4 Tips to reduce your sugar intake

Sugar is found naturally in many foods such as fruits, vegetables, and milk. While these foods may contain sugar, they also contain vitamins, minerals, and other important nutrients.  

Manufacturers may also add different forms of sugar to processed and prepackages foods such as cookies, soda, ice cream and in less obvious products such as ketchup, salad dressing, etc. The added sugar provides little to no nutritional value and can lead to weight gain and many health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and cancers.

Limiting your intake of added sugar can significantly reduce your sugar intake and improve your overall health and wellbeing. Doing this may be easier than you think, here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Stop adding sugar to your tea/coffee and cereals

Cut back on the amount of sugar you add to things you eat or drink regularly such as tea, coffee, or cereal. If you cannot cut the sugar out abruptly, it may be easier to try cutting out one teaspoon of sugar every day until you are able to stop adding sugar completely. Remember that honey and syrup are also a form of added sugar as well. You can also substitute the sugar with natural sweeteners such as chopped fruits in your cereal or oats.

2. Cut back on sugary drinks

Sugary drinks such as sodas, sweetened juice, energy drinks, smoothies, and milkshakes. Although fruit juices and smoothies may provide nutritional value, some may also contain large amounts of sugar.

For example, one glass of apple juice may contain more than 6 teaspoons of sugar and is equivalent to eating 3 or 4 apples in one go. When you consume your calories in the form of drinks, you are more likely to consume more calories.

Consider swapping sugary drinks for healthier alternatives such as:

• Water, you can flavor this with a slice of lemon, orange, or strawberries
• Herbal teas without sugar
• Unsweetened sparkling water

3. Read nutrition labels and ingredients

Added sugar is usually disclosed on food labels to help you know the sugar content of the foods you consume. Making it a habit to always check food labels can help you avoid such products.

Many foods that you may not even suspect can be a source of added sugars.  For example, some canned foods, sauces like ketchup, barbecue sauce and sweet chili sauce.

You can check for added sugars either under the total carbohydrates or in the ingredient list. There are however many different names for added sugars on food labels and this can make it more difficult to spot. Some of the most common names include:

• Corn syrup
• Glucose
• Fructose
• Sucrose
• Cane sugar
• Maltose
• Molasses

4. Watch out for processed snacks

Many snacks may appear healthy at first glance, especially when the packaging contains words such as “natural” but these snacks may contain added sugars. Snacks such as protein bars, cereal bars, biscuits, and even dried fruits may contain significant amounts of added sugars and may be no different from sweets and chocolate bars.

When shopping, you should look out for lower-sugar types of snacks or buy smaller packs of your favorite snacks.  Some healthy lower-sugar snacks include:

• Nuts
• Oat cakes or oat biscuits
• Fresh fruits

In conclusion, added sugar can easily sneak into our diet even when we think that we do not consume a lot of sugar. A diet high in added sugar increases your risk of many health problems and should be avoided.