How To Cut Back On Sugar Without Being Obsessed Or Grumpy

You really want to decrease your sugar intake. You know it’s key to feeling great and being healthy, but you hate the thought of giving up all your favorites. No worries: Here’s how to cut back on sugar without becoming obsessed (and grumpy).

A yoga buddy stabbed my nutritionist heart when she spent a month without milk, nectarines, grapes, and other nutritious foods because of their sugar content.

Fortunately, hers was a 4-week experiment that she gladly abandoned on the 1st day of the following month. What a joyless month! Her mention of it a few years ago lingers with me because I keep seeing confused shoppers squinting over food labels in the yogurt section or cereal aisle of the supermarket.

Image credit: Eduardo Goody

That’s not to say cutting back on sugar isn’t a good goal. It is. Too much added sugar leads to extra calories, extra pounds, and extra lousy diets.

You should pay attention to your sugar intake if you have prediabetes, diabetes, or concerns about your weight. Gosh, if you eat, you should pay attention to your sugar intake!

I tackled the notion of sugar being poison already. Check out my answer to the question, is sugar toxic.

In this Post

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• Take a sensible approach to decreasing sugar intake
  • Use a food label to decrease sugar intake
• Here’s how to cut back on sugar
  • 1. Cut back on obvious sources of added sugar
  • 2. Recognize the many names for sugar
  • 3. Gradually cut back the amount of sugar you add at home
  • 4. Bring out food’s natural sweetness with easy cooking ideas
  • 5. Go fruit-forward
  • 6. Fruit-focus your dessert
  • 7. Go mini
  • 8. Clean up your diet
  • 9. Use non-nutritive sweeteners if you like them
• Another way to cut back on sugar
  • 10. Get to bed on time

Take a sensible approach to decreasing sugar intake

Understand the difference between added sugars and naturally occurring sugars. Yes, they do have identical chemical structures and calories, but the nutritional packages have nothing in common.

You consume natural sugars when you eat these:

• milk
• peaches
• blueberries
• vinegar
• broccoli
• carrots
• tons of other wholesome foods

All the calories in blueberries come from naturally occurring sugar. It’s smart to eat more blueberries and less candy when trying to cut back on sugar. 🙂

You consume added sugar when you eat these:

• lollipops
• ice cream
• coffee or tea with sugar or honey
• regular sodas and lemonade
• some breads, salad dressings, pasta sauce and more
• tons of other sweet and not-so-sweet packaged foods

Blueberries versus lollipops. Milk versus ice cream. Big difference.

Lollipops are just for fun and delight. Photo credit: Nagesh Badu

Even though all the calories from blueberries and lollipops come from sugar, the similarities end there. Lollipops are for fun!

Blueberries – even with their 15 grams of sugar per cup – are packed with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients (such as anthocyanins and flavonols), fiber, and delicious taste!

Even with all their sugar, eating fruit is associated with less prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers. We can’t say that about lollipops, cookies, or digging into a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends limiting added sugars to 24 grams (2 tablespoons) per day for most women and 36 grams (3 tablespoons) for most men. Without scrutinizing food labels and measuring your intake of sugar, honey, and maple syrup, it’s impossible to know how much you consume.

Use a food label to decrease sugar intake

Pro-tip for people with diabetes: When you see total sugars on food labels, you can ignore it. That number is part of Total Carbohydrates, which is the number you’ll use for carb counting. Learn more about carb counting for diabetes.

Here’s how to cut back on sugar

10 ways to decrease sugar intake

So now you get the real goal is to decrease your added sugar intake. There’s nothing about the sugars in milk or peaches or carrots that make them inherently bad.

(Again, if you carb count for diabetes management, unless your diabetes care team teaches you otherwise, use the Total Carbohydrate count, not the sugar count. The type or source of carbohydrate affects your blood sugar a little, but the amount of carbohydrate affects it a lot. For example, a cup of rice with 45 grams of total carbohydrate – and only 1 gram of sugar – will spike your blood sugar way more than a cup of milk with 12 grams of sugar and a total of only 12 grams of carbohydrate.)

1. Cut back on obvious sources of added sugar

Sodas, sugary teas, fancy coffee drinks, energy drinks, lemonade, and fruit punch are obvious examples of drinks with lots of added sugar. Baked goods, flavored coffee creamer, pancake syrup, and jelly also pack a load of added sugar. If you rarely eat and drink these foods, kudos, you’re doing well!

But if you have one or more most days, you’re probably over the AHA recommended limit.

• A single can of soda has about 40 grams of added sugar. That’s 10 teaspoons – more than the AHA limit for men!
• If you drizzle a single tablespoon of honey on your morning toast, you’ve added 17 grams of sugar. YIKES!

Sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to type 2 diabetes. If you have diabetes or prediabetes, this is one source of sugar you really want to decrease.

Photo credit: Visual Stories Micheile

2. Recognize the many names for sugar

Glucose. Fructose. Both are sugars.

Though not a complete list, here are various names that signal added sugars.

Agave nectar, brown rice syrup, brown sugar, cane syrup, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, maltose, malt sugar, molasses, sucrose

3. Gradually cut back the amount of sugar you add at home

Wean yourself from added sugar without tormenting your taste buds. At home, gradually decrease your sugar intake. Be mindful each time you pick up a syrup or other form of sugar. For example, if you usually stir 3 teaspoons of sugar into your oatmeal or tea, try just 2 or even 2½ teaspoons for a few weeks. Then cut back a bit more. Same goes for coffee creamer, pancake syrup, jelly, and all the added sugars you control.

4. Bring out food’s natural sweetness with easy cooking ideas

Try these:

• Grill or bake fruit to intensify their sweetness. Heat is magical, so you’ll never need to toss a mediocre piece of fruit again!
  • Let me tell you just how much I adore grilled peaches and pears. And my entire family is hooked on baked figs with goat cheese!

• Open the spice cabinet and dig around for extracts and sweet spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and ginger.
  • Cardamom or cinnamon are exquisite in coffee.
  • Nutmeg and cinnamon liven up yogurt and oatmeal.
  • Swirl a little vanilla in fancy coffee drinks or milk steamers. Try it in oatmeal too.

5. Go fruit-forward

Mix a mashed banana or grated apple along with a sprinkle of cinnamon into your oatmeal or yogurt, and you’ll get by with much less added sugars than if you had them without the fruit. Add berries to your breakfast cereal and cottage cheese. And top your pancakes with any favorite fresh fruit.

And remember water too. Here’s how you can love the taste of your drink without the gargantuan load of sugar in sodas, sweet teas, and lemonade. Check out my favorite suggestions for flavoring water with fruits, veggies and herbs.

Which of these ways to cut back on sugar in beverages appeals to you most?

6. Fruit-focus your dessert

Level up your diet with sweet treats featuring fruit. Use traditional desserts as toppings or extras.

• Instead of a bowl of ice cream, enjoy a bowl of berries with a dollop of ice cream.
• Treat yourself to chocolate-covered strawberries or apricots.
• Freeze fruit chunks with pureed yogurt for a cooling ice pop.
• End your meal with a baked apple stuffed with raisins, dates, and sweet spices.
• Use a food processor to mix date and nut-based energy balls. Try my chocolate peanut butter oat balls and my 5-ingredient chocolate walnut date balls.
• Try these frozen fruit treats from Wyman‘s. They have only 3 grams of added sugars. And that’s a delicious way to cut back on sugar.

7. Go mini

Embrace the notion that tiny is chic. When nothing but the real deal satisfies, treat yourself to a small bit. Buy mini cupcakes, ice cream cones (Trader Joe’s has some great ones), and cookies.

This part is key:

Serve yourself the amount you feel is appropriate, put away the rest of the package, sit down far from the container, and enjoy your sweet treat. Really savor it. Then savor the good feeling of eating a smart amount, so you can decrease your sugar intake and be healthier.

8. Clean up your diet

I’m not aware of solid research on this, but my own experience with clients is strong. Once they add some structure to their eating (3 balanced meals per day) and focus their efforts on getting health-boosting foods at every meal, they don’t rely on sugary treats to get through the day.

9. Use non-nutritive sweeteners if you like them

In small doses, they’re safe to eat and enjoy. Pick the brands you like the best for sweetening beverages or in cooking and baking. When artificial sweeteners or other non-nutritive sweeteners replace added sugars, they can help you manage your weight and your blood sugar level. But they won’t do a darn thing for you if you eat too many carbs or calories.

It’s also okay not to have them. Drink water, not cola or diet cola. Have plain yogurt or add fruit to your yogurt instead of snacking on sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened yogurt. For me, when it comes down to regular or diet soda, I’ll choose the diet drink every time. I sure don’t want or need the 140 calories or 39 grams of added sugars in a 12-ounce can of cola. That’s more than 3 tablespoons of sugar!

Bottom line on artificial sweeteners versus sugar: if the amount you consume is teeny tiny, it doesn’t matter which you choose.

Another way to cut back on sugar

The last strategy to cut back on sugar isn’t food-related, but it’s equally important.

10. Get to bed on time

Short sleeping increases the levels of ghrelin, a hunger hormone, and decreases the levels of leptin, a hormone that helps with appetite control. It’s no wonder it’s hard to manage your food intake with out-of-whack hormones.

Research also suggests sleep deprivation increases cravings for junky food, especially between meals.

Get the sleep your body desperately craves. Too little sleep also makes you less insulin sensitive, which is terrible for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, as well as for heart health.

Finally, please don’t break my nutritionist heart. 💔 Enjoy health-boosting fruits and other wholesome foods without obsessing about the (natural) sugars. And treat yourself to just enough dessert to meet your health goals and not be grumpy.