Are you ready to quit sugar? Expert studies say that it takes 21-66 days to change a habit . Sugar is highly addictive and a hard habit to break, my advice? Pace yourself!
Learn how to read food labels! To properly quit sugar, you need to be aware of hidden sugars, to ensure you’re keeping to 6 teaspoons or less per day (Divide the sugar content by 4, to give you how many tablespoons). Make smart choices by comparing sugar content. On labels, where it says ‘sugars’, it’s referring to all sugar – glucose, fructose and lactose. For example, table sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose, while the sugar in milk is lactose and contains no fructose.
Here is an Overall Rule:
Eat products with LESS THAN 3-6g sugar per 100g or 100ml. In regards to dairy, the first 4.7g of sugar per 100ml listed will be lactose (no fructose). Anything on top of that is added sugar. Drink liquids that contain no sugar. A standard drink is around 330ml which means ‘per 100g’ figure must be multiplied by 3.5. More than this you’ll find that your ‘incidental’ sugar intake is too high.
Here are some Label-Reading Guidelines:
- If sugar is the first or second ingredient, there’s a big issue. Labels always list things with the most ingredients used most, first.
- Look out for other sugars in the list: fruit pulp, fruit puree, agave, honey.
- Scan over the ‘per 100g’ column and scroll down to ‘sugar’ If it lists 30g of sugar, this means that the product contains 30% – or a third – of sugar
- Salt-free products often contain less sugar (which is added to salted products, ironically to counteract the salt).
- Be careful of chai tea: it often comes with palm sugar or honey already added. Ask!
- Can you eat fruit when you quit sugar? The answer is YES! We know, fruit has sugar in it, but whole fresh fruit also has plenty of fibre and nutrients to help slow down the sugar dumpage on your liver. Our bodies are designed to metabolise the amount of fructose contained in 1–2 small pieces of fruit a day (i.e. around the recommended amount of sugar we should be eating). But if you’re also having other sources of added sugar, that’s when you might want to reconsider your fruit intake and up your veggies instead.
- Can I eat bread when I quit sugar? Generally speaking, breads are pretty low in sugar (except fruit breads and brioche). The best low sugar breads to chose from are sourdough, rye, wholemeal, spelt, sprouted or paleo breads. When buying store-bought bread look for loaves that have 4g/100g sugar or less.
- Can I drink alcohol and quit sugar? No. There are obviously some alcoholic beverages that are higher and lower in fructose than others. However my rule is that while your body is quitting sugar the liver is under strain as you allow the body to detox all the toxins out. Having a glass of wine at dinner will only tax the liver more.
- Can I have dairy and quit sugar? The whole foods argument comes into place here. When the fat is taken out, a lot of the enzymes that help breakdown lactose are taken out. I find that when swapping to full fat dairy, this eliminates any digestive problems. Or switch to having unsweetned almond milk or full fat greek yoghurt. A small tub of “diet’ yoghurt can often contain up to 6 teaspoons of sugar, even the ones that say “NO ADDED SUGAR”. Natural, full fat yoghurt is about 4.7g per 100g sugar. But the sugar is lactose, which is fructose free. Anything over 4.7g is added sugar.
*** Excerpts from Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar 8 Week Detox Program and Cookbook.
