How to reduce your sugar intake once and for all

Although sugar addiction is quite common, sugar withdrawal is usually physically mild, with occasional strong cravings.

People who are sensitive to refined sugar or sweeteners, or who consume them in large amounts, genuine symptoms include fatigue, anxiety and irritability, depression and detachment, rapid heart rate and palpitations and poor sleep. Most symptoms if they do occur last only a few days.

We can decide to cut down on or eliminate sugar quite easily by simply avoiding many of the sweet foods.

Sugar is found in almost all processed foods like soft drinks, fruit drinks, frozen dinners, breads, cereals, canned foods, sauces like ketchup, HP and mayonnaise. High fructose corn sweetener is the most popular with food processors because it is inexpensive. Learn to read labels and be familiar with the different names for sugar to know how much you are really consuming.

To diminish cravings for sugar, consume more whole grains, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, and frozen bananas. Make desserts sweetened with barley malt or rice syrup or powdered barley concentrate.

Dried fruit, apricots, dates, figs, and raisins make good sweeteners for whole grain cereals.

Also good foods to replace sugar treats are:

• Fruit,
• Dried, sugar free mango
• Popcorn
• Raisins
• Mixed raw nuts
• Edamame
• Vegetable stick
• Salads
• Almonds, raw
• Almond butter
• Sunflower seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Muesli/Granola sugar free
• Plain goat’s/sheep’s yoghurt
• Peanuts
• Peanut butter
• Protein smoothies

Note: Plain yoghurt without sweeteners is a healthy snack. Fresh fruit can be added along with sprinkles such as sunflower seeds, crushed walnuts, cinnamon, mixed spices, ground cloves and a drizzle of raw unprocessed honey!

Tell us, are your trying to cut down your sugar intake?