Why Is It Important to Cut Down on Sugar?
Reducing sugar is a vital part of proper nutrition and being completely healthy. It helps us enjoy a higher quality of life and keeping off excess weight. Over time, studies have shown that consuming too much sugar affects our bodies and damages our health. What’s more, it promotes the development of cardiovascular illnesses, such as obesity, fatty liver, and metabolic syndrome. To avoid these consequences, it’s key that we cut down on sugar.
International organizations are constantly creating proposals to encourage people to moderate their sugar intake. Thanks to this, calorie consumption has gone down by 10%. The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed this data.
Suggestions on how to cut down on sugar
Entities like the World Health Organization have promoted the spread of numerous recommendations in order to reduce sugar consumption. The objective is for people to have a healthier life and enjoy greater vitality. Below are some of these suggestions.
1. Identify the different types of sugars
Sugar is a carbohydrate whose main function is to give the body a sufficient supply of energy. It’s very common to find sugar in fruits, different kinds of milk, and vegetables. It’s also a common additive in sweetened drinks, candy, and other processed foods.
2. Choose natural foods over industrialized food
Sugar is a source of calories, but it completely lacks vitamins and minerals. Therefore, these calories are empty calories. Consuming sugar is a poor eating habit that favors malnutrition and an undesirable consequence of eating large amounts of processed foods.
Experts recommend substituting processed foods for completely homemade foods. They also recommend fresh fruit, vegetables, beans, cheese, eggs, and plain yogurt.
3. Limit the consumption of soft drinks
These liquids have a very high sugar content, so it’s better to replace them with another type of drink.
Soft drinks usually contain a total of 21.9 grams of sugar. Therefore, drinks with sweeteners are a better option. That being said, drinking water or unsweetened drinks is even better. For example, choosing lemonade or green tea, or other types of tea is a good way to cut down on sugar.
It’s important to remember, furthermore, that stores sell yogurt, bread, cookies, jams, and desserts that contain sweeteners rather than sugar.
4. Look for alternatives to sugar
It’s difficult to cut sugar out of our lives. Therefore, we should try to consume it in the most natural way possible. The best natural sweeteners to use are honey, stevia, coconut sugar, and rice molasses. All of these sweeteners are healthy in moderation and are a perfect alternative for adding to different foods and drinks.
5. Keep control of food intake
Practicing restraint will help you to reduce your consumption of carbohydrates in a natural way. When it comes to sugar, we should do the same, thus preventing weight gain and promoting better health.
6. Avoid eating candy
This is one of the most influential factors in the development of various illnesses. Furthermore, it’s one of the main reasons why there has been a worldwide increase in the consumption of sugar. This is because, for example, just one piece of chewable candy has approximately 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.
7. Opt for healthy foods for breakfast, snacks, and dessert
According to data from the University of Lanus in Argentina, 9 out of 10 people include sugars and sweets in their diet. In general, this refers to 91% of breakfasts, 89% of snacks, and 71% of desserts.
Therefore, experts recommend reducing the consumption of cookies, candies, and other sweets. In their place, people should choose healthier options, such as sugar-free cereals, like those consisting of corn, wheat, quinoa, amaranth, and others. Fruit salads are also a very good option, especially if you add a bit of plain yogurt.
It’s difficult to cut down on sugar at this point in our lives. Just the same, if you manage to take control of your sugar intake, you’ll enjoy much better health.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Alwan, A. (2017). “Informe sobre la situación mundial de las enfermedades no transmisibles Resumen de orientación”. En WHO: Informe sobre la situación mundial de las enfermedades no transmisibles. Ginebra: OMS.
- Garwood, P. (2016). La OMS recomienda aplicar medidas en todo el mundo para reducir el consumo de bebidas azucaradas y sus consecuencias para la salud. New York: OMS.
- Lopez, A. D.; Mathers, C. D.; Ezzati, M.; Jamison, D. T., and Murray, C. J. (2006). “Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: systematic analysis of population health data”, Lancet, 367 (9524): 1747-57.
