How to Lower Sugar in Your Diet
Sugar may give you a temporary high, but when taken in big amounts than recommended, have negative long-term effects on your body. These include pre-diabetes, diabetes, hyperglycemia and obesity are just some. Here are the ways you can avoid sugar and lower sugar in your diet.
Understanding Sugar
Before kissing anything sweet goodbye altogether, you should first understand sugar and its role in your body. Sugar is not bad, per se. However, your body can only absorb a fixed amount of sugar within a time. Anything beyond that would cause insulin to spike and your blood sugar to spike and drop with it. These insulin spikes causes stresses in your body, depresses the immune system and trigger your body to store more fat.
When lowering sugar in your diet, what’s important is not just the amount of sugar, but the kind of sugar you are eliminating as well.
Know Your Food
Sugar occurs in the most surprising food. Microwave meals, ketchup, mayonnaise and yogurt all contain sugar. Even those labeled as healthy can contain surprising amounts of sugar. That is why reading the labels carefully are crucial when lowering the sugar in your diet. If the item is not labeled, you can check for its nutritional facts online.
A Glycemic Foods Index (GFI) is also a valuable resource on what food you must avoid when lowering the sugar in your diet. The higher the ranking of the food item in the GFI, the faster it can raise your blood sugar levels. Therefore low-ranking food items should be preferred by those who wish to lower their blood sugar levels.
Remove Sugar
While some may recommend honey or raw sugar as replacement for ordinary table sugar, the truth is, there is no difference. Your body responds to all kinds of sugar the same way. Try to remove all kinds of sweets from your diet for the meantime.
Choose food that have no added sugar in them. Fruit-based products like reduced sugar or all-natural jams and jellies are acceptable.
Don’t add sugar to your food. This may not be palatable at the early stages, but you can do it gradually by lessening the amount of sugar you put in your coffee, cereal or tea until you put in nothing at all.
Don’t rely on artificial sweeteners either. While they can help in satiating your sugar craving, the cravings stay. Train yourself not to want sugar all the time.
Drink water instead of sodas and juice. The latter two are a big factor in contributing to heightened blood sugar levels.
Natural Alternatives
Go natural when looking for sugar alternatives. Cinnamon and vanilla produce a sweet-like sensation on your tongue. You can add either in your food and drink and not worry about spiking insulin levels at all.
Ripe fruits and berries are also an excellent way to sweeten your food and palate without raising your blood sugar levels.
Exercise
Exercise is beneficial to your health in a many number of ways. This includes lowering your blood sugar levels. Taking a brisk walk at least 30 minutes daily will dramatically lower your sugar levels within a month.
Spread Out Meals
A big meal can cause insulin levels to spike at the sudden influx of food. Spreading out meals can help the body absorb the sugar more slowly, without changing the sugar levels drastically.