We are three days into this clean eating challenge, and so far we have talked about increasing water consumption, eating more veggies, reading labels and picking foods with fewer ingredients, and now we will talk about sugar 👍🏻.
Sugar can be a very hard thing to reduce or eliminate if it is your weakness. Some people are not tempted by sugar and lean more towards the salty and savory foods, but some of us LOVE sugar! Sugar is my weakness. I can pass on chips and salsa, but place cookies, ice cream, or brownies in front of me, and I have to dig a little deeper to resist diving in. I call it the Sugar Monster syndrome. My grandfather loved sugar, and I remember as a kid, seeing his box of See’s candy, cabinet full of cookies and treats, nightly bowl of ice cream, and thought of him as a sugar monster. I think I actually called him that! I didn’t mean it as a put down, but more as an endearing nickname. I just knew he loved his sugar. Now I can be a sugar monster if I allow myself to be😆.
There are times when I allow more sugar into my diet then I need, but for the most part, I keep it under control. I know the harm it causes my body, so I choose to walk away from it. I also see the effects it has on my body. I become more bloated, I have less energy, my clothes get a little tighter, and I just feel blah! Keeping sugar out of my diet makes me feel so much better, keeps my clothes fitting better, reduces the bloating, and gives me more energy.
So how much sugar should you allow in your diet? The current recommendation is 25 grams per day ( 6 tsp) for women and 37.5 for men. That really isn’t very much! A Starbucks drink can have 50-80 grams of sugar! That is just one drink! Imagine adding that on to what you consume for the rest of the day. A can of soda has about 39 grams of sugar, so well above your daily allowance. Have you ever considered how much sugar you consume each day?
Today I challenge you to reduce the amount of sugar you eat or drink, and pay attention to see how much sugar is in the things you normally reach for. You don’t need to eliminate fruit. That is a natural sugar, and not the same as processed sugar. Check your coffee creamer, snack items, sauces, salad dressings, ketchup, bread, ect….
Can you stay under 30 grams of sugar today?
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