Tips to cut out sugar — Jinan Banna

How’s your diet? Think you’re doing a pretty good job, but wondering how to cut back a little on sweets? In considering things to cut out of your diet, sugar is definitely an important one. While it’s OK to have some, this is part of the diet that doesn’t do us much good and can be harmful in excess. Here are a few useful tips:

Check the food label

I was so excited about the recent change to the food label to include added sugar. I check this religiously. You might be surprised to find how many “healthy” foods include a ton of added sugar. I was recently admiring some energy chunks that seemed to have a lot of nice ingredients, when I discovered that there was a lot of clever marketing involved to conceal the added sugar.

Choose foods without added sugar that satisfy

My recent blog post gives some ideas for desserts with little to no sugar. I talk about options like dark chocolate and various types of fruit.

Don’t drink your calories

This is something that stuck with me since I attended graduate school in nutrition. There is a lot of evidence that links drinks with added sugar to weight gain and many chronic diseases. See if you can get used to other unsweetened options. Lately, I have really been enjoying Japanese-style barley tea, which is very tasty and refreshing.

Beware of seemingly innocent foods

You might be tempted to indulge in desserts that seem to be somewhat healthy, such as pineapple ice cream. How bad could it be, right? It has fruit! The ingredients in some products may surprise you-one version of pineapple ice cream contains sugar as the first ingredient, artificial flavor, and does not actually have any pineapple. A better choice? Blend your own with real pineapple, banana, almond milk and ice.

Another such deceiving food is a mac nut smoothie I nearly ordered at a beachfront restaurant the other day. I thought to myself, “how I love macadamia nuts; sounds delicious!” Upon further inquiry, however, I found out that rather than actual nuts, the smoothie contained a macadamia nut syrup, for a hefty dose of sugar and none of the wonderful nutrients of the macadamia nut. I decided to hold off on that order!

As a general rule, if you are looking to cut sugar, examine your dessert foods carefully! I often find that I am even more satisfied with a slightly sweet dessert as I am with one that is loaded with sugar, and don’t come away with a stomach ache!

Originally published at https://www.jinanbanna.com on June 26, 2020.