Want less sugar? Be aware of what you’re eating

Answers to your sugar questions

If you (like me) kicked off 2020 by trying to kick the sugar habit, you are probably still adjusting to this new way of eating.

Added sugar lurks in so many surprising places — many foods we think of as healthful are really loaded with sugar. And food companies try to trick us by disguising added sugar with names that may sound more wholesome like “barley syrup” or “agave” or even “fruit juice”.

I’ve been swamped with questions from readers who have taken our “7-Day Sugar Challenge”, which offers several strategies for cutting added sugar. Here are answers to some of the questions you’ve been asking.

I have never understood why ‘added sugar’ is more unfriendly to health than ‘natural sugar’, which can be found in abundance in so many fruits, starting with morning natural orange juice. Can you explain?

The natural sugar in whole fruit (fructose) is accompanied by fibre and nutrients and make a slow journey through your body. But when sugar is added to beverages or packaged foods, it’s more quickly absorbed and burdens the liver. Here are three good reasons to choose whole fruits versus foods with added sugar or fruit juice.

Fibre: Whole fruits contain fibre, which slows the absorption of fructose. Sugars enter the bloodstream more slowly, so the liver has more time to metabolise them.

Satiety: Processed food is digested quickly as soon as it enters our intestines. Fibre-rich foods like whole fruits break down slowly and travel farther through the digestive tract, which triggers the release of satiety hormones that make us feel full.

Gut Health: The slow journey of the fibre, fructose and nutrients in whole fruit essentially allows the body to feed the healthy bacteria in our intestine, supporting the health of our microbiome.

Why aren’t bananas and grapes recommended for people cutting sugar?

While most fruits make a slow journey through the digestive tract, bananas and grapes are particularly high in fructose given the amount of fibre they contain, so they give us a faster sugar spike. Dr Robert Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco, calls grapes ‘little bags of sugar.’ Enjoy bananas and grapes sparingly and opt for a variety of fruits.

Can I eat dried fruit on a low-sugar diet?

Dried fruit is packed with nutrients, but the drying process removes the water and concentrates a lot of fruit sugar in a very small bite. The risk is that it takes more dried fruit to fill you up than whole fruits. Raisins and dates are about 60-65% sugar, dried figs and apricots are about 50% sugar, and prunes are about 38% sugar. The good news is that dried fruit still has the fibre, and it can be a great snack as long as you are aware of how much you are eating.

Another way to weigh the pros and cons of dried fruit is to look at glycaemic load, a measure of how fast your body converts a serving of food into sugar. Ideally you should eat foods with a glycaemic load of 10 or less. Anything above 20 is considered very high. Prunes have a glycaemic load of 10, whereas raisins have a glycaemic load of 28. Compare that with whole fruits. Strawberries, apricots, grapefruit, lemon, limes, cantaloupe, nectarines, oranges, pears, blueberries, peaches, plums, apples and pineapple have glycemic loads of 6 or less.

I use milk in my coffee. Is that added sugar?

A quarter cup of milk contains about 3g of a natural sugar called lactose. The sugar in milk is not considered an ‘added sugar,’ and it doesn’t overwhelm the liver the way added sugar does. Adding milk or cream to your coffee and enjoying the naturally sweet taste of milk is a great way to kick the added-sugar habit in the morning.

Drinkers of soy and nut milks need to check the label. Many of those products have added sugar. If you love a few teaspoons of sugar in your morning coffee, try adding more milk and cut the sugar in half to start. Over time you can cut it in half again and wean yourself off the sugar.

Can a few more details be provided about a no-sugar, no-grain breakfast? Doesn’t bacon have sugar? What if I don’t want eggs all the time?

With so much added sugar lurking in granola, cereals, pastries, breads and yoghurts, you might as well just call it dessert. But readers have had a tough time figuring out alternatives to popular grain-based breakfast foods. Here are some ideas.

High-protein breakfast: Eggs are a high-protein option, and while they are also high in cholesterol, many people can probably eat them in moderation without worrying about heart risks. But many people don’t want to eat eggs every day. Bacon is also high in protein but, like other processed meats, also shouldn’t be consumed daily. (Most plain bacon does not have added sugar, though if it’s maple-cured or brown-sugar-cured, it probably does.) Consider eating smoked salmon, tuna or chicken salad for breakfast. Make a vegan breakfast bowl of sweet potatoes, beans and avocado.

Sweet alternatives: Try plain, unsweetened yoghurt with berries and nuts or sliced apples with sugar-free peanut butter. Or just eat and savour a whole orange or make a fruit salad.

Greens and vegetables: Try a breakfast salad with avocado and hard-boiled eggs. Use a big kale leaf to make a breakfast burrito or eggsalad wrap. Experiment with cauliflower to make hash browns. Bake a sweet potato and add salsa, yoghurt or nuts.

Soups: Try miso soup, butternut squash soup or another variety of hot soup. You’d be surprised how great soup tastes on a winter morning.

I eat 100% wholewheat bread that I make myself. While it has some sugar in it in the form of molasses, it does not have the added sugars and other ingredients of mass-produced breads.

A tablespoon of molasses has 15g of sugar, so you are, in fact, eating added sugar — just not added sugar processed by the food industry. The goal of the Sugar Challenge is not to ban all sugars. It’s to make you aware of what you are eating so you can choose how much sugar to ingest, rather than letting food makers decide for you. It’s great that you bake your own bread. (Bread making is time consuming, so if we all only ate bread we baked, we would probably eat less of it.) I’d suggest trying a recipe with less added sugar. Most of the time you can cut the sugar by a third to a half without affecting the flavour or texture.

If I can’t have orange juice, what am I supposed to drink in the morning?

Even though orange juice is a natural food, the juicing process eliminates much of the fibre and concentrates the sugar, making it a poor choice. Make juice a once-a-week treat. Instead, try ice water with an orange wedge.

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When sugar is added to beverages or packaged foods, it’s more quickly absorbed and burdens the liver