Are you skipping chocolate, cake desserts or other sweet treats to reduce your sugar intake?
While that is great and will go a long way in terms of reducing your sugar intake and improving your overall health, you’re probably still eating more sugar than you realise…
Did you know that the average Australian eats 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day?!
You are probably thinking, yikes that is a lot, but there’s no way that’s me…
Well, if you’re regularly consuming the foods I have shown in this infographic or buying a lot of pre-made and packaged foods in general you probably aren’t far off that number
Frustratingly, sugar is in a lot more foods than you may think which is why it is so easy to underestimate how much you’re actually consuming
Just because it’s marketed as healthy, doesn’t mean it is!
Now as a recap, the sugar we need to be conscious of is ‘free sugar’ or ‘added sugars’ which refers to sugars that have been ADDED to foods, not sugars that are naturally present in foods (like whole, fresh fruit for example)
The recommended total intake of sugar per day is 5 tsp per day
The reason we know we need to limit our sugar intake is that excess sugar has been linked to an increased risk of many diseases, including obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer and inflammatory conditions
🫡Being more conscious of the sugar content in all foods will help you make better choices and improve your health
We are so fortunate to now have so many more packaged, lower sugar and more nutritious food options, it is just about knowing how to spot them
So it is not a case of never eating yoghurt or muesli, more so knowing which ones to pick! The same goes for sauces/condiments, protein bars and so on
So if you’re interested in lowering your sugar intake, here’s my advice:
1. Learn how to read food labels so if you are buying packaged products you know which ones are best to go for
2. Make more meals and snacks at home using whole foods
3. The fewer sweet foods you have, the less you want, so if you LOVE sweet-tasting things, it might be time to train your palette towards more savoury options