Eating Less Sugar | LIVESTRONG.COM

Beginner's Guide to Eating Less Sugar

Last Update: September 18, 2008

Video By: LIVESTRONG.COM

Eating less sugar is an extremely important part of getting more healthy. Get some tips to reduce the amount of sugar in your diet from a registered dietician in this video.

Views: 5,261
Comments: 3
Transcript of this video

Take Action

Be aware
Diet products unreliable
Use sugar alternatives
Read labels

About this Author

Rachael Richardson is a registered Dietician and a licensed Nutritionist with Nutrolution, Inc. in Miami, Florida.

by Suni80 on February 24, 2009 at 10:27 AM

Thanks, I think the "batch" cooking will really help to make a difference because it's true: I'm too lazy or tired or busy to actually cook something healthy, then I just snack on crackers or make something like cod sticks in the toaster over which contains too much fat and thus throwing my whole schedule off!

by MaryJaneWright on August 27, 2009 at 12:59 AM

I don't think batch cooking is very healthy. If eating healthy is important to you, why not prioritize meal preparation and make your meals fresh? I think eating the same food for "three, four meals" means food is probably lacking vital nutrients on the third or fourth day.
Better to just prioritize food preparation. If you're really short on time, maybe prepare the food ahead of time, cutting vegetables, marinating, whatever. But three day old cooked food? Nobody wants to eat leftovers three days in a row.

by ssteckle on November 1, 2009 at 1:14 PM

I agree, to a certain degree. Eating the same food 3 or 4 days in a row also means that you aren't getting any variety in your diet, and the same balance of nutrients each day. To ensure you have balance and get the vitamins and minerals you need, you need to have more variety in your diet.
I agree with batch cooking, if you are going to freeze the leftovers for reheating later. This would be a good way to make your own "frozen dinners" to have on hand for days when time is tight.

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RACHAEL RICHARDSON: Hi. I'm Rachael Richardson, and I'm a registered dietitian and a licensed nutritionist. I'm from Nutrolution, Inc., and we are located in Miami, Florida. This is the beginner's guide to eating less sugar. Eating less sugar may be one of the most important things that you can do to improve your health and, you know, one of the most frightening things is that most people don't know how much sugar is in the foods that they're eating. So if you sat down for a typical breakfast, say, a bowl of oatmeal, a banana and a glass of juice, do you know how much sugar is actually in that meal? Believe it or not, there is about 45 grams in your glass of orange juice. There is another 45 grams in your banana, and there is probably about 30 grams if it's a cup of cereal. So altogether that totals around 120 grams of sugar and that's way too much. So sugar actually has a lot of detrimental effects that it has on the body. It causes hormonal imbalances. It causes diabetes. It causes free radical production which leads to cancer and heart disease. It causes liver stress, which leads to toxic bodies and gives a lot of the symptoms of low energy and headaches, chronic fatigue, these kinds of things that we're experiencing. So if you can cut out sugar, that's going to be one of the greatest things that you can do. The best ways to remove sugar or to reduce sugar is to focus on eating whole foods and focus on foods that are higher in other macronutrients like your fatty acids and your protein. So instead of that oatmeal, banana and orange juice for breakfast, looking at some scrambled eggs maybe with some vegetables mixed in, some avocado on top and some blueberries on the side. Five points to remember about reducing sugar are be conscious of how much sugar is in your food; don't rely on diet products; include healthy sugar alternatives; read your labels; and stay positive.