My No (Added) Sugar Diet #sugarfreefoods

17th September 2015
I’m sure you’ve seen or heard about Jamie Oliver’s recent Sugar Rush programme, and if you haven’t then watch it now!

I had already started to find out about the effects of sugar on our bodies and minds watching other documentaries, but this really hit home to me as the first scenes were off a six-year-old child having six teeth pulled out due to sugar rot!

What’s worse is that this is a regular occurence in Britain with 26,000 children a year having rotten teeth. This helps to explain why dentists are so oversubscribed and have huge waiting lists!

The scariest thing is that sugar is added to so many different foods and drinks that most of us are unaware of the amount of sugar we are consuming every day.

Adults are supposed to have under 7 teaspoons of sugar per day to maintain low levels of damage to our teeth, which sounds a lot but most people pass this amount at breakfast time eating what they think is ‘healthy’ cereals.

I’m worried about Chunk’s teeth and also his health in general, because sugar is something the brain becomes addicted to and can add to weight gain as well as rotten teeth. I watched an amazing American documentary (Fed Up) which showed how the same part of the brain becomes stimulated when consuming sugar as it does when someone takes heroin or cocaine!

Photo courtesy of Rolling Stones Online Magazine

We are innately addicted to sugar, which apparently stems back to the cavemen era, so to maintain good health and energy, we need to keep the addiction at bay.

I don’t want my boy to be overweight like me or to crave sugar whenever he is tired and head for the junk food. I want him to have a good knowledge of what is in foods so he can make healthy choices as an adult.

I wish I knew all of this years ago and I would probably have been a lot healthier throughout my childhood. Jamie Oliver has created a petition to add a 7p tax to sugary food and drink which could then be given to the NHS to help with treating people with the effects of sugar and to also give some of the money to schools to better educate children on healthy living, so sign it if you agree!

Tips to Reduce your Sugar Intake

  • The best ways to reduce your sugar intake is to cook things from scratch as much as possible. This includes sauces for your pasta, lasagne and curries, because store-bought sauces can contain anything up to 20 teaspoons of sugar in them!
  • Sweeteners are just as bad as sugar, and research has shown a link to cancer so avoid them where you can. If you need sugar in something, try to use natural sugars like fruits and agave syrup, but where possible even avoid these. 
  • Eat fruit or anything with sugar with your meal rather than as a snack to minimise the constant sugar hitting your teeth throughout the day. 
  • Drink water, milk and weak squashes rather than juice. 

Sugar Free Recipes

So I’ve been looking at sugar free recipes to plan all of my meals and snacks for the next couple of weeks. I came across ITV’s Good Morning Britain’s recent Sugar Free Summer challenge. They have created meal plans which meant all I had to do was copy the recipes for the meals that I liked the look of and write a shopping list.

I’m going to buy the ingredients this weekend and then post my progress during the next couple of weeks and I’m also going to post some of my favourite recipes including the sugar free biscuits I made with Chunk a couple of days ago!

The hashtag #sugarfreefoods will be used whenever I post new recipes or photos on my social media so feel free to add things so I can try your recipes too!

Single Parent Pessimist

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3 Comments

  • Alley Bye

    17th September 2015 at 9:07 pm

    Are you just cutting out sugar or simple carbs too. Will definitely be following as I too am planning to change the way I eat

    1. Claire

      19th September 2015 at 8:05 am

      I'm cutting out added sugar as much as possible ( I wil still have natural sugar with things like fruit etc) but I am keeping carbs as they are great for repairing muscles and giving me energy to do my workouts.

  • Martyn Kitney

    25th September 2015 at 11:21 am

    Good post. I've cut sugar out well added sugar. Things like fruit instill have but other than that I don't have anything with sugar. Haven't for a few years. It started off difficult but after a month or so I just got used to it. Thanks for linking up with us on the #bigfatlinky hope to see you there this week

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