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This post explains what it’s like to cut out refined and chemical sugars, how to do it, the weird and surprising things it’s in along with alternatives and a whole bunch of recipes. To those of you trying this out, I would love to hear your experiences or any questions you have at all about my experience.
Commit!
In this day and age, refined sugar is in such a huge amount of food that we buy, even in ‘low fat’ or ‘diet’ pre-prepared meals which look like they are totally healthy from the outside, but actually are laden with added sugars. All this means that cutting out sugar takes time and commitment as well as dealing with the cravings.
The best advice I can give about how to fully commit yourself is to pin point exactly why you are cutting out sugar. What is your aim? Is it to try to lose weight, to become healthier, to provide more wholesome meals for your family?
Visualise yourself in that final scenario and it will really help you through the times when you are hardcore craving a chocolate bar.
Read Labels
Sugar is in a huge amount of prepared foods, so you will need to start reading the labels on absolutely everything before you buy it. I know it sounds like a lot and truthfully it makes your first few shops a bit longwinded but like anything, once you know it, you know it and you won’t have to read the label on that box of crackers
you were going to buy last time you went shopping. Which leads me into my next point:
Increase your Knowledge
Fructose
This is a naturally occurring sugar. Some guides out there advise cutting out even natural sugars to begin with, I personally did not do this so…go eat a strawberry.
Now, onto the truly bad guys. Sugar sometimes wears a secret disguise which can be hard to detect if you don’t know what you’re looking for, sorry Sherlock. Here are the main culprits you should be avoiding:
Sucrose
This is your everyday, white, sparkly table sugar.
Corn Syrup
Don’t let the word ‘corn’ fool you into thinking this is the same as a natural sugar. Corn Syrup is a type of syrup which is made from corn starch with added chemicals.
Dextrose
Dextrose is glucoses’ cousin which is taken from starches, I know, appetizing. Often used as a preservative, it can be found in some pretzels and frozen fries.
HFCS
Another chemical syrup made from corn – Oh corn, you used to be so cool man, you’ve changed – which is used as a sweetener.
Tips for Cutting Out Refined Sugar
So it’s likely that you have ended up at this post because you have read my sugar free story and you thought you might give it a shot for yourself. This post explains what it’s like to cut out refined and chemical sugars, how to do it, the weird and surprising things it’s in along with alternatives and a whole bunch of recipes. To those of you trying this out, I would love to hear your experiences or any questions you have at all about my experiencecover vegan salad bowl michaella's kitchen mazzoni says sugar free healthy meals gluten free dinners
Tips for Cutting Out Sugar
Commit!
In this day and age, refined sugar is in such a huge amount of food that we buy, even in ‘low fat’ or ‘diet’ pre-prepared meals which look like they are totally healthy from the outside, but actually are laden with added sugars. All this means that cutting out sugar takes time and commitment as well as dealing with the cravings.
The best advice I can give about how to fully commit yourself is to pin point exactly why you are cutting out sugar. What is your aim? Is it to try to lose weight, to become healthier, to provide more wholesome meals for your family?
Visualise yourself in that final scenario and it will really help you through the times when you are hardcore craving a chocolate bar.
Read Labels
Sugar is in a huge amount of prepared foods, so you will need to start reading the labels on absolutely everything before you buy it. I know it sounds like a lot and truthfully it makes your first few shops a bit longwinded but like anything, once you know it, you know it and you won’t have to read the label on that box of crackers
you were going to buy last time you went shopping. Which leads me into my next point:
vegan nut bars, how to make sugar free nut bars, how to bake sugar free, sugar free snack recipes, healthy recipes, michaella’s kitchen, Mazzoni says, how to make vegan nut bars, vegan, sugar freeIncrease your Knowledge
Fructose
This is a naturally occurring sugar. Some guides out there advise cutting out even natural sugars to begin with, I personally did not do this so…go eat a strawberry.
Now, onto the truly bad guys. Sugar sometimes wears a secret disguise which can be hard to detect if you don’t know what you’re looking for, sorry Sherlock. Here are the main culprits you should be avoiding:
Sucrose
This is your everyday, white, sparkly table sugar.
Corn Syrup
Don’t let the word ‘corn’ fool you into thinking this is the same as a natural sugar. Corn Syrup is a type of syrup which is made from corn starch with added chemicals.
Dextrose
Dextrose is glucoses’ cousin which is taken from starches, I know, appetizing. Often used as a preservative, it can be found in some pretzels and frozen fries.
HFCS
Another chemical syrup made from corn – Oh corn, you used to be so cool man, you’ve changed – which is used as a sweetener.
Plan
Suddenly realising that its 7am, you’re about to leave for work and you don’t have anything prepared for your lunch that day is not a particularly fun experience. Gone are the days when you can easily order something in or get a pre-cooked meal so you find yourself scrambling around the kitchen trying to make a nutritious lunch in 5 mins before you have to run out the door.
The best way to avoid this situation is to plan out your meals in advance so, like the boy scouts you are always prepared.
Plus, not only does planning your meals help with being organised, it helps to keep costs down.
Get Cooking!
As much as possible, the best thing you can do is to cook from scratch. That way you know 100% what is in your food, no preservatives, no sneaky added sugar hiding under another name, just pure, natural ingredients.
For those of you who don’t find the idea of cooking particularly thrilling, all the recipes on my website aim to be easy, not too fussy and many can be cooked in batches.
Keep at It
Lastly, my advice is to stick at it!
If even me, the girl who basically used to eat the way an 8-year-old with control of the shopping list on her birthday can do it, you can do it too.
So long as you don’t cheat, the hard times, the cravings, irritability etc. will all pass after about 5 days to a week, at that point all your cravings will be gone and you will well and truly be in the swing of your new lifestyle.
If you do slip up, you will be resetting the clock back to that first day but keep going, don’t be discouraged, nobody is perfect and I promise, the results are totally worth it.
Here is a list of the food products which have refined and/or chemical sugar and some suggested alternatives. This isn’t an exhaustive list of every product known to man that contains refined/chemical sugar but I have included products which I was surprised to discover contain refined sugar.
