Sugar content in our processed foods is very high. Indeed, it’s added to practically everything found on our grocery store shelves. Furthermore, sugar can be found in foods that don’t even taste sweet, like breads, condiments, and sauces. A high-sugar diet boosts your odds of tooth decay, heart disease, and diabetes, and also weight gain. Here are some tips to slash the sugar and still eat tasty food.
Read food labels
Read the ingredients on the label! Many foods you never suspected, such as tomato sauce, crackers, condiments, and salad dressings are loaded with sugar. Ingredients are listed in order of how much exists in the product, so if sugar’s near the top, that’s a red flag.
What’s In A Name?
You must look for more than just the word “sugar on the label.” It hides under several sneaky names, including high fructose corn syrup, dried cane syrup, molasses, and sucrose. Also, watch out for brown rice syrup, honey, and maple syrup. Moreover, many foods may contain three or four different types of sweetener
. If several appear on the label, don’t buy it.
Sugar: Buy unsweetened
Once you know where it hides, you can start making changes. Buy products that say “unsweetened”. You’ll find unsweetened versions of these foods in most grocery stories, such as apple sauce, oatmeal, and canned fruit packed in juice.
Increase The Protein and Fat
Carbohydrates loaded with sugar raises it quickly and leaves you hungry shortly after eating. Minimize this rapid rise and fall by pairing protein, healthy fats, and fiber with your meal. Eat fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, and heart-healthy oils
like olive oil, walnut oil, and coconut oil.
Avoid The Substitutes
Don’t switch to artificial sweeteners like diet soda and saccharin candy. Most important, fake sweeteners were found to increase weight according to a 2010 review in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine
Add Genuine Flavor
Use vanilla bean and vanilla extract, spices, and citrus zests to add sweetness to foods. That adds zero calories to your diet. Order an unsweetened latte and add flavor with cocoa or vanilla powder. Skip the flavored oatmeal and add a sweet kick with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Especially relevant, cinnamon naturally regulates blood sugar, thereby controlling your appetite.
Don’t drink it
Stay away from soda, gourmet waters (eight teaspoons per bottle), bottled iced teas (more than nine teaspoons per bottle), energy drinks (almost seven teaspoons per can), and bottled coffee drinks (eight teaspoons per bottle) They taste delicious but store bought small size smoothies contain more than a dozen teaspoons.
Incorporate these safety nutrition tips. You will feel great, have tons of energy, and protect your health.