Sugar – it’s everywhere.
Whether it's hiding in your pasta sauces, or all over the pages of your newspapers, it’s the 21st century's favourite food villain.
And the distaste for the sweet stuff is only getting stronger, with campaigns to introduce a sugar tax to charities aiming to expose the real amount of sugar in our daily diets – like our morning coffee fix.
Most of us unwittingly eat more than our rfair share of the sweet stuff, with many children eating as much as three times the daily recommend allowance of sugar.
So how can we cut down our day-to-day intake without making drastic (translate: unrealistic) changes?
Nutritionist Helen Money – who’s currently working with BarleyCupto launch a campaign to help people #cutsugar within 30 days – has offered some top tips to helping us all cut down on the stuff.
She said: “With too much sugar linked to type 2-diabetes, obesity, heart disease, some types of cancer and tooth decay, cutting sugar is rightly a top priority for many people this year.
“ To help those confused by all the information out here, we’ve compiled our top tips and hints to help you to cut your added sugar intake by 30% in just 30 days,”
So here we go…
Top tips for cutting back on sugar:
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Try swapping your sugary cereal for unsweetened porridge mixed with a handful of berries to cut your sugar intake by over 30 per cent.
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Swap your sugary drinks for water or sugar-free drinks and save up to 10g of sugar (over 3 sugar cubes) in their diet, per drink. Try sparlking water with fresh lemon is you crave that fizz fix.
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At breakfast time enjoy toast with a savoury topping such as marmite or peanut butter rather than jam, honey or syrup and save over 10g (2.5 tsp) of sugar per serving.
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Watch for hidden sources of sugar such as processed soups, take-aways, pizza and savoury sauces. For example ketchup has around 3g of sugar (around 1 tsp) per serving
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Make a sugar chart – to help monitor and understand how much sugar you are having a day.
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Make sure you eat regularly – structured eating helps ensure your blood sugar levels do not go too low and cause sugar cravings.
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You can cut sugar in homemade bakes and cakes by up to 1/3 with little impact on taste - try adding vanilla, orange or lemon extract or ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg instead
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While some foods – like bananas are naturally high in sugar – the real danger in our diet is added sugars in processed foods often listed undercarbohydrates as sugars –get to know your labels –and check out Change4Life’s Sugar Smart App to help
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A tasty hot drink can help to keep your mind off sugar. Barleycup contains no added sugars and only 0.6g of naturally occurring (carbohydrate) sugars per cup. Try a cup of tasty caffeine free and gluten free Barleycup in place of your sweetened tea and coffee today. It only has 10kcals per cup too!
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Watch out for ready-meals – they can max out your sugar limit in just one meal. Make sure you read the recommended allowance labels properly and know exactly what you're consuming.
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Swap one low fat raspberry yogurt for one fat free Greek yogurt with 80g raspberries - you'll save up to 2 teaspoons of sugar.
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In need of a chocolate fix? Put down the Snickers and grab a slice of toast spread with 15g of Nutella instead, you'll save yourself 3 teaspoons of sugar.
WATCH: 5 tips for reducing sugar:
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