How can I cut down on sugar?

Hi everyone!

I'm struggling to cut down on sugar. For example, by tonight I will have consumed nearly 50 grams of sugar (over 120%)! I don't really eat sweets - I don't even really like sweet things all that much, so I'm not sure how to go about lowering my intake.

This is what I have eaten/will eat today:

Breakfast:

1 cup of oatmeal: 0.6g/sugar

2 teaspoons of brown sugar (unpacked): 5.8g/sugar

Snack:

Weight Watchers yogurt: 12g/sugar (this was actually too sweet for me - I ended up throwing most of it away)

Lunch:

Two turkey sandwiches: 3g/sugar

1 cup of pure pumpkin: 8.1g/sugar

1 cup of black beans: 2g/sugar

Snack:

Apple: 13g/sugar

And for dinner I'm going to have Balsamic chicken with baby spinach over basmati rice. But even without that, I've already consumed so much. How can I cut down?

I keep looking for yogurts without a tremendous amount of sugar, and Weight Watchers seemed to be the winner (most yogurts, especially those that are low in fat, have over 20g per serving). I may just buy plain yogurt to dilute the flavored yogurt - that way I can have half (or at least less) the sugar per serving.

Thanks in advance for your help! It's really appreciated.

The best way to reduce sugar is to stop eating processed foods.

It isn't exactly easy because it requires cooking without shortcuts. But if you like to cook, then it is a pleasure to get back to basics. I love making things from scratch.

Make your own yogurt. Bake bread. Soak and boil dried beans. Roast a turkey and use the leftovers for sandwiches. All of these thing, homemade, will yeild less sugar than storebought versions.

You want to cut down on your added (free) sugars, these do not include sugar from milk, veggies, and fruit. Calorie Count lumps all of your sugar intake into one category including your good sugars from fruits, milk, and veggies.

Less than 10% of your calories each day may come from added (free) sugars according to the World Health Organization.

Your apple doesn't count since the fiber in it slows the digestion of the sugar, and an apple is not empty calories, but your yogurt is eat up with it.

Fruit is generally okay, but it still has sugar in it (fructose and sucrose) which can affect triglyceride levels (fat), which can be harmful to people with diabetes or elevated levels of triglycerides and cholesterol. It's best to eat fruit in moderation and concentrate on snacking on low-carb (sugar) fruit.

Look at the food's list of ingredients below the nutrition facts to ensure you're not consuming added sugars.

If you see any of these listed in the ingredients, you have added sugars in it. A common added sugar in store bought bread is High Fructose Corn Syrup.

1. Corn Syrup
2. High Fructose Corn Syrup
3. Dextrose
4. Glucose
5. Fructose
6. Sucrose
7. Honey
8. Maltose
9. Maple syrup

There are a few others including Galactose, Lactose, and Molasses.

This website will tell you everything you need to know about sugar, and how sugar can affect your weight and health by increasing risk for diabetes and increasing your triglyceride serum levels.

On a side note, a lot of these simple sugars come from corn, which is America's main use for corn as opposed to ethanol usage.

Thanks, Horace!  That was quite useful.  I had actually had the same concerns about my sugar levels as reported on this site, but now I feel much better.

Yes, thanks Horace!  I too am concerned about my sugar intake and you have given me a start at understanding it.  :)  Thanks for posting the link.

Thank you so much for this information :) I am having the same problem with the way that they count your total sugar on this site. I have been searching on the web for maybe the last 20 minutes trying to figure out the normal amount of sugar intake, and keep finding that it's anywhere from 20-40g/day. So when I saw that my day's total intake for sugar was 123g, I was so confused. I swear I have never been eating healthier in life. I consumed 1120 calories today, ate mostly fruits and vegetables, with the only bad thing being half of a pita (and now that I am aware of it - granola cereal). So, I was feeling pretty down when I saw my total. I even stopped putting sugar in my coffee, and starting using nutrisweet. I was so proud of myself until I saw that number......but now I know and will try to improve where I went wrong. Thank you :) .....you know I really did think that all fruits and veggies were equally good for you. Just shows how much more I need to learn.

 

The fruit sugars are not bad for you like the proccessed sugars as they are not 'empty'. I eat my oatmeal without sugar...it makes things taste disgusting though...but w/e I don't care its worth it...

Thanks so much for all the help! I understand sugar much better now.

Mediatinker, you gave great advice. I do like to cook, but unfortunately I don't always have the time (or the will -- I'm a 23 year old living in an apartment with a tiny kitchen that I have to share with two friends). However, I do know of a few quick recipes that I can make from scratch.

Horace, that link was a lot of help, thanks so much. I feel a lot better about my sugar intake now.

Your question brought up something that I found on this site- it said that cucumbers are high in sugar!!  A common cucumber.  Tons of vitamins and minerals and very low on calories so I just laughed off the sugar comment.

I have the opposite problem really. I eat too many bad things with sugar in them.

I think you're doing fine since most of the sugar is in real food, not sweets.

I'm trying to explain the difference between sweets and real food to an 8 year old but he doesn't seem to be catching on.