Everywhere you look, sugar is being demonised. But is sugar really the bad guy it’s made out to be? Or is there shades of grey in the truth? Let’s look at the truth about sugar

What Sugar Is

At the end of the day, sugar is just a simple carbohydrate. Every carbohydrate breaks down into some form of sugar after digestion. So if you’ve ever eaten a piece of fruit or a serve of vegetables, you’ve consumed sugar.

Obviously, the sugars found in fruit and vegetables is healthy! So sugar itself is not the problem. No one will become healthy by cutting out fruit and vegetables.

Yes, if you eat excessive sugar, even if it’s good sugar – you will gain weight. This is basic science. But unless you’re eating heaps of dried fruits or kilos of bananas every day, you’re unlikely to gain weight by eating natural sugars found in nutrient-dense produce.

Where The Problem Is

The real problem isn’t in the piece of fruit you snack on. It’s the added sugars that are in everything these days.

Added sugars can be found in everyday items such as:

• Flavoured yoghurts
• Condiments and sauces
• Muesli bars
• Fruit drinks
• Sports drinks
• Cereals
• Baked treats

These sugars spike your blood sugar levels so you get a high and then crash. This leads us to crave sugar and junk foods, get hungry quickly and experience energy fluctuations. It becomes a cycle where you eat unhealthy food, gain weight, feel bad, and around it goes.

The key to regaining health is to reduce your added sugar intake to balance out your blood sugar levels. If you do this, you’ll feel fuller for longer, have steady energy, and excess weight will drop off.

What About Artificial Sweeteners?

Some people will start using artificial sweeteners in place of sugar. But unfortunately, that’s not going to help you! They do the same thing to your blood sugar levels as pure sugar does.

You don’t feel full, you just crave sweet things even more. So you end up eating more artificially sweetened things,. Remember – the sweetener might be calorie-free, that doesn’t mean the food is!

Tips To Keep Your Sugar Intake Healthy

If you think an addiction to sugar is controlling you, there are things you can do to help. Here are my top tips for reducing sugar in your diet.

1. Keep a food diary – this will help you to learn how much sugar you are consuming. It might feel like you’re not having much, but the jam at breakfast, the sweetened yoghurt as a snack and a high-sugar sauce with dinner adds up quickly.
2. Want something sweet? Eat your fruit – fruit is one of the healthiest sources of natural sugar. It is packed with nutrition, including fibre, minerals, vitamins and antioxidants. So if your sweet tooth is screaming, snack on some berries instead of some lollies.
3. Read your labels – As someone who has worked in the food industry, I know there are dozens of words for ‘sugar’ on a label. If it has things like syrups, ingredients ending in -ose, or even other sweeteners like honey – that’s still added sugar.

Where The Problem Is:

If you want to know the 5 foods people don’t realise are packed with sugars, have a watch of my video here.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.95″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]

Do you want to break the addiction to sugar and feel healthy and vibrant again?