Danielle Moore
A life without sugar is possible – but quite hard. That’s why we’ve collected eight tips on how we can eat a low-sugar diet while still enjoying sweets.
Yes, sugar is bad. But unfortunately there is also something completely different: pretty tasty. The total renunciation of chocolate, ice cream and co. cannot – and, in the author’s humble opinion, should not – be the solution. This is especially true for nut nougat chocolate, but the personal opinion of the author probably comes into play here too.
So what to do? We have collected eight tips for you that will help you to eat less sugar while still enjoying sweets.
Low-sugar diet: Less sugar, more enjoyment
1. Start: Avoid sugar
So yes: total renunciation, but only for a week or two. Because our taste buds are spoiled by the daily intake of sugar. As soon as we completely do without sugar for a while, we sensitize them again – and sweet things suddenly taste really sweet again. Then suddenly half a spoonful of sugar in the coffee is enough. And the (nut nougat) chocolate tastes even better. Here are nine tips for cutting out sugar.
2. Enjoy low-sugar
After the waiver comes the extension. After all, we now taste really sweet again. So less is enough. The apple spritzer gets by with much less juice, we mix natural yoghurt under the finished fruit yoghurt and if you really can’t do without ketchup, you can extend it with tomato paste. Many sweet foods can be easily stretched – and are thus much less sweet, but just as delicious.
3. Reading the fine print helps save on sugar
With processed foods from the supermarket, it is often worth taking a look at the back of the packaging. Many ready-made foods turn out to be “sugar traps”, as our Hidden Sugar test shows. Example breakfast cereals: “The sugar content for muesli and cereals varies between 1.5 and 35 percent,” says Isabelle Keller, nutritionist at the German Society for Nutrition (DGE). For yoghurt, the range is between 4 and 22 grams per 100 grams. So comparing helps to consume less sugar.”Consumer competence is required,” says Keller.
4. Shopping to the full
Actually, the tip is nothing new, but then you always catch yourself with a growling stomach on the supermarket shelf. So, always eat something before you go shopping. Then it will be much easier to buy little sweets. And if there’s only one bar of, say, nut nougat chocolate in the cupboard, that’s all we’ll eat. The hurdle to running to the supermarket and buying supplies is big. And if it’s not big enough, at least we’ve moved a little.
5. Bake low-sugar
Of course, those who cook and bake themselves have their sugar intake under control. And especially with sweet recipes for tarts or cakes, the sugar content can quickly be reduced by half without it being very noticeable. In order to slowly get used to a low-sugar diet, you can first save a quarter.
6. Leave the soda
Sweet drinks are one of our main suppliers of sugar – according to the DGE, a full 38 percent of our sugar intake comes from sodas, fruit juices and nectar. And if we’re honest, we have the least of it. One sip and gone, we consciously only enjoy very few drinks. “The easiest way is to give up sugar-sweetened drinks,” says Keller. “After all, we don’t have the feeling that something was stolen from our plates.” The DGE recommends that adults eat no more than about 50 grams of free sugars per day. “One liter of cola is enough for two days,” explains Keller. So: away with cola and soda. Instead: fruit spritzer with lots of water, lots of water and unsweetened teas. Anyone who only drinks their coffee with three spoons of sugar should ask themselves whether he really likes coffee – and if so, gradually reduce the sugar. The same applies here: our taste buds get used to it.
7. Divert cravings
Before you eat a whole piece of cake out of sheer craving for sugar, just bite into an apple. Of course there is also fructose in an apple. But also lots of healthy vitamins. That’s why an apple usually satisfies the craving for sweets and is the better alternative to cake & co.
8. Enjoyment allowed
The cookies should not be on the desk next to the keyboard, nor in the car or in your handbag. If you consciously let a piece of chocolate melt in your mouth and keep it in your mouth for as long as possible, you will have much more of it and automatically eat less. The chocolate then tastes much better. And that’s especially true for, you know, nut nougat chocolate.
