Ideally, if you cut down refined sugar from your diet it is going to benefit you because, in today’s world, we tend to consume a lot of refined sugars. Before going into detail, we need to know the difference between ‘added’ and ‘natural’ sugars.
Prachi Shah, Clinical Dietitian and Consulting Nutritionist, Founder of Health Habitat explain, “A simple example to know the difference is- sweetness in an apple is a natural form of sugar when the same apple is juiced, converted into jam/jelly and packed it will contain ‘added’ sugars. Added sugars can be in syrups, chocolates, candies, colas, ice creams, cakes, bread etc.” Prachi says that they provide nothing but extra calories with no nutrition.
Further explaining, Prachi says, “Firstly, let’s debunk the myth. If you are someone planning to go off added sugars then you need to know that replacing refined sugar with jaggery, brown sugar, artificial sweeteners, coconut sugar, date sugar etc isn’t the healthiest way. More or less these sugars have the same calories in fact they can be even worse for you if you keep adding more and more in the name of ‘health’.”
Excessive sugar consumption is directly or indirectly linked to several health conditions like-
- Obesity
- Heart disorders
- Metabolic syndrome
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Dental plaques and cavities
- Consumption of extra unnecessary calories on daily basis might lead to obesity which in turn leads to a lot of health issues. Obesity as we all know is the first step to several diseases be it heart condition, diabetes or high blood pressure.
How can you reduce your sugar consumption?
- Slowly and gradually reduce the portions. For example- If you added 1 tsp sugar to your coffee try to gradually reduce it to ½ tsp. If you cut it down overnight you might not be able to sustain it.
- Avoid artificial sweeteners as they tend to trick your body into thinking that it is actually sugar which might intensify the cravings making it difficult to be actually sugar independent.
- Learn and read the nutrition label. You will be surprised to know how many hidden names of sugars are listed in the ingredient list.
- Lastly, to answer your question yes, reducing the added sugar is definitely beneficial. If you want to be sugar independent go ahead but remember it’s always better to choose a path you think you can sustain throughout your life. The best way is to keep a note of added sugars in a day and not go beyond that. Occasionally you can also have that 1 piece of chocolate, ice cream or pastry that you love after all it is all about BALANCE!
