6 ways to reduce your sugar consumption

I can't emphasize enough the importance of reducing your sugar consumption.   Eating less sugar will reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and being overweight.  Eating less sugar will stabilize your metabolism, help your gut create an environment for good bacteria and improve overall digestion.  Additionally, reducing your sugar consumption will greatly improve your mood.  As I wrote a few weeks ago, your ultimate goal should be to reduce your treats to less than one per day, but if you're currently a multiple-treats-per-day person, start with the goal of going down to one a day instead.

Indulged in a few too many cookies, did we?

1) Eat Grains or Veggies, Protein, and Healthy Fats for Breakfast
The easiest way to reduce your sugar cravings are to start the day off WITHOUT sugar, and without foods that your body turns to sugar.  That means choosing not to eat sweets or cereal (even the "whole-grain" kind) and instead eating whole foods that your body will digest slowly.  Examples of grains that make good breakfast are steel cut oats or quinoa.  This fast and easy steel cut oats recipe was just shared with me by one of my readers. Farm fresh eggs are also an excellent choice (pastured chicken with access to its natural omnivore diet is by far the best).  If you need to be quick in the morning, try making hard boiled eggs  or roasted vegetables ahead of time.   Great examples of healthy fats are unrefined coconut oil (you could add a bit of it into your jars of oats!), olive oil, sesame oil, or grass-fed butter.  The fiber in the grains or the vegetables combined with the healthy fat will give your body something to be satisfied on for several hours.

2) Replace Afternoon Sweets with Fruit
Try eating fruit in the afternoon instead of reaching for cookies or candy. If you work, this will mean bringing fruit choices to work with you, and being prepared to say "no" when someone else at work offers you junk food.  While it's true that there is natural sugar in fruit, it also has fiber, which helps to slow down your body's metabolism and improve digestion.

3) Keep a Big Bowl of Fruit on the Table at Home
While you're at it, buy more fruit than usual this week and keep it in a big bowl on the table at home.  When you roam to the kitchen foraging for a snack, let that fruit be your first option.  Although a couple of the pieces of fruit may go bad by the end of the week, that is much better than having not bought fruit and having eaten cookies and candy all week instead.

4) Eat Dark Chocolate
Eat real dark chocolate--72% or higher, and organic is best, up to three times per week.  Obviously, the chocolate REPLACES other sweets you might be eating, and moderation is key.  But really good dark chocolate, eaten in moderation, actually has health benefits.  You can also get benefits from Cocoa powder, which has no sugar in also naturally high in fiber.   (My most recent chocolate recipe is here.)

5) Stop Drinking Juice
Piggybacking on the soda discussion, Juice is essentially sugar water.  Unlike eating the whole piece of fruit, drinking juice has few nutrients, no fiber and is all sugar.  Find ways to drink less juice, either by diluting it heavily with seltzer, or by switching beverage of choice to iced herbal tea, milk, or water.

6) Go Homemade
A friend of mine has a rule in her home that the only time her family can eat sweets is when they make them.  If you are someone who tends to eat a lot of packaged cookies or cakes, this rule could really benefit you.  By making your own foods, you're likely to eat less of it. You can also control how much you make by choosing to make a half-batch or to give some of it away. And, when you make it, you control the amount and kind of sweetener in the recipe, and you actually have to exert physical effort in order to get the treat.  (Although the calories burned cooking certainly don't make up for the ones you'll be consuming, you will be getting more physical activity than you would have just grabbing a packaged treat.)