In This ArticleView AllIn This Article1. Utilize the Added Sugar Information on Food Labels2. Target Top Sugary Sources3. Look for High-Quality Carbs4. Don’t Drink Your Sugar5. Take Your Time6. Be Wary of Packaged Bars7. Swap Your Yogurt for Skyr8. Get Enough Sleep9. Trick Your Palate10. Avoid Sneaky Sources11. Use Less Sugar in Your Baking12. Roast Your Veggies13. Add It on Top of Baked Goods14. Bake with Natural Sweeteners15. Trade Flavor for Sugar
In This ArticleView All
View All
In This Article
Utilize the Added Sugar Information on Food Labels
Target Top Sugary Sources
Look for High-Quality Carbs
Don’t Drink Your Sugar
Take Your Time
Be Wary of Packaged Bars
Swap Your Yogurt for Skyr
Get Enough Sleep
Trick Your Palate
Avoid Sneaky Sources
Use Less Sugar in Your Baking
Roast Your Veggies
Add It on Top of Baked Goods
Bake with Natural Sweeteners
Trade Flavor for Sugar
A life without any sugar is a life we don’t want to live. And thankfully, experts say you don’t need to eliminate it entirely from your diet. But decreasing your intake is something most of us should be doing. “I’m not of the view that we should be draconian about this,” saysRichard Mattes, M.P.H., Ph.D., RD, professor of nutrition science at Purdue University. “Sugars do add palatability. And the most nutritious diet, if it’s not palatable, will have no health benefit—because people won’t eat it.”
The2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americanssuggest that adults limit added sugar intake to less than 10% of their daily calories. That amounts to 50 grams or less of added sugar on a 2,000-calorie eating plan. Knowing that, these strategies can help you eat less sugar and find a balance that works for you.
What’s the Big Deal about Sugar? We Have Your Questions Answered
“Always check the Nutrition Facts panel to see how much added sugar is in a product—like cereal or yogurt—and compare it to other brands,” saysRenata Micha, Ph.D., RDof Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. “Between two or three options, you can aim for the one that has less added sugar,” she says. You should also consider how the added sugar in foods fits into your daily consumption.
In the U.S., mostadded sugarcomes from the following five sources: sweetened beverages; desserts and sweet snacks; sweetened coffees and teas; candy and other sugars (jams, syrups, toppings); and breakfast cereals and granola bars. Figure out which category you tend to get the most added sugar from and start from there. You’ll get the greatest reduction in overall sugar and a boost in health benefits.
Many packaged products—tortillas, granola bars—fall into a nutritional gray zone. They may be made withwhole grains(healthy) and still contain lots of sugar (not so healthy). Even more stealthily, the front of the package may declare “no added sugars,” but the manufacturer has replaced this nutrient with something else, such as refined starches that have no fiber and affect your body in ways similar to added sugars. “So it’s important to assess overall carb quality, not just sugar alone,” says Micha.
One simple way to do that: use the 10-to-1 metric. This means for every 10 g of total carbohydrate that a product contains, 1 g or more should be fiber. (It’s based on the ratio of total carb to fiber found in whole wheat.) Micha and her colleagues discovered that when they applied this trick to U.S. supermarket foods, it quickly identified items with higher-quality carbs that also happened to be lower in sugar. And they were healthier in general—lower in sodium and higher in protein, fiber, potassium, magnesium, vitamin B, vitamin E, zinc and iron.
Pictured recipe:Strawberry, Basil & Lime Infused Water
You know that soda is a sugary drink,but other sugary beverages may slip past your nutritional radar. Coffee drinks like a bottled Frappuccino can have 34 g of added sugar, and one 20-ounce sports drink packs as much as 48 g—which is just about 100% of your daily limit. (For comparison, a can of Coke has 39 g.) “Sports drinks serve a purpose for elite athletes, or let’s face it, when we’re sick with the flu or prepping for a colonoscopy. But for everyone else, just choose water,” says Nancy Farrell Allen, M.S., RDN, anational spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. And let’s not forget cocktails. Alcohol itself contains no or very little sugar, but when you add the coffee liqueur to your ‘tini—that’s when the grams can go through the roof.
By eliminating even one sugary beverage a day and instead sipping water with a squeeze of lime or orange for flavor, you can dramatically reduce your sugar intake—especially given that sweetened beverages are the single largest source of added sugar in the American diet, says Micha. You could also try drinking seltzer in fun flavors, infusing your water with fresh fruit or eating an apple or orange alongside a glass of ice water.
All of our experts recommend weaning yourself off sweetnessslowly.Do you add sugar to your coffee or tea? Then use a little less tomorrow. A few days later, dial it back a bit more. Your taste buds will adjust to lower sweetness levels in food as you reduce your added sugar intake. After a while, you may perceive certain foods as being too sweet and avoid them or eat less of them.
We love the grab-and-go convenience of them, but granola and energy bars supply a lot of the added sugar in our diets. So scan for ones that are low in sugar and as minimally processed as possible (short ingredients list of recognizable whole foods). They often taste just as good and can save you 5 g to 15 g of added sugars (that’s between 1 and 4 teaspoons of sugar)per bar!Even better, put a handful of nuts, seeds and oats, plus some unsweetened coconut flakes and a few dark chocolate chips (11 of them only have 2 g of added sugar) in a travel container for a snack that’s packed with protein, fiber and other nutrients and very little added sugar.
This Icelandic-style yogurtis made using different types of cultures than the standard kind you may be used to, giving it a thick, creamy consistency and less sour taste. Some of the flavored varieties of skyr may have about one-third less added sugar than other flavored yogurts—which can be quite high in sugar. For a low-sugar option, top plain skyr with fresh fruit.
The average adult needs between 7 and 9 hours a night—yet more than 35% of Americans get less than that. Missing out on zzz’s canimpact your hunger hormones,making you crave sugary foods (and salty ones too). A 2022 study published in theJournal of Sleep Researchfound that sleep deprivation reduces blood levels of leptin, a hormone associated with eating satisfaction and increases the concentration of ghrelin and adiponectin, which are associated with hunger. The authors concluded that chronic sleep loss can contribute to weight gain. This may be especially true when you consume sugary foods for a quick energy boost.
Getty Images / Peter Dazeley
The Voorhes
Pictured recipe:Raspberry Swirl Brownies
“Recipes for things like cookies and cakes often call for more sugar than is necessary—so you can play around and see how much you can simply leave out,” saysEatingWellrecipe tester and developerLaura Kanya, who suggests removing a small amount and going from there. She was able to useone-thirdless sugar in herRaspberry Swirl Browniescompared to a typical brownie recipe. The cocoa and pureed raspberries add richness and natural sweetness. “Sugar does impact the moistness, texture and browning of baked goods, so you may notice a difference there,” adds Kanya.
Rather than steaming or sautéing vegetables and relying on dressings and sauces (which often contain added sugars) to jazz them up, dress them lightly with olive oil and pop them in a 450°F oven. Roasting caramelizes the natural sugars and makes them taste sweeter and more intense, says sensory scientist and dietitian Sung Eun Choi, Ph.D., RDN, an associate professor in the Department of Family, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at New York’s Queens College.
When baking with less added sugar, sprinkling a small amount of coarse sugar on top of muffins, quick breads and cookies delivers that extreme burst of sweetness and crunch with each bite, so you’re less likely to miss the sugar within the cookie or muffin.
Replace some of the sugar in baked goods with mashed bananas or other fruits, such as unsweetened applesauce, blended dates, cooked sweet potato or prunes. This will also add moisture and some extra vitamins, minerals and fiber. “We used pineapple to sweeten ourPineapple Morning Glory Muffins—slashing the sugar content in half compared to similar muffins,” says Kanya. “And grating it incorporates the fruit into the batter.”
The more taste you’re able to eke out of every recipe, the less sweet stuff you’ll need. “OurCider-Sweetened Apple Piecontains less than half the added sugar of a typical recipe,” says Kanya. “How did we do it? By reducing already sweet apple cider into a concentrated syrup.” It counts as added sugar, but the difference is we don’t need to use as much sweetener overall because the syrup’s intense flavor fools your taste buds into thinking the pie is sweeter than it actually is. You can apply this same technique to other recipes and experiment with reducing different juices.
Originally appeared: This article first appeared in EatingWell, September 2021.
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