One of the easiest and most impactful ways to improve health and wellness is also the hardest. It’s to stop eating sugar and artificial sweeteners. Sugar is in everything that is pre-packaged. I normally just use olive oil and balsamic or red wine vinegar as a salad dressing. Once in a while I do use a bottle of salad dressing to mix things up. I have a bottle of dressing in the refrigerator and sure enough, it has sugar in it. Ketchup does too. Sugar is also hidden on labels by being listed using aliases such as high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, maltodextrin, dextrose, caramel, molasses, corn syrup, maltose. Basically, a large number of sweeteners end in sugar, syrup or -ose.
Artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame and acesulfame, also need to be avoided. These are full on chemicals that are even worse for your health than sugar. They are carcinogens and will lead to weight gain and long term health problems.
Honey, maple syrup and coconut sugar are the only sweeteners I use and even then, it’s only when baking and in minimal quantities. I also use fruit, such as apples, berries and bananas as additional sweeteners. The honey and maple syrup must be 100% real with no other ingredients. Pancake syrup is not maple syrup. Check the labels, there is no maple syrup. The kids school lunch included packets of syrup and the only ingredients were various forms of syrup. It’s unbelievable that schools are serving this stuff to kids.
Studies involving babies and sugar show that the same dopamine producing reward areas of a babies brain are activated when given sugar as drugs do with an addict. Sugar is addictive. That is why it is so hard to give up. Companies fill the processed food they make with sugar to get people hooked, so that they keep buying more. This has led to an epidemic of obesity and disease.
To start with removing sugar from your diet, you have to be very mindful. Every time you eat, look at the labels of everything going into your mouth. If you are not sure of an ingredient, do a search and find out what it is. It’s important to weed out the products with bad ingredients. Don’t fall for the healthful sounding words on the label. Actually read the ingredient list. You will be surprised at the advertising tricks used. I’ve been fooled more than once when just looking at the label marketing. Once you figure out which products have harmful ingredients, you can look for healthier alternatives, which there usually are. It’s just a matter of finding them. You can also just make your own version, which is even better because you control what is in it.
Studies show it only takes 10 days of no sugar to start experiencing improved health. A pretty short amount of time to start feeling better, considering the long term health issues sugar causes.
Why do I recommend removing sugar from your diet? Because it’s one of the key things I did to improve my health. I still bake with sugar, but I control how much I use and only use the bare minimum which is typically 1/4 cup of sweetener per recipe. I usually add in cinnamon to compensate for the lower sugar. Cinnamon is a spice that will actually help lower your blood sugar and help fight diabetes.
Fact: A can of soda contains at least 10 – 12 teaspoons of sugar. That’s the same amount of sugar I will put in a whole batch of cookies. This is in one can of soda, drank in one sitting. Pretty scary.
Challenge: Pick an average day where you will be eating only food you make. Before you eat or make something, look at the ingredient list. If it has some sort of sugar or artificial sweetener in it, write down what the food is. At the end of the day, review the list. I think you’ll be surprised at how much sugar/sweetener you eat in an average day.
Recipe:
This is a great, easy recipe to get started making your own food without sugar, but will still satisfy a sweet tooth.
No Sugar Banana Oatmeal Cookies
3 bananas
2 cups oatmeal
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or cacao nibs
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together. You can also put the bananas, oatmeal, vanilla and cinnamon into a blender or food processor, blend and stir in the chocolate chips.
Use a tablespoon to drop dough on to cookie sheets and flatten with a fork, or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, scoop all of the dough onto it and flatten to make cookie bars.
Bake for 10 – 15 minutes.
Let cool and remove from pan.
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