The rising concern of our sugar intake has everyone talking. Added sugars are the worst ingredient in our every day diet. It provides loads of calories with no added nutrients and with time it can damage your metabolism, lead to obesity and diabetes.
You might think that you do not consume a lot of sugar. I mean the little bit in your morning tea, can not do harm, right? This where the sugar awareness week kicks in. We need to be educated. Majority of our everyday products that we eat contains lots of unnecessary added sugar.
How much are we consuming
Once you start reading labels you will quickly realize just how much sugar you consume. The recommended daily allowance for adults are as follows:
Men – 9 teaspoons or 37.5 grams
Women – 6 teaspoons or 25 grams
Now, look at the below. This use to be my typical day:
Honey drizzled over fruit yoghurt with a handful of muesli mixed in.
3 pieces of fruit during the day, a handful of nuts & dried fruit as a mid morning snack. Lunch, a small dark chocolate bar (35g) and then dinner. I also enjoyed 3 or so cups of tea during the day each with a spoon or two of honey.
This sounds ok, doesn’t it? I mean my lunch and dinner were home made. And all the other stuff are “healthy” right?
The problem was that all of this totaled to around 20 plus teaspoons of sugar. And that is not even counting the hidden sugars like the ones in the bread, tomato sauce or cook-in sauces used to make dinner.
Can you see where the problem is? We may think that we are not consuming a lot of sugar. But when you start reading the labels of the products that you buy you soon realize that pretty much all products has some sort of sugar added to them. These are called hidden sugars. And sneaky as the manufacturers can be, they don’t always list sugar with the name that we know. They like using fancy words like : corn syrup, Dextrose, Fructose, Fruit juice concentrate, Maltose….. Oh I can go on for a long time, there are so many names for sugar.
The solution
We need to take action, and fast. We are creating our own illnesses and obesity. Have you ever heard the saying : “You are what you eat.” Well this applies to sugar as well.
An overconsumption of sugar is leading to so many diseases and illnesses. Simply being aware of what you eat, reading a label and changing your eating habits can help your health so much. We need education. Thank goodness for sugar awareness week.
Click the link below to download this 1 week sugar free meal plan.
Check out this post for some tips on how to quit sugar. http://www.livingdelish.com/the-sugar-free-buzz-how-do-you-quit-sugar/
Here you will find a printable easy to follow meal plan. This will give you an idea on which foods to eat and make meal planning easier.
Some alternatives
If you have everyday products that you love, consider to make your own version. This way you will know what goes into it, and so you can control the sugar added.
Look at this http://www.livingdelish.com/homemade-sauces/
These are common sauces that we all enjoy. The difference is that these sauces are sugar free but it does not compromise on the taste.
Another favorite of mine is Granola. This is my go to breakfast. Fast convenient and super tasty!! But have a look at the added sugar. You will actually be shocked. What’s the point of trying to eat healthy but at your very first meal of the day you get sabotaged?
So, I tried this recipe. And since then only use this recipe. http://www.livingdelish.com/sugar-free-granola/
You don’t have to quit cold turkey, but try to cut down your consumption. Simple be aware of what’s in the products that you use and make the decision to cut down sugar for your own health and well being.
