How to Break the Sugar Habit

If you have a sweet tooth, you are not alone. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that Americans consume 20.5 tsp of sugar per day, or 68.5 lbs of sugar per year. That number is more shocking considering you should only have 6 tsp of sugar a day. Large amounts of sugar may lead to weight gain or diabetes and can elevate your risk of heart disease. You can break your sugar habit by making small changes to your daily diet.

Instructions

• 1

  Substitute unsweetened or reduced-sugar products whenever you can. Grocery stores carry unsweetened or sugar free versions of numerous products such as oatmeal, apple-sauce and peanut butter. You can also find reduced-sugar versions of items such as pasta sauce.

• 2

  Use other sweeteners. While there is ongoing controversy regarding artificial sweeteners, neither saccharin nor aspartame have shown to increase the risk of cancer.

• 3

  Fruit salads can satisfy your sweet tooth without the need for added sugar.

  Satisfy your sugar cravings by eating natural sugars found in fruit. Grapes, melons and other fruits are sweet enough to be eaten in place of a dessert and do not need to be sweetened. Make a fruit salad for dessert or freeze grapes and then eat them in place of hard candies.

• 4

  Dark chocolate is a healthy alternative to milk chocolate.

  Replace milk chocolate with dark or semi-sweet chocolate, which has less sugar. Dark chocolate also has health benefits. It is considered an anti-oxidant that lowers blood pressure, reduces insulin resistance and may even prevent heart disease.

• 5

  A can of soda contains a half-cup of sugar.

  Replace or avoid sugary sodas. The USDA states that non-diet soft drinks are the main source of added sugars in the United States. A regular can of soda has 10 teaspoons or one-half cup of sugar.

• 6

  Replace fruit juices with real fruit to get the benefits of fiber.

  Replace juices with real fruit. Juices are usually stripped of most of the fiber that comes with eating a real fruit. The lack of fiber will give you an insulin spike and will not help you feel fuller the way eating fruit will.