After our blog: The Hype Around Sugar on the danger of sugar especially fructose, you may be wondering how to rid yourself of it in your life.
It can be quite tough considering sugar is found in many items that you would not expect such as sauces, yogurts, condiments, breads, and about 80% of supermarket items.
Also, you could possibly suffer from cravings. A recent study showed sugar to be 8 times more addictive than cocaine. So quitting may not always be so easy.
Here are some strategies and advice when giving up the sweet stuff to help you on your quest to become a healthier, happier you!
1. Expect to have cravings and learn to say no
This seems like obvious advice, but you don’t know what it’s like to have true sugar cravings unless you give it up! When you are going crazy over the fact there is no sugar in your system, you may find yourself going out of your way to get it.
Stay calm, rationalise and do something to distract yourself until the craving passes. You need to learn to say no to sweet treats.
Sugar in tea or coffee is the least of your worries. The average low fat yogurt has about 8 teaspoons of added sugar in it. Sugar hides in very unsuspecting places so make sure you know what is in your food before you eat it!
2. Let your taste buds heal
The initial phases of cravings and getting used to real food can be quite hard, especially if you’ve been consuming sugar all your life.
A good tip here is to go strictly no sugar and let your tastebuds heal. Because they are accustomed to super sweet, you may need to wait a week or two before your taste buds readjust to unsweetened food.
When you adjust foods that didn’t seem sweet before can become unbearably sweet. Once this happens you know you are on track to cutting sugar right out of your diet!
Helpful note: replacing sugar with sweeteners does not really help, as they are pretty detrimental to your health and wellbeing.
Once you get past the initial cull of sugar you should be able to heal your tastebuds and stop craving the stuff! Just be prepared for the initial shock!
Finally the best advice I can give is just don’t stock sugar in your house. You're less likely to be tempted if the devil is not within reach!
3. Eat more fat and natural foods
So how can you contain these sugar cravings better? A good way is to eat more fat (saturated or unsaturated NO TRANSFAT!)
Fat will keep you fuller for longer, is used by the body for building new and repairing current structures like cell walls and helps boost your metabolism.
What type of fat? Avocado, nuts, animal fat, full-fat diary, plant oils, eggs… These fats support your body is so many positive ways and can also curb sugar cravings.
They also give you a steady, slow-burning energy which helps you avoid the manic highs after eating sugar and crashing lows at 10am and 3pm each day!
Eat as natural as possible and try to make this as varied as possible. What does this mean? Fresh produce and anything that doesn’t come in a can or packet. It is very likely that foods that are processed or premade will have not only added sugar but preservatives, colours, flavours etc.
Best to get rid of them
Also trying to eat a wide variety of foods can increase.
4. Eat as much variety of these foods as you can
Eating a wide variety of whole foods and fresh produce can be very satisfying and distract you from ridding yourself of sugar. Look up recipes, try new things, figure out the best way to cook everything and set a schedule of what dinners you would like to eat each week!
Let us know if these tips were helpful! We'd love to hear from you!