The Un-sugar coated truth (July + August)
Happy July, everyone! Hope everyone had a great (and socially distanced) 4th of July weekend and tried to stay clear of those unhealthy oils in all your yummy bbq food! This month's topic is probably one of the most important healthy habits you can incorporate into your lifestyle: avoiding sugar! If there's one thing you take from our newsletters let it be this. Because we want to give you the most information to be able to make this lifestyle change, we've broken this topic up into two parts. Stay tuned for next month's newsletter for part 2 ;)
Hope everyone is continuing to stay safe, positive, and of course, healthy!
Love, Remi & Bryn
THE UN-SUGAR COATED TRUTH (Part 1)
July + August newsletter
It’s common knowledge that sugar is not good for us -- it causes unwanted trips to the dentist and energy crashes. In the last newsletter, we discussed how fats can be beneficial for your overall health and, surprisingly, don’t always make us accumulate unnecessary pounds or heart problems. If anything, sugar is the real culprit in the food industry, causing more Americans annually to become diabetic and adopt other chronic health diseases.
Fat doesn’t make us fat, SUGAR makes us fat.
Why should we demonize sugar in our diets as much as possible?
It’s extremely addictive, more than any drug in the world. We are addicted to sugar already and we don’t even know it. Eating sugar makes us crave MORE SUGAR! Food companies know this and add sugar to keep consumers buying their products.
Added unnatural sugars in your diet causes inflammation which leads to chronic diseases such as heart disease or cancer, headaches/migraines, stomach problems, and even depression.
Too much sugar causes our body to become insulin resistant, thus developing diabetes.
Consuming added sugars does not provide any vitamins or nutrients. Besides, we don't need any extra sugar in our diet because we already consume naturally occurring sugar from fruits, vegetables, and starches!
Sugar affects the collagen in your skin, causing you to age and LOOK OLDER FASTER!
Sugar is added to most packaged foods you find at the grocery store and is often disguised by other names such as:
High-fructose corn syrup, Honey, Malt syrup, Molasses, Oat syrup, Rice bran syrup, Rice syrup, Dextrose, Fructose, Galactose, Glucose, Lactose, Maltose, Sucrose, Maltodextrin, and more (a total of 56 other names for sugar but these are the most common)
Always read the ingredients list to check for any of these hidden names. Often times there will be more than one of these names listed to make it seem like there is less added sugar than there really is. Also check the nutrition facts to see the total grams of sugar.
According to the American Heart Association, this is how much sugar you should be consuming daily (but preferably less)
Women: 24 grams
Men: 36 grams
Children: 12 grams
One can of soda is already more sugar than your daily intake should be!
Now that you know how bad sugar can be for you, definitely try your best to avoid it as much as you can! A simple place to start is to cut out drinks like soda, fruit juices, and sport drinks as they are loaded with added sugars. And yes, that means cutting out diet sodas too! Diet sodas use artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin or aspartame, which are equally as bad as regular sugar even though the nutrition label says "0 sugar."
Instead, opt for a sparking seltzer, like La Croix, or sparking water with lemon for a nice refreshing drink. Try this tip out for now, and next month we will be back with even more ways you can cut out sugar and also provide healthy recipes so you can still satisfy your sweet tooth craving while making healthier lifestyle decisions.
Swapping sugar for healthier options isn't rocket science. Simply take your favorite recipe and substitute it with one of the healthier options above! All these suggestions will not raise your insulin / blood sugar levels as much as regular sugar would. You'll be surprised when you can barely taste any difference
SUGAR SWAPS (Part 2)
(so you can still enjoy your favorite foods)
For cooking / baking:
Monkfruit sweetener: zero-calorie sweetener derived from monkfruit that resembles granulated sugar. Use 1:1 ratio
Coconut sugar: natural, dark-colored sugar derived from coconuts. Use 1:1 ratio. Unlike brown sugar, coconut sugar contains fiber which decreases blood sugar spike.
For coffee / tea / cocktails:
Stevia: zero-calorie sweetener derived from the stevia plant. While splenda is also a zero-calorie sweetener, it is unhealthy because it's created from chemicals that trick your body's natural way of processing sugar. If your recipe calls for a liquid sweetener, stevia also comes in a liquid form. Instead of using creamers like Coffee Mate for your coffee, try opting for some plant-based milk with stevia instead. It tastes exactly the same and it's better for you!
For breakfast foods / liquid sweeteners:
Raw honey: While you may think the regular honey you bought from the grocery store is healthy, unless it is labeled as "raw and unlfiltered" it probably has added sugar to it. Agave is also a common substitute for honey which people think is healthy, but it actually can cause your blood sugar levels to spike. Always opt for raw honey which is completely natural and packed with antioxidants. You'll be able to tell if it's raw and unfiltered by its color which should be opaque, not clear.
100% Grade A maple syrup: Most maple syrup brands have added sugar so make sure you get 100% grade a maple syrup which is a great sweetener and loaded with nutrients and antioxidants.
Another big part of eating less sugar is just making smarter choices and we hope to make you better equipped to do so! It's the small things we do consistently every day that create the biggest results, so we've provided a bunch of examples and recipes for ways that you can still enjoy delicious foods.
Below, you can find visual examples of simple swaps you can make in your diet that would significantly reduce the amount of processed sugar you intake. We've also included some of our favorite recipes that will still satisfy your sweet tooth craving.
Click here for the recipes!
We hope you found this month's newsletter insightful and enlightening! Remember, you don't have to give up your most beloved foods because they're bad for you. We've spent the past two years finding alternatives to basically everything we love eating and we've never felt better! Please let us know if you tried out any of these recommendations or if you have any questions at all about the information provided. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about how to improve your well-being. See you next month!