12 Ways to Break the Sugar Habit

The best ways to cut down on the sweet stuff

Life is sweet all right – so sweet that around 15 per cent of the daily calories in a typical diet are now coming from added sweeteners, sugar that doesn’t occur naturally in food. It’s a sky-high number considering that an overly sweet diet has been linked with not only the fat gain that will keep you heavy on the pedals, but a number of maladies such as heart disease, diabetes and even depression. The body seems to respond to sugary calories in a different way than it does to other kinds of calories.

While a dedicated cyclist can get away with consuming a bit more sugar than a couch potato, it’s still a good idea to limit intake. But the ubiquitousness of added sweeteners in the modern food supply makes it hard to scale back. The good news, however, is that there are a number of tactics you can employ to trim the added sugar from your diet and lick those candy cravings successfully. About 75 per cent of packaged foods on store shelves contain sweeteners, a study in the Journaloftheacademyofnutritionanddietetics reveals. Added sugar can sneak into foods you might not expect, such as crackers, breads, peanut butter, deli meats, salad dressing and tomato sauce. Currently, the grams of sugar listed on package labels includes a sum of naturally occurring sugars, such as fructose from fruit and lactose in dairy, as well as added sweeteners. So to weed out the added sweet stuff from your diet, you’ll need to analyze ingredient lists and look for options that do not list any extra sweet stuff.