No added sugar diet

I'm trying to do this too. The hardest part for me was finding out how many foods have added sugar in them! Things I didn't expect at all, such as pasta sauce. Reading labels on food was really eye opening.

I don't eat much that's processed - and it would never have occured to me to check this, however, since i started logging, I have picked up some things that were a lot higher in calories from sugar than i expected.
What i've decied is that when these are natural (part of a fruit or vegetable) I will prioritise the 5-7 fruit + veg a day over the sugar
if they're added i'll decide if that item is really worth it.

So far most of my sugar is from fruit and fuit juice - I have one small glass of fruit juice at breakfast and usually 1-2 portions of fruit during hte day - so i haven't changed that though i do now measure my fruit juice glass and stretch it out with water

My biggest sources of added sugar so far are: nesqwik milk flavour and grenadine type syrups for water flavouring.
On balance i've cut down on the syrups and I've started using angostura bitters from time to time to flavour my water when i'm not by a kettle in which case i have a fruit or green tea. I've decided to keep the nesquik but now it's a treat from time to time, rather than a staple.

I never had jars of pasta sauce at home, when i first tasted them at college i was really shocked at how sweet they were. The same with baked beans. Far too sweet for me.

You can make a lovely simple pasta sauce from tinned chopped tomato, onion and garlic, the trick is cooking it low and slow to get all the flavours at their best and maybe add a dash of balsamic vinagar to bring out the natural sweetness.

Good luck with the sugar watch - beware though - it's everywhere

I have also started working on a low sugar diet. I did good for 3-4 days and felt so much better, but completely fell off the wagon. It's so hard. I had a hot chocolate this morning and it had 20g of sugar. The recent announcement that the WHO is pushing for 25g of added sugar for adults has inspired me to do some research and pay attention to how much of it I'm eating. I easily eat double that in a day. If it's a bad day, then it's about 4 times that since chocolate makes me feel better. I would love to hear tips from others on what they are doing to reduce their sugar.

I avoid refined sugar, because it's terrible for your teeth and I'd rather my calories come from something nutritious.

Well refined sugar is no worse for your teeth than any other form of sugar such as in fruit and personally I just brush my teeth twice a day. Also sugar contains calories your body needs calories so it is nutritious in that way. Also the body needs sugar to function so you still need some source of it.

I understand that people may want to reduce their sugar intake but demonising it with all this misinformation is silly

Well refined sugar is no worse for your teeth than any other form of sugar such as in fruit and personally I just brush my teeth twice a day. Also sugar contains calories your body needs calories so it is nutritious in that way. Also the body needs sugar to function so you still need some source of it.

I understand that people may want to reduce their sugar intake but demonising it with all this misinformation is silly

Fruit has vitamins and fibre in it, so it's worth eating, and the sugar content is far lower than an equivalent amount of chocolate or similar. There are numerous other sources of calories and energy, the body is perfectly capable of breaking down starches and similar into the glucose we need: you won't somehow starve without refined sugar. And calling the correlation between sugar and tooth decay 'misinformation' is ridiculous. Find me a single dentist who would disagree.

If you want some recipes for no added sugar that work and taste good go to www.SucroseFreeLiving.com

The coconut jam slice and baked chocolate cheesecake have to be my favourites.

I try to eat no added sugar as I'm sucrose intolerant, but I still eat the natural sugars myself. Honey has become a lifesaver for me in my recipes as an alternative to sugar, as well as jam.

Well refined sugar is no worse for your teeth than any other form of sugar such as in fruit and personally I just brush my teeth twice a day. Also sugar contains calories your body needs calories so it is nutritious in that way. Also the body needs sugar to function so you still need some source of it.

I understand that people may want to reduce their sugar intake but demonising it with all this misinformation is silly

Fruit has vitamins and fibre in it, so it's worth eating, and the sugar content is far lower than an equivalent amount of chocolate or similar. There are numerous other sources of calories and energy, the body is perfectly capable of breaking down starches and similar into the glucose we need: you won't somehow starve without refined sugar. And calling the correlation between sugar and tooth decay 'misinformation' is ridiculous. Find me a single dentist who would disagree.

If your chocolate has more sugar than typical sweet fruit, then you're eating the wrong chocolate.

Dentists are great at treating teeth problems, but not so much at predicting specific individual causes of tooth decay. Parents can attest to the drastically different outcomes of children with similar eating and dental hygiene habits. There are some dentists out there who acknowledge this, but still far more continuing to tout the ADA's outdated position from decades ago.

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No. I don't see a point in restriction when you can just eat whatever as long as you maintain a negative energy balance. That being said, I don't like to eat junk or processed food, but that's just a preference. I do use sugar in baking and stuff. I'm not afraid of it.

I just saw an article about this yesterday. Granted, these people got into it by reading Lustig, who many people regard as a bit of a quack, and they are trying to market their book now, but you might find the interview interesting. I know, it's HuffPost, but I think the interns were busy with the majestic dog slideshow and didn't have anything to do with this article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/07/year-of-no-sugar_n_5084561.html

everything in moderation

calories are calories wherever they come from
all sugars are bad for the teeth where ever they come from
weight loss is about deficit - not source

but avoiding "hiden" sugar (by which my mean sugars in food that you wouldn't expect - like a noodle soup dish I found the other day with more sugar in than a coal) leaves you move calories available to consume a range of filling and nutritious stuu

for baking - i like to use brown unrefined sugars or honey as i prefer the flavour - but by trial and error i've found that some recipes are fine with less

my general approach tends to be that I prefer to know what i'm eating, and appart from sugar (in all its varieties) i also like to check labels for high levels of salt and ingredients that i can't pronounce or don't have in the kitchen cupboard.

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I gave up added sugar and artificial sweeteners in January of this year and it helped me lose weight and not overeat. I don't eat sweets or pastries or artificial sweeteners, but I will eat products that have sugar in them (fruit, pasta sauce, salad dressing, dairy, etc.) What I've noticed is that the more sweet things I ate, the more I craved them. And now its easier for me to not binge/overeat. I was never a chips/salty overeater anyway. I feel far better than I did before -- no afternoon energy slump.