How To Consume Less Sugar Gently?

10 tips for reducing your sugar intake

It’s been tried and tested, changing your habits gently is more effective. A diet is more effective when it's gradual rather than drastic, giving the body time to get used to it without feeling and cracking when faced with withdrawal. So it’s thanks to these tips, gentle rebalancing will lead to the desired withdrawal.

1. Banish soft drinks

One can of fizzy drink contains the equivalent of around seven lumps of sugar, and diet or sugar-free versions are no better since they contain sweeteners, a substitute that’s just as likely to increase weight gain and the risk of diabetes as sugar. It’s immediately less appetizing! But that doesn’t mean you have to drink nothing but water: make up your own cold drink instead. Infuse a piece of fruit (lemon, mint, strawberry) in a bottle of water, and you've got a healthy, flavorsome drink.

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2. No dessert or fruit

At the end of a meal, you can do without that excellent slice of brownie at 467 kcal! According to nutritionists, if you’re afraid you’ll still be hungry when you leave the table, it’s better to have a starter and a main course than a main course and a dessert. Alternatively, you could consider eating a piece of fruit for dessert, so you don’t end on a salty note, but not too sweet either. Some people even eat it as a starter, anything’s possible!

3. No more sugar in your coffee

Whether white, brown, powdered, or in lumps, sugar is often consumed automatically. We can’t help but add it to our tea or coffee (which, incidentally, spoils the real taste). Reduce the doses, and put an end to this reflex... To avoid the first few occasions being too difficult, you can sweeten this type of drink with better quality products such as coconut sugar, which has a much lower glycemic index.

4. Choose wholegrain cereals

Slices of wholemeal bread, pasta or rice of the same type are preferable if you don’t want to feel hungry two hours after eating. Sliced bread and all other industrial products that aren’t “wholemeal” hide their game, but do have a high glycemic index!

5. Chocolate? Yes, but dark

Generally speaking, dark chocolate 🍫 contains less sugar than milk chocolate. It’s important to indulge yourself, but don’t do yourself any harm. If you don’t want to drink your coffee alone and sad, allow yourself a bar of chocolate containing 80% or more chocolate (but remember that the rest is sugar 😬).

6. Reinvent your breakfasts

A healthy diet without too much sugar isn’t possible if we continue to eat cereals packed with sugar and other ultra-processed cakes. Sure, they taste good and give you energy at the time, but they don’t keep your hunger pangs at bay for long. If you try muesli, oatmeal or any other good cereal mix, you’ll find that you won’t even think about snacking between meals 👍!

7. Favor fresh produce

Generally speaking, it’s best to limit your consumption of prepared, processed and even ultra-processed foods. When you go shopping, head for the fresh produce section. Dieticians are unanimous: 🥒 fresh or frozen vegetables are better than tinned ones, even if the latter are certified organic!

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8. Calm the feeling of hunger

When your stomach’s growling, and you start to feel the urge to snack, trick your taste buds by drinking tea (always sugar-free) or herbal tea, there’s no better way to curb your hunger without upsetting your stomach. Chewing gum can also have a placebo effect! Goodbye snacking.

9. Consider Stevia

Extracted from plants native to South America, Stevia or “sweet herb” is the perfect alternative for those who want to reduce their sugar intake. And with good reason: its sweetening power is 300 times greater than traditional sugar! It can be used in both hot and cold recipes and has a similar taste to licorice. Just 2 grams of Stevie will replace 100 grams of sugar, so what are you waiting for?

10. Use the Yuka smartphone app

Very useful when you’re doing your shopping, the Yuka app will scan your products and give you all the information about them. Whether it’s too fatty, too sweet, or contains harmful additives, food will no longer hold any secrets for you, and you’ll be able to make the best choices for your health.

Give it a try, and you’ll see that the benefits will become apparent very quickly! Put an end to weight gain and save your health!

What are the harmful effects of sugar on our health?

When we’re in need of comfort, when we’re tired, or when stress takes over during the day, we tend to reach for something sweet. Admittedly, this has short-term effects, but be careful, because sugar can be very harmful to your health if you eat too much of it, and what’s more, there’s often a risk that you’ll end up suffering from a real sugar addiction 😨.

Cavities, excess weight

Of course, the first thing that springs to mind is the risk of tooth decay, which, after stomach aches, is the second most common argument we tell children who eat too many sweets. Then there are the aesthetic issues, with our excesses often showing up on our faces... Or on our waistlines, as sugar disrupts the regulation of our appetite. Everyone accepts and loves their body as it is and there are no beauty standards, but when our health is at risk, it’s a good idea to question ourselves. Today, almost one in two French people are overweight, while the overall obesity rate is approaching 16%.

Cholesterol, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases...

In the long term, consuming too much sugar can also lead to a whole series of chain reactions and disorders in the body, such as cholesterol and diabetes, which kills around 5.1 million people worldwide every year.

Diets rich in sugar have also been directly linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and various cancers (notably pancreatic, breast and colorectal cancers), due in part to its highly inflammatory nature for the body. Excess glucose can also weaken the immune system, cause intestinal, vaginal and skin flora imbalances and create a breeding ground for bacterial infections.

The question of reducing the amount of sugar consumed by an individual therefore has every reason to be asked. Something to think about 🤔.

Identifying good and bad sugars

Anything consumed in a processed way or in excess is bad for our health. It’s true that our bodies need sugar, but we need to be careful to distinguish between good and bad sugar, in small doses. All sugars have one thing in common: they provide 4 kcal of calories per gram. They differ from one another in their molecular composition (simple or processed) and the metabolic reaction they trigger.

For example, the slow-release sugar contained in starchy foods (rice, pasta, wholegrain cereals, etc.) should not be banned, as it will provide us with energy over the long term and prevent us from feeling hungry a few hours after the meal. It’s therefore not a question of removing the carbohydrates that are a natural part of raw foods, such as fruit, wholegrain cereals, pulses, dried vegetables and plain dairy products. This intake is allowed and is needed for the proper functioning of our brain, cells and muscles.

It's thus the quick sugars that will quickly make you feel hungry, and all the others that you need to be wary of. These are often found in products that aren’t supposed to be sweet. Sugar is added to improve the taste of the product, but is actually used to mask a lack of quality in industrial and ultra-processed products, or to reproduce the taste of a strawberry yogurt that actually contains 0% strawberries.

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