Refined sugar, also known as table sugar, is a common ingredient in most processed and restaurant food. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a diet with less than 10 percent of calories from sugars, but most Americans consume well over that amount. When you consume large amounts of sugar, you raise your risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, tooth decay and cardiovascular disease. Refined sugar consumption also causes tooth decay. Eliminate refined sugars in your diet to improve your overall health and to prevent damage to your teeth.
Step 1
Clean out your kitchen. The first step in eliminating refined sugars is to clean out all your cabinets and your refrigerator. Get rid of anything that has refined sugars in it, including white sugar and corn syrups.
Step 2
Go shopping. Check food labels carefully for refined or fructose sugars. Refined sugars even appear in some breads, juices, sauces, dressings, cereals and coffee creamers. Some of the common forms of fructose sugars include white sugar, turbinado sugar, brown sugar, maple sugar. Other refined sugars that appear on packaging include sucrose, maltose and glucose. Instead of refined sugars, get your sugar intake from unrefined sugars in fruits, vegetables and foods with starch such as potatoes, wheat and whole grains.
Step 3
Think fruit. Fruit is a naturally sweet food. When you crave something sweet, eat a piece of fruit to satisfy your cravings.
Step 4
Use alternatives. While weaning yourself off refined sugar, use substitutes if necessary. Sugar alternatives such as aspartame, xylitol and sorbitol help when the sugar cravings are unbearable.
Step 5
Cook without sugar. There are substitutes for sugar in recipes. Depending on the recipe, natural fruit juice or agave nectar can work in place of the refined sugar.
Things You'll Need
- Fruits
- Sugar substitutes
- Natural fruit juice
- Agave nectar
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