This is part two of a month-long series by registered dietitian Leslie Beck. You can read part one here.
If you’ve decided to get serious about cutting back on refined sugar this year, I applaud you. Consuming too much of the sweet stuff – especially from sugar-sweetened beverages – has been shown to promote weight gain, raise the risk of Type 2 diabetes and increase the likelihood of dying from cardiovascular disease.
A guide to sweeteners
So where do you start? Should you switch to honey? Agave syrup? Artificial sweeteners? Or should you simply train your taste buds to prefer things less sweet? When it comes to your health – and calories – there’s no difference between sugar and so-called “natural” sweeteners.
Sugar alternatives – which ones are the healthiest options for you?
How to find sugar in everyday foods
Sugar is sugar, be it white or brown, honey, maple syrup or brown rice syrup. Your goal in 2015 is to cut your sugar intake to no more than 5 per cent of your daily calories. Here’s how to do that by reading food labels and being wary of healthy-sounding foods surprisingly high in sugar.
How to cut the hidden sugars out of your diet:
Diet soda do's and don'ts
You might be thinking your best bet is to swap sugar for artificial sweeteners. They’re sugar free, void of calories and they don’t spike your blood sugar like sugar does. But you shouldn’t go this route.
Here are tips to help you give up diet soda (because you know you should):
How to manage a sweet tooth
The key to cutting your sugar intake is detoxing your taste buds so they want less of it. For starters, reduce the amount of sweetener you add to coffee, tea and breakfast cereals incrementally, say by one-quarter teaspoon each week, until you’re used to – and prefer – a less sweet taste. Then cut back more.
Here are six more tips on how to keep your sweet tooth under control: