Sugar - Ways to avoid it
So what's a savvy consumer like you to do? It's hard enough to fight an enemy you can see. It's harder yet to combat an enemy that you can't detect. But you can still do your part to lower your sugar consumption. And we'll give you some simple tricks:
Start by eliminating all sugary drinks from your diet. Not only do sodas and powered drinks contain sugar, but so do those supposedly health sports drinks and even those fruit juices. Replace those sugar-laden drinks with water. Focus, instead, on drinking more water. Remember that health experts recommend you drink a minimum of 8 eight-ounce glasses of water daily. You can easily replace any of these with water. Bored with plain water? Treat yourself and put a slice of lemon in it. This adds to the flavor without the dangers of the sugar.
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If you know that a food contains sugar, limit your consumption to three times a week. This is, without a doubt, one of the very best techniques to beat the craving for sweets. Other effective methods to reducing your sweets craving is to eat healthy, balanced meals. You need to start your meal off with a protein, preferably a complete protein. A complete protein is any food that comes from an animal.
Then, add a natural source of carbohydrate to it. This could be a vegetable, a legume, or even a properly prepared whole grain or a fruit. But wait, you're not done yet. Next you need to include some good fats to your diet. These include butter, coconut oil, canola oil or olive oil. These fats are much more important than you think. They slow down the entry of sugar into the blood stream, preventing those miserable mid-morning and afternoon crashes.
Your next step in reducing your sugar consumption is to replace refined sugars with natural ones. There is, indeed, a difference. Refined sugar products include white sugar ? like you may put in your coffee or you put in your cereal. Refined sugar also comes in many other forms, though, so you have to read food labels carefully. Other names refined sugar goes by include corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, and sucrose. You also want to eliminate as much as possible all artificial sweeteners.
Instead, you want to become familiar with products such as maple syrup, molasses and raw unfiltered honey. Many health food stores offer products made with these natural sweeteners. You can even find cookies and ice cream made with these. This is a great introduction to the natural alternative that replaces refined sugars. When you begin to switch from refined sugar to natural, go slowly and be patient with yourself. Sugar is a powerful addiction!
