Welcome to the Simple Steps to Improved Health Challenge Day 11 Limit Added Sugar
Reminder to choose 1 of the first two actions to work on this week starting today or whatever day you want the week to start on for you. See Day 1 for more information about the challenge.
How Does Limiting Added Sugar Improve Health
There are many disease states that can be associated with having excess added sugar including diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, inflammation, and fatty liver.
Some of the potential benefits of when you limit added sugar include a healthier weight, lower triglycerides, lower heart disease risk, healthier teeth, more energy, a sharper memory, less risk of dementia, improved mood, decreased sugar addiction, and improved and younger-looking skin.
You can find some more information on some of these risks and benefits in my post about the Benefits of Eating Sugar.
How to Take Action to Limit Added Sugar
There are a couple of different recommendations for added sugar.
One group recommends no more than 6 tsp of added sugar for women and 9 tsp for men a day. Another recommends 10% of calories from added sugars.
Either one is a good recommendation to follow when you are just starting to decrease your daily added sugar intake. Some people also indicate that it is best to just have no added sugar.
Understand that this is not a recommendation to cut the naturally occurring sugars in fruits, dairy, or carbohydrates in general.
I don’t believe it is reasonable to suggest you remove all processed foods from your diet either. We are moms trying to live in a time where processed foods are readily available and used frequently.
First, you need to get Aware of How Much Added Sugar you are Consuming.
The easiest way to figure out how much added sugar you are consuming is to track it.
I know that sucks, who has time for that, Michelle.
Understand. Just do a quick honest review of a normal day for you. What do you typically eat for each meal and snack that you have? Don’t forget if you typically fly by the office break room and grab a snack or someone’s candy jar at their desk or on the kitchen counter.
Most likely you have any of those packaged items you typically eat in your home. Look at the package label and find the added sugars and write them down. You may want to write down the serving size as well if you know you eat more or less than a serving.
What if you eat out for lunch every day? Typically there will be some nutrition information on the restaurant website that would help you determine if they add sugar to the meals you eat.
You will have a number of grams of sugar. There are 4 grams of sugar in a teaspoon. Take the number of grams of sugar you found times 4 to get the number of teaspoons.
How much are you typically getting in a day? The average for Americans in 2018 was 17 to 22 teaspoons of added sugar consumed a day.
Decide if You Want to Make Changes to Limit Added Sugar
Now you have the information to decide if you want to make changes.
The first thing to understand is the addictive nature of sugar. Our bodies do not recognize and give a hormone cue that we are full when we are eating the fructose that makes up half of the sugar. Knowing this can help you to create a system to stop yourself from eating more sugar.
Maybe you become a label reader and only buy things with limited amounts of sugar. You could also choose to only eat whole fruits that are not prepackaged with sugar syrups. This FDA article helps to explain reading labels for added sugars.
Maybe you drink a lot of soda. Switch out one soda a day with water. The reason I’m not saying go to diet soda is because of the impact that sweeteners have on the body.
The most important thing is to choose to enjoy the foods you eat that have added sugars. Often times we rush through those foods or hide to eat them with a mindset that the foods are bad. Foods are not bad they just are what they are.
When you make a choice to eat something then you don’t have the negative thoughts in your mind about that food. When you are happy with your choice and you enjoy that food, the food works with your body instead of against it.
You will be healthier just by taking joy in the foods you eat.
Go Do it
- Get your information. Track the amount of added sugars you have in a day.
- Decide if you want to decrease the amount of added sugar you have in a day.
- Take steps to decrease added sugar by
- Removing foods from your diet.
- Having less of certain foods in your diet.
- Eating more nutritious whole foods in your diet.
- Checking your mindset around food so that you are enjoying the foods you eat.
If you want more information or help in limiting added sugar you can head to Sugar Addiction Quiz or get on the waitlist for the next 10 Day Sugar Detox.
