Learn How To Reduce The Sugar In Your Recipes Without Sacrificing Flavor Texture Or That Pinch Of Happiness
Lets make this clear from the get-go. Not every recipe, sad to say, is a good candidate for reducing sugar. Whether youre using granulated sugar, confectioners sugar or turbinado, this ingredient can play an essential role in the composition of many recipes. Lets face it, a creme brulee would be pretty sad without it. But that being said, theres a little wiggle room when it comes to cutting the amount of sugar in a recipe without compromising flavor or texture. Follow along as we share how.
Why Cut Out Sugar
Reducing sugar intake may improve a persons health.
Many adults eat much more sugar than the authorities recommend.The National Institutes of Health , for example, estimate that adults in the United States get around 15% of their calories from added sugars alone. This sugar intake does not even include natural sugars, such as those in products such as fruit and milk.
Excessive sugar consumption has links to several harmful health conditions, including:
- nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
- dental plaque and cavities
Reducing the amount of sugar in the diet can help a person reduce their risk of these health conditions.
Replacing high sugar foods with healthful options can help a person get all of their essential vitamins and minerals without the added calories. It may also help them lose weight, if necessary.
Here are eight simple tips a person can use to help cut sugar from their diet:
What Is Added Sugars And How To Reduce Added Sugar Intake
The health impacts of this sugar surplus are considerable. A sugar-laden diet puts you at a higher risk for problems, including heart disease, memory concerns , type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and it makes it harder to maintain a healthy weight. It also leads to cavities. Sodas and other acidic sweetened drinks, in particular, can damage tooth enamel.
Because of the health impact of added sugars, the American Heart Associations recommendation is to limit added sugars to under 6 teaspoons per day for women and kids and 9 teaspoons for men. Not quite there yet? Here are 15 smart strategies for cutting down on added sugars from the leading dietary sources.
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Sugar How To Cut Down
Did you know that fruit juice can contain a similar amount of sugar per 100ml as a fizzy drink? And at 7 cubes per can that’s the sum total amount of sugar an adult should be consuming in an entire day!
Eating sugar in excess is not healthy and new guidelines in the UK recommend that we reduce the amount of sugar in our diets. Sugar, like salt, hides in much of the processed foods we buy, so we can consume too much without even knowing it.
Too much sugar means too many calories which leads to weight gain. This all adds up to increased risk of obesity and serious illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Based on current trends, if we don’t cut down on sugar, 1 in 3 people will be obese by 2034.
Desserts And Sweet Snacks
The goal isnt to eliminate dessert from your life, but to bring your added sugar intake into a healthier range. That might mean eating dessert a little less often, making some healthier sweet swaps, and of course, managing the added sugars that are creeping into your diet in other areas.
Here are some ideas related to treats:
- Have dark chocolate. It tends to have less sugar than other desserts and it has potential health benefits. In one small study, people who ate dark chocolate reported fewer cravings for sweet, salty or fatty foods. Dark chocolate is also rich in antioxidants compounds that help offset the cellular damage that contributes to the development of many diseases.
- Enjoy fruit. Fruit contains natural sugars and its the type of sweetness our bodies were designed to enjoy. You can doctor up plain fruit so it resembles dessert by sprinkling cinnamon onto banana slices, broiling a grapefruit or sauteing a chopped apple sprinkled with pie spices, for example. Adding some nuts or seeds or a spoonful of yogurt can make it feel even more special.
- Be mindful with sweets. If you think about it, there are some desserts you love and some you can live without. Pause and think about where a treat falls on this spectrum and consider skipping those that arent that enjoyable. And when you decide to have something sweet, be present, eat it from a plate or bowl and take your time to enjoy it.
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Consume Smaller Portions Of High
Typically grab a bag of M& Ms or a chocolate bar as an afternoon snack? Finish your day with a bowl of ice cream? If you want to cut back on sugar, you can start by cutting your serving sizes in half. By halving your regular portion sizes and saving the leftovers for tomorrow, you’ll cut back on 50 percent of your added sugar intake from those foods. Subsidize your plate with something fresh and healthy, like nuts, fruit, steel cut oats or one of our go-to high-protein snacks. You’ll get a smaller sugar boost, without sacrificing the sugary taste you crave.
Baking With Reduced Sugar
OK, how many of you out there say you want to cut back on the sugar in your baked goods? Now, before you envision an endless battle between your conscience, willpower, and your passion for chocolate chip cookies, let me tell you: baking with reduced sugar can be… well, a piece of cake: so long as you know what you’re doing.
1. Many recipes use less sugar to begin with
Most savory yeast breads include no sugar at all. Ditto some pancakes, biscuits, popovers, and other treats. Cutout cookies are generally lower in sugar than oatmeal cookies. Pie compared to cake? No contest fruit pie is generally much lower in sugar than the typical cake. Read recipes carefully compare their sugar levels using bakers percentage . Youll soon discover which recipes are naturally lower in sugar.
2. Reduce sugar in recipes the smart way: use bakers percentage
Bakers percentage is a simple process professional bakers use to adjust ingredient amounts in a recipe. Want to lower the sugar in your muffin recipe, but dont know how to start? Learn bakers percentage, and youll avoid much of the guesswork involved in tweaking your recipe to taste.
3. Baking with reduced sugar can affect texture and shelf life
Sugar is hygroscopic i.e., it attracts and holds water. Baked goods with sugar tend to be softer, moister, and have better shelf life. The more you reduce sugar , the drier and more crumbly your baked goods will be and the shorter their shelf life.
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Simple Ways To Stop Eating Lots Of Sugar
Eating too much sugar may be devastating for your health.
Added sugar, which is the sugar found in sodas, sweets, and other processed foods, has been shown to contribute to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and tooth decay .
Research suggests that most Americans eat anywhere from 5592 grams of added sugar daily, which is equivalent to 1322 teaspoons of table sugar each day representing about 1216% of daily calorie intake .
This is significantly more than the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendation of getting less than 10% of your daily calories from added sugars .
The World Health Organization goes a step further, recommending less than 5% of calories from added sugar for optimal health .
However, it can be challenging to slash added sugars from your diet. This article lists 13 simple ways to stop eating so much sugar.
Tips For Cutting Down On Sugar
Keeping tabs on how much sugar youre swallowing is an important part of a heart-healthy lifestyle, especially if youve been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes. The empty calories from added sugars in desserts, some drinks and candy can lead to weight gain and spikes in blood glucose levels.
The good news is that cutting down on sugar may be easier than you think.
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Consume No More Than Six Teaspoons Of Sugar In A Day Says Aadhya Ramineni Going On To Suggest How This Can Be Achieved In The Last Article Of Her Three
As defined by the World Health Organization , chronic diseases are not passed from person to person. They are of long duration and generally slow progression. Chronic diseases related to sugar include stroke, diabetes and heart disease. According to WHO, for the past 15 years, the leading cause of death worldwide has been heart disease. Stroke takes second place, and diabetes follows at seventh. Not only does sugar overconsumption decrease lifespan, but it also decreases peoples overall quality of life. In the modern world, unless one actively avoids added sugar, one is bound to over consume the harmful substance. In this article we will discuss how to lead a healthier lifestyle and eat six teaspoons or less of sugar.
S To Successfully Cut Down Sugar In Your Diet
The average American adult consumes the equivalent of about 32 teaspoons of sugar per day. Sugar is really the number one food additive: it is added to drinks, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, to bread, sauces, dressings, and to all kinds of processed foods including many low-fat products.
Cutting down sugar in your diet may be one of the best actions you can take to improve your health and your weight. And you don’t need to have tremendous amounts of willpower or to go cold turkey .
Here are four steps to help you cut down sugar in your diet. You’ll want to follow the steps in order, except for step four which can be taken whenever you want.
1. Give yourself 30 days
There is mounting evidence that sugar can be addictive. But if you have strong cravings and you feel you’re addicted to sugar, don’t get discouraged.
Many people will try to convince you that breaking an addiction is very hard because of hormones and neurotransmitters in your brain, but this attitude can actually be quite disempowering. In fact, breaking an addiction is perfectly doable with the right approach. I have personally helped quite a few women do it with great success.
Your best bet is to use a gentle, step-by-step process that gives your body and your taste buds time to adapt. The mistake many people make when they decide to get off sugar is they want to be perfect from day one, so they go cold turkey and cut out sugar completely from the beginning.
3. Eat more real food
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How Much Sugar Is Too Much
Nutrition labels tell you how much sugar a food contains. Food that has 15g or more per 100g is considered high in sugar. Anything under 5g of total sugar per 100g is low.
New recommendations say that adults should be consuming no more than 30 grams of sugar each day. On average, this is about half the amount of sugar an adult currently consumes per day. Teenagers are consuming about 3 times the recommended amount.Children from 7-10 should consume no more than 24g and children from 4-6 a 19g maximum .
Switch To Natural Zero
There are several artificial sweeteners on the market that are totally free of sugar and calories, such as sucralose and aspartame.
However, these artificial sweeteners may be linked to imbalances in gut bacteria that can lead to poorer blood sugar control, increased food cravings, and weight gain. For this reason, it may be best to avoid artificial sweeteners too (
37 ).
They are all naturally derived, although they do go through some processing before they arrive at your local grocery store. Still, research on these sugar alternatives is ongoing.
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Swap Marinara Sauce For Fresh Tomatoes
There’s really no need to add sugar to tomato sauce because, well, the fruit is naturally sweet. But that doesn’t stop food manufacturers from loading their cans to the brim with the stuff. Since store-bought tomato sauce is often made with things like dehydrated tomatoes and cheap oils, they rely on the sweet stuff to amp up the flavor. Your best bet? Switch to a no-sugar-added option like Ragu’s No Sugar Added Tomato Basil or combine chopped fresh tomatoes with olive oil and spices in a frypan to create a quick pasta topper right on your stovetop.
Top Tips To Healthier Teeth And Gums
Sugar is everywhere. Sweet, savoury, spicy, low-fatso often we find that the food and drinks we consume everyday are packed full of sugar some obvious, some in disguise.
It is well known that sugar is bad for our teeth. Yet sugar-related dental problems are still the most widespread cause of poor oral health and gum disease.
The clear and simple message is to reduce the amount of sugar in our diets and the frequency at which we consume sugar. The mouth needs time to recover from sugar attacks at to keep decay at bay. Cutting down on sugar reduces the damage to the teeth and also helps improve the waistline.
Here are our top tips to being sugar smart:
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Have A Savory Breakfast
Get this: Having a sweet breakfast will set you up for all day long sugar cravings, says Brown. Yes, that means saying sayonara to your sugar-sweetened coffee and sugary cereal. Sorry! Though that may sound plain awful, it doesn’t have to be. Sprinkle cinnamon into your coffee or sweeten a low-sugar cereal with slices of fruit. Better yet, opt for a savory morning meal: Whip up a veggie omelet or top your oats with ground pepper, cheddar, scallions and a fried egg instead of fruit and honey. These filling, satisfying meals will help you stay on the road toward low-sugar success!
How To Eliminate Sugar From Your Diet In 21 Days
Experts agree that most folks are OD’ing on sugara disaster for our health and waistlines. Spend the next three weeks ditching the sweet stuff, rewiring your cravings, and feeling better every day.
Mounting research shows that going overboard on sugar can lead to high cholesterol and blood pressure and a greater risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, not to mention excess weight gain. But theres a difference between added sugars and the kinds found naturally in whole foods, like fructose in fruit and lactose in dairy: Eating naturally occurring sugars is generally considered healthy because they contain nutrients with metabolic benefits, such as fiber and antioxidants. Added sugars have no such perks they are the type youll be eliminating during this challenge.
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Week 1 to-do list:
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Week 2 to-do list:
- Start slashing: Retrain your palate by making incremental changes. You can lower your taste for sweetness in two weeks, says Dr. Katz.
- Measure carefully: Scoop the sweetener you think you needthen put back half. Half a teaspoon goes a long way, says Sally Kuzemchak, RD.
- Mix it up: Combine no-sugar-added foods with the sweet versions .
- Drink only water: For a full week, down H20 instead of sodas and fruit juices.
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Expert Tips For Cutting Down On Sugar
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After all the fizzy drinks, mince pies and chocolates of the festive season, its not unusual for feel ready for a health kick especially when it comes to sugar.
Unfortunately, we live in a society where sugar is hidden in practically everything and it can often go under different guises, so cutting it out is easier said than done.
Experts say that adults shouldnt exceed a limit of 30 grams of free sugar a day, but many of us struggle to stick to a limit as the sweet stuff can have a powerful impact on the reward system in the brain.
As today marks Sugar Awareness Day, weve found some handy tips for slashing your intake
1. Choose the full-fat optionIf you’re struggling to know which foods are high in refined sugars, stick to the simple rule of avoiding low-fat options.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but even snacks that seem healthy can be high in the sweet-tasting substance.
“Low fat generally means that extra sugar and nasty additives have been added,” says Dr. Michael Mosley. As well as containing less sugar, he explains that full-fat products will often keep you feeling fuller for longer, meaning you wont be tempted to raid the biscuit tin later in the day.
2. Stick to water“We all know that fizzy drinks aren’t great, but did you know that a 330ml can of cola contains around 35 grams of sugar? That means a single can is more than the recommended daily sugar intake for adults,” says addiction expert Chris Hill.
Drop The Bun And Eat Lettuce Wrap Burgers
Burger patties, cheese, and typical dressings such as lettuce and tomato are all very low in carbohydrate.
However, the burger bun is the main issue, and it provides a large number of refined carbs.
For instance, a typical wheat hamburger bun provides 29 grams of carbohydrate .
In recent years, low-carb lettuce-wrap burgers have become increasingly popular.
Ordering one of these lettuce-wraps rather than a traditional burger bun is a simple and convenient swap.
Key Point:
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Make Your Own Salad Dressing
When food manufacturers strip the fat out of salad dressings they replace it with sugar and salt. The result? A waist expanding salad topper that doesn’t have the healthy fats you need to absorb the vital vitamins from the superfoods in your bowl. Keep calories and sugar in check by sticking to two tablespoons of an olive-oil based dressing like Bolthouse Farms Classic Balsamic Olive Oil Vinaigrette, and be sure to steer clear of varieties that use honey, sugar, concentrated fruit juice soybean or vegetable oils. They aren’t doing your body any favors. Or better yet, make a low-sugar dressing yourself!