How to give up sugar: Avoid fruit juice, read labels carefully and change your habits
| Diets | Life & Style | Daily Express
No added sugar: How to quit the sweet stuff for a healthy New Year
No added sugar: How to quit the sweet stuff for a healthy New Year
LAWYER David Gillespie lost over six stone in just one year by cutting sugar from his diet. He read thousands of scientific papers to find out why sugar is so bad for us and turned his results into two best-selling books. Here's how he did it - and how you can too.
SUGAR RUSH: Western countries are eating an average of 35 to 40 teaspoons a day [GETTY ]
To read David's weight loss story click here and to find out how you could look and feel healthier read on for tips, hints and facts about cutting sugar from your diet.&DAVID'S FIVE STEPS TO GIVING UP SUGAR1. Remove the easy sugars from your diet&That means all sweets, chocolate, cakes, biscuits, soft drinks (except diet ones) and fruit juice, cereal bars, most breakfast cereals and fruit yogurts, plus sweet spreads such as jam and honey, and all dried fruit.Don&t treat this as an exercise in deprivation: view it as breaking an addiction. You will probably suffer withdrawal symptoms for a few weeks and crave food every two or three hours, but substitute sweet snacks for savoury ones (see 5, below), switch to diet drinks and persevere.Once this tricky bit is over, you will stop craving it altogether and feel healthier, slimmer and more in control of your appetite.2. Go through cupboards and get rid of the hidden sugar&Look at every label: you&ll be surprised how sugary many foods are, from salad dressings and mayonnaise (especially the low-fat versions which have more sugar) to balsamic vinegar and condiments such as barbecue sauce, tomato ketchup and hoisin sauce.Any ready meal, pizza or packet of sausages with more than three per cent sugar is also a no-no. Once you&ve followed steps 1 and 2, you will have eliminated most of the fructose you encounter in a day: you&re now aiming to get to a maximum of five teaspoons of sugar a day, all in.EAT FRESH: Avoid ready meals even the healthy looking ones are full of sugar
Soft drinks including tonic water and fruit juice are high in sugar - apple is the worst with 6.5 teaspoons
3. Restock & carefully&Those foods lowest in sugar tend to be displayed around the outer aisles of supermarkets, so start &shopping the perimeter& for meat, dairy, veg, fruit and bread.You will have to cook more meals from scratch, although you can still buy ready-packaged food & just make sure you examine the label.If it contains more than 3g of sugar per 100g, don&t buy it. If it&s a liquid, don&t touch it if it contains any sugar at all.Always avoid low-fat options and anything advertised as &light/lite& (manufacturers will have taken out the fat but added sugar to improve the taste).When buying fruit, go for higher-fibre, lower-sugar ones: berries and kiwis are better than bananas, grapes and pineapples.4. Change your habits&If some routines in your life are closely linked to eating sugar, you may have to give them up for a while.For instance, if you always reach for a chocolate bar as a reward after exercising, strange as it seems, you may have to give up going to gym for a few weeks until the worst of the cravings are over.Similarly, if watching TV in the evening goes hand in hand with snacking, find another way to relax for a while: read a book, use the computer or go for a walk.&5. Come up with enticing alternatives to a sweet hit&Identify your danger points: when are you most tempted to snack on sugar? Write them all down, being honest with yourself, and think up an alternative.If you reach for the biscuit tin when making a cup of coffee, keep a jar of nuts by the kettle instead (yes, they are calorific, but not sugary).If you get hunger pangs in the evening, drink a glass of milk and have some cheese & or some crisps if you really fancy a treat. &Substitute mixers such as tonic for slimline versions and swap your mid-morning muffin for toast and butter.AVOID TEMPTATION: Keep healthy snacks like nuts on you to help you steer away from sugary treats
[GETTY ]DAVID'S FOUR 'HEALTHY' FOOD NO-NOS&1. Breakfast cereals&Almost all are a dietary minefield. Anything advertised as frosted or with honey, clusters or berries should be avoided as most have more than 30 per cent sugar.Even healthy-sounding ones, such as muesli with nuts and berries, have a higher content than chocolate corn flakes. Instead, fuel up on low-sugar, wheat-based cereals (0.7 to 4.4 per cent) and unadulterated porridge oats (around 1 per cent).It&s also worth noting that supermarket-own brands often contain less sugar than more commercial versions.2. Yoghurt.&Unsweetened yogurt, which tastes sour as yogurt should, is absolutely fine. But anything tasting remotely sweet has added sugar & usually lots of it. &Flavoured with concentrated fruit juice& just means there&s fructose in the mix, so the sugar content will be even higher. Some fruit yoghurts are 15 per cent sugar, so an average 125g pot would give you 19g of sugar & nearly five teaspoons. Again, avoid all low-fat yoghurts & they are very high in sugar.3. Cereal and fruit snack bars&They seem like a healthy alternative to biscuits, but their high dried-fruit content makes them a nightmare if you&re fighting cravings. In fact, some bars contain more sugar than a bar of milk chocolate (about 57 per cent).4. Fruit juice&It&s a big myth that fruit juices are healthy. In fact, it&s fair to say they have no redeeming qualities, as you&re just extracting the water and sugar from the fruit and throwing away the healthy fibre.The end product is biochemically identical to a soft drink, with around 10 per cent sugar. &People ask, &What about the vitamin C?&& says David. &But we already have huge stores of that in our bodies from ordinary food & even &unhealthy& food like a portion of chips contains plenty of vitamin C.&PICK WISELY: Cereals with frosting, honey or clusters can be more than 30 per cent sugar [GETTY ]SUPERMARKET SWEEP&There will now be whole aisles you can avoid & cereals, cakes, biscuits, sauces, soft drinks & usually in the centre of the supermarket. A good rule of thumb is to ditch any food with more than 3g per 100g of sugar.So what are the best low-sugar buys & and what should you resist? Here are the angels and devils you'll encounter during the weekly shop.Fruit and vegHalo: There&s no such thing as an unhealthy vegetable: even the sweetest (beetroot) has the same fructose content as a kiwi fruit, one of the lowest-sugar fruits.Fruit contains fructose of course but it&s fine to eat one or two pieces a day because the fibre in it mitigates the damaging effect of the sugar.Opt for fruits lowest in sugar and highest in fibre, such as cranberries, raspberries, gooseberries, peaches, pears and blueberries. But low-sugar, high-fibre avocado is the biggest hero here.Horns: Avoid melons, grapes, pineapples and sweet-tasting apples & all high-fructose fruits that are low in fibre. Bananas and oranges fall somewhere in the middle.Milk and dairyHalo: Milk contains 4.7 per cent natural sugars (lactose) but the body processes this differently from sucrose and fructose so it&s fine. Go for Greek yogurt, which together with butter, margarine, cheese and cream contains no sugar.Horns: Give milk powders or shakes the slip. Also avoid soya milk, which has cane sugar to replace the lactose.&
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Bread and spreadsHalo:&All bread & except sourdough & contains some sugar but not too much: 0.5 to 4 per cent. Wholemeal is a better bet because of its fibre.The lowest-sugar supermarket bread is 0.8g per 100g. Choose cream cheese, peanut butter (organic is better at 2-3 per cent sugar), butter or yeast spread.Horns:&Banish bagels, which have twice the sugar of bread (6.5g per 100g), and fruit loaf, which has four to seven teaspoons of sugar in a 90-100g serving.Seedy loaves can sometimes be a bit higher, as can pitta bread (2.5g per pitta).Avoid jam, honey and chocolate spread (all 50-83 per cent sugar) as well as sandwich spread (21 per cent), low-sugar jam (still 30-45 per cent) and low-fat peanut butter (15.2 per cent).Condiments and dressingsHalo:&Try making your own homemade salad dressing with oil and white-wine vinegar (not balsamic which is 12-15 per cent sugar) or lemon.Soy sauce is fine, as is full-fat mayonnaise (1-4 per cent) and mustard (1-9 per cent).&Horns:&Almost everything: particularly barbecue sauce (about 30 per cent). Avoid sweet chilli dressings (30-49 per cent). Fruit chutneys and relishes are also high in sugar (23-40 per cent).Pizza and ready mealsHalo:&Some ready meals are low in sugar, others are sky high, so read labels carefully. Pizzas are similarly variable.&Horns:&Avoid anything with sweet and sour, balsamic or sweet chilli in the title. Ham and pineapple pizzas or caramelised red onion/goat&s cheese pizzas tend to be highest in sugar, with up to 7.3g per 100g.DrinksHalo:&Milk, fizzy or still water, diet soft drinks. Gin and vodka are some of the lowest-sugar alcohols, and dry wine is OK too (red is 0.6 per cent sugar, white is 1 per cent).&Horns:&All sugary soft drinks, including tonic water (5.1g per 100ml) and fruit juice (apple juice is the highest with 6.5 teaspoons in a 250ml glass). Flavoured waters are lower but still sugary. Avoid cider, dessert wines and liqueurs, and watch your mixers.Practice healthy living styles with proper food habits and exercise. To achieve a healthy body, we cannot be lazy and lethargic. We need to work hard, both physically and mentally to be fit and healthy. Exercise and eating healthy foods is essential to promote a healthy body.
Avoid junk foods which make us lethargic and dull. Check and follow your healthy weight chart for maintaining healthy weight to an optimum body weight in order to be healthy. You will stand a much higher percentage of suffering from health problems if you are overweight and obese.
Consume a healthy diet, such as vegetables, fruits, fish, nuts, lean meat. Don't forget to intake 8 glasses of liquid. Take minerals and vitamins supplement and get some healthy recipes that you prefer. Take some healthy snacks between meals. Avoid refined and junk foods. The main source for poor health and sickness is improper healthy eating habits. Many people suffer from sickness like diabetes, cancer, obesity and etc because of this. Changing your bad diet will contribute a great difference within a short period and can improve your health benefits drastically. Try to avoid smoking and heavy alcoholic drinks, moderate alcoholic drinking will benefit you.
Exercise 30 minutes 5 days a week. Exercising in the morning can leave you with a refreshed feeling throughout the day and can put you in a good mental health and it will be easier for you to think positively and generate a better appetite. You can also get involved in activities such as swimming, biking, walking or playing your favorite sport in order to keep you healthy. Go for activities that you enjoy and not force yourself to activities that you despise, whereby you will lose interest and stop exercising and try to do your activities in the open air. In this way, you will feel more refreshed. You should start off with small changes and make sure you enjoy it. You should not make drastic changes excessively in your lifestyle. Try to make small changes over a period of time pursuing it into your regular habit in order to achieve long term success. Besides exercise, you need to have good sleep and rest in order to be healthy. A good sleep can refresh your mind and make you feel healthier.
Realize that positive thinking is very essential in order to be healthy. Clear out your mind of all negative thoughts and fill it with positive ones. You will have to remove all the depressing and negative emotions and thoughts from your mind and replace it with healthy and positive thoughts. These positive thoughts can be extremely energizing and always lead to good things in life. You can get involved in practices such as meditation and yoga to get rid of the negativity and force yourself with positive thoughts.
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Please be as detailed as possible in your explanation. We will take your detailed information, edit it for clarity and accuracy, and incorporate it into an article that will help thousands of people.Don't say: Eat more fats.
Do say: Add fats with some nutritional value to the foods you already eat. Try olive oil, butter, avocado, and mayonnaise.
Avoiding junk foods can make your body be full of ENERGY!
All these small changes in your lifestyle can improve your health and fitness and certainly lowering your health care bill. You will feel a sense of well being, both emotionally and physically. It is very important to improve your health in order to be happy and enjoy life.
Reading can improve your mind, and widen your vocabulary. It's always good to pick up a good book by good authors, such as George Orwell, Stephen Fry, and perhaps a screenplay by Shakespeare.
Having a pet may make you feel healthier and happier. Particularly if the pet requires some form of exercise that you can join in with (for example, a dog who needs to be walked).
Don't forget to pray every morning and before you sleep. This will help you spiritually that will contribute to a healthy new you.
If this does not work, try yoga, meditation and things that make you feel good.
Do not over exercise with weights. Too many reps of a heavy weight can tear muscles.
Do not start doing everything suddenly. Go at your own pace, following the steps gradually..
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