Limiting Added Sugars in Your Diet
Added sugars are one of those empty calories that work against our health and our weight loss journey. It is recommended that only 10% of our daily calorie intake should be made up of added sugars – 150 calories (38g sugar) maximum for men and 100 calories (25g sugar) maximum for women.
What Are Added Sugars?
Added sugars are sugars that are not naturally occurring in food. Common sources of added sugars are breakfast and bars, sugar-sweetened beverages, desserts or sweet snacks, coffee and teas, sandwiches, candies, plain sugars, sugar-sweetened yogurts and milk, etc. Without much scrutiny, one can see that it’s almost impossible to avoid these food items listed. Hence, the importance of consciously selecting items that do not significantly increase your sugar intake per day.
Through my weight loss journey, I’ve been able to find some hacks that help me reduce added sugars in my diet without missing it much. See them below. I hope they help you too.
1. Low or No-Sugar Drinks.
Some of us like sweet drinks. I personally know some people who do not like water at all. There are several diet drinks that are sweetened with artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, saccharin, etc. These make the drinks taste sweet, without the sugar. And guess what? Most of them are zero calories. Which means, you’ll consume your “soda” and not pay for it. However, as it is normally said, “Too much of anything is bad.” So even though, you can get a cheat with it, be mindful of how much you drink.
2. Consume Sweets Less Often.
By sweets, I mean candies, chocolates, desserts, ice-cream, the whole nine yards. While these were not 100% off limits when I was losing weight, I at them very sparsely. I made eating sweets a “treat” that I cherished in that short moment. In addition to that, I also at them in very small portions at a time. Calories rack up really quickly by eating these sweets. One medium vanilla cone from Dairy Queen contains 320 calories (36g sugar); there are 210 calories in one 58g donut from Tim Hortons (6g sugar).
3. Choose fruits as desserts, instead.
It’s really tempting and easy to fall when you go for a buffet dinner and see all those lovely desserts. Thankfully, very close to those tempting desserts are usually fruits (yes, natural sugar foods). Resist the temptation to go for that sweet and choose fruits instead. You will get the sweetness and the nutrients all in one, and your body will thank you for it.
4. Drink water.
Drink good ’ol water. It has always been zero calories and always refreshing and EVER necessary for your body. Water is the best drink you can have and you’ll save yourself several unnecessary calories and adverse health effects from added sugars if you stick to water.
5. Read Labels and Choose Low Or No Sugar Options.
I’m an addicted label reader. I spend a lot of time in the stores, not because I have a lot to buy, but because I am spending time reading the labels. Labels can inform you about which packaged foods (such as, cereals, yogurts, cocoa powder, etc.) are high in sugar and which are not. Go for the ones with less sugar, less sodium, and less saturated fats.
These are little, not-so-tasking steps you can take that will greatly help your weight loss journey.
Let me know how it goes.
How much calories should you eat daily? Find out here...
