Do you want to reduce your sugar consumption? See 5 practical tips

Halloween approaches, bringing thoughts of costumes, pumpkins, spooky decorations and, of course, candy. Who doesn’t love an excuse to eat chocolate bars, candy corn, lollipops and other treats all day long? However, it is not healthy to consume this type of product, as almost all of them are loaded with added sugar .

Unfortunately, for Americans, excessive sugar consumption isn’t limited to a single candy-centric holiday a year. Consuming added sugar has become a part of life, woven into almost every meal.

Americans aged two and older consume on average 17 teaspoons of added sugar per day in accordance with the government data latest available US. It is almost three times the upper limit of what organizations like American Heart Association recommend for women — 6 teaspoons — and almost twice as much for men — 9 teaspoons.

Research continues to accumulate showing that eating too much added sugar can lead to a multitude of health problems, such as weight gain, type 2 diabetes, heart and liver disease, cancer, and even depression.

This love affair with sugar isn’t entirely our fault; the system is rigged against us, according to an expert.

“If you are one of the unfortunate people who really struggles with sugar cravings and cravings, you are trapped in a food environment that is constantly feeding you suggestions: Eat sugar, eat sugar,” Laura Schmidt tells Chief Medical Correspondent from the CNN Sanjay Gupta, recently on his “Chasing Life” podcast.

Schmidt is a sociologist and professor of health policy at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, USA. She is also the principal investigator of SugarSciencea clearinghouse for scientific evidence on sugar and its impact on health under the auspices of UC San Francisco.

Schmidt explains that he doesn’t think people should demonize sugar, but that need to reduce how much they eat .

“There’s a problem with the way we talk about food and nutrition, which is that we focus on single ingredients or single nutrients,” he says. “From a health point of view, that’s not what matters. What matters is the diet as a whole; what matters is having all the macronutrients in a relatively good balance.”

However, Schmidt adds that Americans are “well over the limit” when it comes to sugar. “And we really need to think about ways to reduce this particular ingredient.”

But as many know, it’s not always easy to reduce sugar because it’s hidden in so many foods, from the obvious (soft drinks, cakes and sweets) to the more subtle (breakfast cereals, bread, yogurt and tomato sauce). According to some estimates, Added sweeteners are in 74% of packaged foods sold in supermarkets .

The reason added sugar has ended up in so many food items is pretty straightforward, according to Schmidt.

“Food companies have three ingredients they can use to make foods more palatable — some people say hyper-palatable, so extremely appealing to consumers — and those are sugar, fat and salt,” he says. “And basically, they vary the combination of sugar, fat and salt in most of our ultra-processed foods. They’re often put there because the industrial food production process kind of makes things taste bad.”

Breaking away from sugar can be difficult. Schmidt has five tips for controlling your consumption:

1. Avoid sugary drinks

“Focus on reducing or eliminating sugary drinks such as soda, sports drinks, energy drinks, artificial juices,” she says in an email. “These are by far the largest source of added sugars in the American diet, especially for children, and they have no nutritional value.”

Schmidt noted that liquid sugar can easily become a habit that causes you to consume large amounts without really realizing it.

2. Get rid of temptation at work

“Encourage your employer or work unit to join others who have stopped selling sugary drinks in vending machines and coffee shops at work,” adds Schmidt, adding that these can be replaced by “the many delicious sugar-free alternatives.”

“Clinical tests show that when employers stop selling sugary drinks, regular soda drinkers lose, on average, half an inch in waist circumference over 10 months,” says Schmidt, adding that SugarScience provides free materials to help workplaces. work to reduce the availability of these drinks.

While you’re at it, maybe take a long walk around the candy bowl in the common area so you don’t “hear her calling your name.”

3. Eliminate sugary foods from your home

“Agree as a family not to have sugary foods and drinks around — have them when you go out, but not as staples at home,” recommends Schmidt. “Studies show that reducing sugar is best done in groups, not alone. So make a reasonable plan together about what you will and won’t have in the kitchen.”

Even though eliminating sugary foods and soda from your home isn’t enough to stop you from thinking about them, it will give you time to resist the urge to indulge in them.

4. Calm your cravings

Have a plan for dealing with the psychological stress of sugar withdrawal.

“Sugar cravings are very real, and there are easily learned, evidence-based strategies for dealing with them,” says Schmidt. “They depend on cultivating the simple art of experiencing desire in a relaxed state without acting on it — called ‘surfing the urge.’”

There are free guided meditations of this type online. Schmidt also points to self-directed audio resources that SugarScience uses to help soda drinkers quit smoking, which is participating in a National Institutes of Health-funded randomized clinical trial at 16 sites.

5. Put sugary foods in their place

Reserve sugary foods for desserts; don’t allow them to infiltrate every part of your diet.

“Adult women should limit themselves to less than 6 teaspoons of added sugar daily, 9 teaspoons for men, 4 teaspoons for children, and no added sugar for children under 2,” Schmidt says in an email. .

One way to control your intake of added sugars, according to Schmidt, is to make your own desserts and treats. “This means enjoying the sugar you eat by making it together and savoring it together, making the (added) sugar you eat part of the celebration of life,” he says.

Adhering as closely as possible to these guidelines means examining food labels. Look for the line showing the “added sugar” content in a food to account for the grams of excess sugar you consume in a day.

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This content was originally published in Want to reduce your sugar consumption? See 5 practical tips on the CNN Brasil website.

Source: CNN Brasil