Today I joined in over at Kitchen Stewardship’s Spring Cleaning: Get the Junk Out Carnival, and guest posted on sugar. I wrote a very honest (and sometimes TMI) piece on my personal story with sugar and gave a good 5 reasons why we want to rid our diets of sugar. So go take a read and then come back here for part three;
Get the Junk Out: Sugar
Part Three: Take Action!
With books upon books written on the subject, and a mass of articles online as well, the question still stands for many folks – how do you really get rid of sugar in your diet? For some of us it will be easier than others depending on how far along we are in our journey to real foods, so I’ll break it up a bit for you.
Baby Steps
1. When first trying to cut sugar out of your diet, it’s essential that you start reading the labels on the food you buy! High fructose corn syrup is the first thing that needs to go.
2. Stop buying foods with added sugar that aren’t meant to be sweet. Things like taco seasoning packets, dressings, and store bought sauces can have sugar in them and they are so easy to make at home. (cheaper too!)
3. Start cutting back on your consumption of sweets. Limit not only the amounts you eat, but the days you eat them. Try to have at least a few days each week where you don’t consume sweets.
Take it Up a Notch
4. Switch to natural sugars in recipes. Use sucanat or rapadura (one of the least refined sugars), maple syrup, and honey. Yes, they are more expensive, but the great thing is, it’ll give you incentive to use them less!
Grain free brownies sweetened with honey are delicious
Apple Grunt is a wonderful ‘comfort’ dessert
Apple Grunt
And caramel corn makes a lovely sweet and crunchy snack!
Caramel Corn
(And later this week I’ll be sharing my recipe for whipped cream and showing you what we served my little girl for her one year birthday treat! You can grab my RSS feed or get free updates by e-mail to stay in the loop.)
A good sugar to start out with if you’re used to only refined white sugar is going to be organic whole cane sugar. It’s an easy swap (1:1 ratio) and the taste and textures will be about the same. When switching over to more natural sugars, sometimes it’s easiest to replace just some of the sugar at a time. If your recipe calls for 1 cup try using 3/4 cup of your normal sugar and 1/4 whole cane sugar and increasing the ratio each time you make it. For me, this seemed to help my family make the conversion a bit easier!
Put Your Big Girl Panties On!
5. If you’re suffering from medical issues and even things that seem like common annoyances (eczema, headaches, yeast overgrowth, chronic colds/coughs, lowered immune system, etc.) or you’ve been doing the natural sugar thing for some time and want to kick it up a notch, it may be time to cut sugar out of your life!
Personally, I find that I have to go cold turkey in order for me to get a handle on over coming sugar. The gradual cutback cause me to crave sweets more and I end up over indulging. So my advice would be to clean out your cabinets, anything you know you shouldn’t eat, and stay away from buying anymore. The first few days are tough as your body works on the physical cravings. And the days weeks months after, you’ll have to struggle with the emotional attachment to sugar which is the hardest thing to break.
Giveaway! ***now closed***
Now, Katie did a great job setting up a couple giveaways for the carnival this week!
Honeyville Grain has offered to give two winners from Kitchen Stewardship and Naturally Knocked Up their choice of one large can of freeze dried fruit. The cans are about the size of a big coffee can and hold almost 3/4 lb. (Freeze Dried fruit is real fruit, with no sugar added, that is so lightweight you think you’re eating processed cereal. But it’s real food. It makes a great emergency snack for young children when you’re out and about. (U.S. residents only))
The winners will also receive a copy of Katie’s Healthy Snacks to Go eBook, which will be published next week over at Kitchen Stewardship! This book has 20 different recipes plus 14 different versions of larabars and two bonus sections about packing a healthy, eco-conscious lunch and simple snacks that don’t need recipes. This book will be a fantastic resource for making quick and easy snacks, and I can’t wait to get my own copy!
So here’s how it’s going to work. Katie and I will pool entries from both her site and mine and we’ll select 2 winners. (International entries excepted, but the freeze dried fruit can only be shipped to U.S. addresses. So should an international reader win, a third winner will be selected for the fruit)
To enter here at Naturally Knocked Up:
- You may leave a comment on this post OR link up a post you’ve written on either the effects of sugar, your story with sugar, or a great recipe that’s free of refined sugar.
- Subscribe via RSS feed OR sign up to get free updates by e-mail – leave another comment to let me know
- Share this post via social media (twitter, facebook, stumbleupon) – leave another comment to let me know
***Next week make sure you stop by Mindful Momma as Michaela talks about how to clean out the parabens!!!
All images and content are protected under US copyright laws, please do not copy and paste.
Links in the post above may be affiliate or referral links - meaning that through a sale I may be given monetary benefit. I blog with integrity and only endorse companies and products I love.
I am not a doctor and don\'t pretend to be one. Use everything you read only to inspire you to do your own research and be an advocate for your own health. Please read my disclaimer in full.
About Donielle
I really need to eliminate as much sugar from my diet as possible – especially since I’m considered pre-diabetic. I have sweets everyday, so I’m starting to learn how to reduce and cut out sugar.
[Reply]
I just subscribed (RSS)
[Reply]
I subscribed via email! thank you
[Reply]
I am loving your blog! I have been reading it backwards like a book over the last 10 days.
I am a CPA and have been processing all the information while at work and next week MUST start implementing some of your great suggestions! I have 4 kids and think now must be the time to start getting all the junk (including sugar) out! I am a sugar-o-holic…next week will be painful! But…first thing on my to-do list for Friday is to go buy Nourishing Traditions and start formulating a plan for healthier eating! Thanks so much for the inspiration!
[Reply]
I’d love to win. My son is a backpacker and he’s been off sugar for over 2 years now. It has greatly helped his symptoms with Tourette’s Syndrome. He’d love to take some dried blueberries on his next backpacking trip!
[Reply]
Last year when we went to Sugarbush at Blandford Nature Center, the guide told us that the concept of using cups of sugar would have seemed ridiculous to the Native Americans and early settlers – when something is difficult to acquire, nature is kind of telling us to use it sparingly.
[Reply]
I already subscribe to your RSS feed
[Reply]
Hi! Love your blog. The information you share is amazing. I’m really enjoying the “Get the Junk Out” series. I was diagnosed with PCOS 12 years ago. It has been a struggle, especially with doctors that only want to write prescriptions. Our family has been off of white sugar for two months now (yay). My kids love frozen blueberries and strawberry smoothies. Not missing the white stuff at all. Hubby was blown away by the switch to pure maple syrup for our weekend pancakes! Hoping to see my cycles show up in the coming months. Thank you and God bless you.
[Reply]
I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia (my pancreas makes too much insulin so that makes me sensitive to sugar) in 2006 in a very indirect way when my doctor diagnosed my son with the same condition. Basically, it made sense to him that my son was hypoglycemic since I was as well. It was a shock. I never knew and it surprised me that my usually thorough doctor had assumed I knew this about myself. I admit to mentioning low blood sugar (LBS) episodes at previous appointments but in my defense, that was the name my mother gave those shaky, dizzy, ravenous feelings I’d get as a teen. She’d have me eat then I’d be fine. Since being unofficially diagnosed I have read 6 books on the subject and feel (almost) that I could write my own. It’s been 4 years and I’ve minimized my sugar intake to 10% of my total sweets intake. Considering how often I eat anything sweet, that is an unavoidable microscopic amount. My favorite treat is unsweetened applesauce mixed with stoneyfield yogurt, dehydrated soaked walnuts and fresh berries. Amazing. One tip I would recommend for anyone dealing with recurrent LBS episodes, do not give in to the ravenous feeling with anything with sugar in it. Adams peanut butter on bread, toast, cracker, or even rice cake (yum) will help counter the insulin surge more effectively helping to diminish further episodes. People will want to give you juice or candy – you’re not diabetic – don’t take it. Ask for something with a balance of protein and not overtly complex carbs, like bread or crackers. Then you can move on to a healthier, more sustaining meal. (sent from my iPhone)
[Reply]
i subscribed!
[Reply]
i used stumbleupon to share this post
[Reply]
An easy way to get the sugar out for us was to use less and less in our ice tea, until now we use none. My husband used to use a lot of sugar in his tea, but he adjusted too.
[Reply]
donielle Reply:
April 16th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
@Stephanie, Great tip! I had to do that with my tea as well. When I first started drinking it I had about as much sugar in there as I did tea!
[Reply]
I think we as American’s….ok maybe its just me, don’t really think of just how much sugar we (I) eat on a daily basis. Thanks to my digestive system I no longer buy processed sweets-cookies, cereals, even granola bars. Its not so much about the sugar as it is all the other gunk in there that doesn’t set well with me(or my insides). But now that i make any of the sweets and treats that we have I can see how easy it is to reduce the sugar amount of a recipe or how great it is to use Sucanat instead. I suppose its something to continue learning about.
[Reply]
Already a subscriber! Just want to let you know how much I appreciate your blog and the openness with which you write. I was diagnosed with PCOS in July 2009, and the doctor very flatly said to me, “This is a disease and it requires prescription medication.” I brought up the idea of trying to control it with diet, but he was not interested. I subsequently found I was no longer interested in his services.
It has been really inspiring to see the positive effect a healthy diet has had on your own fertility.
[Reply]
I also shared this post through stumbleupon.
[Reply]
i used stumbleupon to share this post
[Reply]
Sign me up! I love sweets, but want to learn more about reducing it in my diet and my kids’ diet. I signed up for your RSS feed! Looking forward to learning more!
[Reply]
Love the advice and totally relate. Can’t wait to make those bean brownies. Never heard of such things! Thanks so much!
[Reply]
i gave up sugar and it was fine then i got pregnant and strted a new job and now my son is 2.5 and i’m having a hard time kicking the habit again – i’m going to be checking this all out – thanks
[Reply]
we are slowly making our way to a refined sugar free diet
[Reply]
Thank You for your blog and information. After two back to back miscarriages Aug and Sept2011, and 1 and half years of TTC. I never thought that my love of sugar could actually have something to do with my fertility.
I am just a horrible sugar person.. I will have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Your Blog
has inspired me to get SUGAR CLEANSED and Im telling myself perhaps this is
what the doctors who say … “theres nothing wrong” cant figure about.. Im very excited.. Cant
wait to try to be SUGAR FREE!!!!!!!!!!!
[Reply]
donielle Reply:
November 18th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
@Mel, I’m terribly sorry for your losses, how devastating. But I’m also excited for you as you work to better your diet and kick the sugar habit! I too used to eat sugar in some form for every meal – and I feel so much better when I don’t.
If you haven’t subscribed at all, make sure you keep up on the blog as I’ll be announcing the “Naturally balanced” challenge very soon and re-releasing the Sugar Detox Challenge into a mini e-book in the next couple of weeks.
[Reply]