I want to reduce sugar in 2018, but wonder about measurement

[Ginevra]

Sorry the title is awkward. I want to greatly cut all sources of extra sugar from my diet as a nutrition goal for the coming year. (To whatever extent I can provide better choices in my family, I want to do that as well.) But the part that seems difficult to me is that I thrive on measurement and that is not a goal easily quantified. I have no idea how much sugar I typically consume and I will not know how much I am consuming except to assume it is “less†if I don’t eat or drink certain things.

 

So how would you do this? Or how have you done this?

[Liz CA]

Reading labels worked for me. Figuring out how much I usually would eat / drink and see what the sugar content is.

If you are used to sodas and store bought "ready" food, you will likely automatically reduce sugar if you switch from sodas to water with a spritz of soda or lemon.

I don't like plain water but need a squeeze of lemon / lime / orange in it.

It's harder for me to estimate fruit sugar since fruit contains a type of sugar as well and I love my blueberries, peaches, raspberries, etc.

[regentrude]

Identify the worst offending foods by looking at the labels and cut out those to get the most bang for the buck.

For example, replace sweetened yoghurt by plain yoghurt with fresh fruit. Eliminate sweetened drinks.

Edited December 30, 2017 by regentrude

[OrganicJen]

Sorry the title is awkward. I want to greatly cut all sources of extra sugar from my diet as a nutrition goal for the coming year. (To whatever extent I can provide better choices in my family, I want to do that as well.) But the part that seems difficult to me is that I thrive on measurement and that is not a goal easily quantified. I have no idea how much sugar I typically consume and I will not know how much I am consuming except to assume it is “less†if I don’t eat or drink certain things.

 

So how would you do this? Or how have you done this?

I'd say we are an extremely low sugar family compared to average, and since I cook or bake most of our food it's easy to know exactly how much sugar goes in anything, and if it's store bought it has the sugar on the ingredients list. When I first removed sugar it was easiest to just stop buying all prepackaged foods, honestly, because for me when I make my own food I'm more mindful about what I'm eating and food in general. I've never been into sweetened drinks so that wasn't an issue at least. Are there things that are high in sugar you know you can cut out or replace?

[Guest]

Reading labels worked for me. Figuring out how much I usually would eat / drink and see what the sugar content is.

If you are used to sodas and store bought "ready" food, you will likely automatically reduce sugar if you switch from sodas to water with a spritz of soda or lemon.

I don't like plain water but need a squeeze of lemon / lime / orange in it.

It's harder for me to estimate fruit sugar since fruit contains a type of sugar as well and I love my blueberries, peaches, raspberries, etc.

Yeah, fortunately, I quit soda years ago when I was diagnosed with IBS. But I can’t congratulate myself too hard because I do have an iced tea habit that could use breaking or modifying. It is homemade iced tea and I don’t use a ton of sugar, but I do use some.

[gardenmom5]

start reading labels.

even foods that don't seem like they should have added sugar - often do.   e.g. spaghetti sauce, lots of added sugar.  same with wheat thins.  sunny delight oj is one of the worse offenders for "supposed to be oj" - loaded with sugar.

 

in addition to the cutting sugar - I focus on adding vegetables at meals and snacks.

. 

 

[OrganicJen]

Yeah, fortunately, I quit soda years ago when I was diagnosed with IBS. But I can’t congratulate myself too hard because I do have an iced tea habit that could use breaking or modifying. It is homemade iced tea and I don’t use a ton of sugar, but I do use some.

The sugar you use in your tea you can measure and then to start you can use one measuring spoon size down from what you use now and taper off.

[Guest]

I'd say we are an extremely low sugar family compared to average, and since I cook or bake most of our food it's easy to know exactly how much sugar goes in anything, and if it's store bought it has the sugar on the ingredients list. When I first removed sugar it was easiest to just stop buying all prepackaged foods, honestly, because for me when I make my own food I'm more mindful about what I'm eating and food in general. I've never been into sweetened drinks so that wasn't an issue at least. Are there things that are high in sugar you know you can cut out or replace?

Well, the holiday season has certainly allowed me to eat far more sweets than usual, even if they have most often been homemmade. So that will be one big correction that would have happened anyway. I do like my ocassional chocolates or lactose-free ice cream. Sometimes I go a long time without any around and then I buy it and go on a streak of eating these things. I think this is a bit worse when it is winter because I am cooped up and want to bake or drink hot chocolate.

 

I don’t drink much alcohol, but when I do, it is generally sweeter stuff, like Mike’s Hard drinks or sweet wines.

[StephanieZ]

I'd look at any packaged or processed foods you buy and look for alternatives with less sugar. Baked goods are killer, as they put sugar in so many things (even not sweet breads!).  

 

And look at reducing your sugar in your tea or completely eliminating it. Stevia (dried leaves or processed sugar substitute) is actually a lovely sweetener for tea. You could also try using a fruity herbal tea for part or all of your iced tea. I love the various Celestial Seasonings Zinger teas and don't use any sweetener at all with them. Maybe a half fruit tea and half black tea would be tasty but still give you your familiar tea flavor? 

 

Maybe you could spend January keeping track of what you consume . . . and then at the end of the month, make goals?

 

 

[foxbridgeacademy]

Yeah, fortunately, I quit soda years ago when I was diagnosed with IBS. But I can’t congratulate myself too hard because I do have an iced tea habit that could use breaking or modifying. It is homemade iced tea and I don’t use a ton of sugar, but I do use some.

This has always been my issue, sweet tea.  I can't drink plain water very well.  I mean I can chug it and I do it, about 6 cups a day, that way but to just drink it? No, I need something sweet.  I used to put 2 cups of sugar per gallon of tea  :leaving: .   I got down to 3/4 -1 cup per gallon after diabetes diagnosis, which is the lowest I could do.  That's still 8 grams of sugar per 8 oz glass.  I recently discovered Splenda (yes, I know it's been around for 20 years) and as long as I don't use a lot of it I can not tell the difference.  So I'm going with 1 tsp real sugar and 1 tsp equivalent of splenda.  I make the tea by the gallon with about 1/2 cup sugar then add in the splenda by the glass.  Eventually I might be able to do all Splenda.

 

I already cut out 95% of sugars in my daily life (other than the tea) several years ago so other than to stop eating fruit I'm not sure where else to cut.

 

ETA- for me Stevia was not an option, it just tastes so gross (I can do Halo ice cream with stevia but only a couple bites). Other artificial sweeteners, equal and sweet&low make me sick, literally.

Edited December 30, 2017 by foxbridgeacademy

[hornblower]

MyFitnessPal will track it for you for the items that are in their database. 

For things you make yourself, you'd have to calculate it out and enter manually.

[OrganicJen]

Well, the holiday season has certainly allowed me to eat far more sweets than usual, even if they have most often been homemmade. So that will be one big correction that would have happened anyway. I do like my ocassional chocolates or lactose-free ice cream. Sometimes I go a long time without any around and then I buy it and go on a streak of eating these things. I think this is a bit worse when it is winter because I am cooped up and want to bake or drink hot chocolate.

 

I don’t drink much alcohol, but when I do, it is generally sweeter stuff, like Mike’s Hard drinks or sweet wines.

Well, in terms of measurement, I did do something extreme once that worked for me with a similar issue. So years ago I decided I wanted to get all of my recommended daily nutrients, but averaged out over every 2 days, by eating all real foods. So I kept a food log and everything I ate I looked up the nutrients and filled in a chart for each thing like vitamin C, or protein, etc. So to start I simply ate how I normally did and then every other day I added up each category and divided it in 2 to see if I got the recommended amount of whatever and then just made slight adjustments each week from there. So I needed more vitamin C first, and each week just made food choices to increase that vitamin and so on. It helped me learn a lot too, like I learned that turnips have almost half of your day's vitamin C requirements lol. Anyway, to me it was easier to track what I was consuming then adjust things slowly from there, than to try to start some entirely different way of eating all at once. Edited December 30, 2017 by OrganicJen

[Selkie]

The way I did it was to completely eliminate anything with sugar or artificial sweeteners from my diet, with two exceptions - I have one Kind bar a day (I only get the Nut and Spice bars, which have 5 grams or less of sugar), and most days I have a small bowl of frozen mixed blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I don't eat other fruits like bananas or apples because they are pretty high in sugar. 

[hornblower]

foxbridge, maybe instead of sweet, go a different way? When I need to increase my water intake I drink it sour, with lemon or lime. I find though you can't make up large pitchers of it. Something weird happens with it & it gets bitter if it sits a long time. We keep sliced limes in the fridge in a little container all the time.... 

[Guest]

Well, in terms of measurement, I did do something extreme once that worked for me with a similar issue. So years ago I decided I wanted to get all of my recommended daily nutrients, but averaged out over every 2 days, by eating all real foods. So I kept a food log and everything I ate I looked up the nutrients and filled in a chart for each thing like vitamin C, or protein, etc. So to start I simply ate how I normally did and then every other day I added up each category and divided it in 2 to see if I got the recommended amount of whatever and then just made slight adjustments each week from there. So I needed more vitamin C first, and each week just made food choices to increase that vitamin and so on. It helped me learn a lot too, like I learned that turnips have almost half of your day's vitamin C requirements lol. Anyway, to me it was easier to track what I was consuming then adjust things slowly from there, than to try to start some entirely different way of eating all at once.

You’re a girl after my own heart! I would totally do a detailed food analysis like that. I love persnickety details, lol. (You should see some of my expense logs...)

[Cosmos]

I would keep it simple. I would classify foods as sugary or not sugary, based on added sugars. Fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, would all be not sugary. Cookies, candy, ice cream would obviously be sugary. Bread made with a minimal amount of added sugar I would probably classify as not sugary, but if sugar was a substantial ingredient, such as in a muffin, then it would be a sugary food. Flavored yogurt would be sugary, plain yogurt would be not sugary. Iced tea with sugar is sugary, plain iced tea is not.

 

Then I would just count servings of foods in the "sugary" category. I guess I'd try to set a goal to limit myself to. Zero? One per week? One per day? I don't know what the limit would be, but if it were me I'd think aobut "servings" and not bother counting grams or anything. But that may be vaguer than you're going for.

[kiana]

Well, in terms of measurement, I did do something extreme once that worked for me with a similar issue. So years ago I decided I wanted to get all of my recommended daily nutrients, but averaged out over every 2 days, by eating all real foods. So I kept a food log and everything I ate I looked up the nutrients and filled in a chart for each thing like vitamin C, or protein, etc. So to start I simply ate how I normally did and then every other day I added up each category and divided it in 2 to see if I got the recommended amount of whatever and then just made slight adjustments each week from there. So I needed more vitamin C first, and each week just made food choices to increase that vitamin and so on. It helped me learn a lot too, like I learned that turnips have almost half of your day's vitamin C requirements lol. Anyway, to me it was easier to track what I was consuming then adjust things slowly from there, than to try to start some entirely different way of eating all at once.

 

If anyone wants to try this now, I very highly recommend the website cronometer.com. The base website is free, and all (like, ALL) of the nutrients are listed, as long as the item is in the usda, nccdb, or a few other databases. The website will do an analysis for you over the last week, but if you want to track something for longer than that, it exports into excel. It's perfect for the data-driven nerd. 

[rose]

One thing that I do is look at the labels. When I see 16g of sugar I convert that in my mind to 4tsp of sugar. My understanding is that 4g sugar is equivalent  to 1tsp of sugar. You can then count up your teaspoons per day from either processed foods or homemade foods. You can even do this for foods like apples. A quick google search tells me that 1 medium apple has 19g of sugar. That's almost 5 tsps of sugar. You could alternatively count the grams of sugar through the day and convert in your head at the end of the day to give yourself a mental picture.

 

I like mental pictures. I do this with fat when I'm dieting. I imagine 20 pounds of butter in a pile and tell myself that that volume of fat is packed across my body under my skin. It's a pretty impressive way to motivate me to lose that weight.

 

I was just asking my dh today to install a nutrition tracker for me. I love the nitty gritty details too. I need the tracker right now though for the vitamin and mineral tracking.