After reading an article about
this guy who went off sugar, I started thinking about how I might reduce my sugar intake. He described unpleasant side effects after eating "healthy" foods that contained more than the recommended serving of sugar every day for two months. I started thinking about how I consume more sugar than I need to because I have a sweet tooth. I add sugar to my tea; I put it in muffins and pancakes on a Saturday morning; I follow recipes for cookies and brownies, never questioning how much sugar it calls for. I figure because I was making them from scratch and knew there weren't preservatives and fake sweeteners included, then they weren't so bad for me.
Here's how I've started to reduce the "optional" sugar in my diet:
- cinnamon or vanilla in tea, instead of sugar or honey
- yogurt which already has enough sugar in smoothies
- rice bran syrup substituted for at least half the sugar in muffins and brownies
- avoiding the chia tea mix at work in favour of real tea leaves from home
The results this week have been more in the sense of convincing myself that things still taste good without as much sugar. It's been too short and too small measures to notice any differences health-wise.
Anyone have any other tips for reducing sugar consumption?
