get the picture? I am eating an apple a day and not loving it, but it is helping with appetite and vitamins/minerals. Before I go after a carb, I try to get past the urge with a small piece of cheese or a glass of vegetable juice with some fiber. At night, when it's time for a little reward at the end of the day I have one square of dark chocolate with seasalt. The salt kicks up the experience of sweet. I can manage the fudge bars from Weight Watchers and I avoid artificial sweeteners. Maybe you could try making some with a little stevia and fruit to sweeten with lowfat milk. I read an interesting book "The Four Hour Body" which talks about eating mostly protein and vegetables with very little fruit or dairy because of the way the body processes. There was a lot of science in the book - can't say if it was junk or not, but he recommended you could easily eat fruit once a week and be just fine. What's you favorite daily sweet treat? I will see if I can figure out a good substitute.

Sounds like we're alike in a lot of ways food-wise. I'll have to give the dark chocolate with sea salt a try. Right now, I'm cutting my extra dark chocolate Lindt Lindor Truffles in half and consider one half my "treat" when I get a craving for chocolate. Can't handle stevia at all (tried it and it affected my bladder, of all things). The book you reference sounds really interesting and one that my son would enjoy, as well. He recently went on the Keto diet to lose 10 pounds (he's not really overweight but is over the weight he feels most comfortable at) and was eating nothing but protein and veggies, I think. Said he felt more energized than ever or with any other diet he's tried. Thanks for your response. : )

fitacct

Hi there,
It's amazing how many products have added sugar, so first I recommend you start reading labels. You'll notice stuff like pasta sauce has lots of added sugar. Also many of the "lite" salad dressings have more sugar than their regular counterparts. Bread and cereals are also sneaky. Most of the whole/multi grain products have added sugar or molasses to sweeten them up! Keep an eye on serving size as well as sometimes a serving of something is quite small. Also beware of labels that claim "no sugar" on the front of the product. Sometimes there is high fructose corn syrup instead! There are some lower sugar products out there that do not use artificial sweeteners, Trop 50 Juice is one of them and Polaner makes good jam that is sweetened with fruit juice (this is not the "sugar free" Polaner, which has artificial sweetener). Finally, dairy products contain a lot of sugar in the form of lactose, so even if there is no sugar added, it's naturally occurring in those products and is treated just the same by your body as sugar. I think if you work on reducing the amount of sugar added products, you'll then have room in your diet for fruit. Maybe you can find some information on sugar content in specific fruits by searching on diabetes related websites. But I think the sweeter the fruit, the more sugar. I hope this helps a little. I'm not an expert, these are just things I've noticed when reading labels and trying to cut back on sugar too!

Thank you so much for such an informative answer...great tips...much appreciated! : )

fitacct

I just read online that Dreyers (Edy's) non-fat frozen yogurt with 180 calories per cup has 90% of Daily Calcium and no artificial sweeteners. I am going to check it out. Don't know how many grams of sugar.

I will definitely check this out! I'm not a huge ice-cream eater but do enjoy a frozen treat occasionally. Thanks!! : )

fitacct

The general rule of thumb is to get less than 10% of your daily calories from "added sugars." This equates to about 40 grams for the average dieter. That is actually a lot, but... on to the rest of your dilemma.

3 servings of fruit a day is the average recommendation. Berries are very low in sugar compared to higher sugar fruits like apples.

To cut back on sugar, here are the main things they are hidden in:

- Cereal- try a lower sugar, higher fiber cereal like Kashi Go Lean Original
- Yogurt- try plain greek yogurt mixed up with strawberries (use a food processor for a more commercial taste)
- Instant oatmeal- try plain oatmeal with greek yogurt or cottage cheese mixed in, with some added fruit
- Ice cream- make your own banana ice cream by blending a frozen banana until creamy (with a little milk)
- Juice- don't drink juice. Instead, have the counterpart fresh fruit. More fiber, more filling and less calories

Great tips and info. Thanks so much!

fitacct

It is crazy all the added sugar, I was shocked that is 24g of sugar in milk...really! I don't eat hardly any "added" sugar but when I do I now use Agave syrup. It does not taste exactly like sugar but has a nice flavor & you don't need much at all. I love it with berries & cottage cheese or yogurt, nice treat.

When I saw how much sugar was in milk, I switched to no-sugar soy milk. Thought I'd dislike the taste, but I actually find it pretty good.