Sugar Free

I tend to think of Free From foods to mainly include gluten free, dairy free, meat free but I tend to leave out the sugar free aspect sometimes. That is probably because I'm a bit of a sugar addict so it's probably a case of not wanting to talk about because I'm under the impression that it's not a problem.

It is a problem for a lot of us though isn't it? Sugar is like a drug.....it's addictive and so hard to wean yourself off it. I gave up smoking a couple years ago now and that was difficult especially when the cravings rear their ugly head but I am starting to feel the same with sugar.

I've been dieting along time and when I get my head around it and get in the zone I can cut down on my sugar intake quite a bit and have been successful as the weight has come off. When I get a craving for sugary stuff though there is no stopping me at all. I can't seem to fight it. I've tried drinking water to fill myself up or tried to eat fruit as an alternative but I still want chocolate or that slice of cake. If that temptation is in front of me I really have to build that willpower up so much to resist it.

I know I can do because I have done it like I say and when I do cut it out it not only feels good but the cravings do subside just like smoking. The cravings for a cigarette or few and far between now and I can't actually believe that I did smoke. I have just got to get there with sugar.

I can't give it up completely and I don't think it's good to do that anyway. The daily allowance isn't a lot at no more than 30g a day for an adult ( equivalent to seven sugar cubes). It is possible to cut down though by swapping sugar in hot drinks to sweeteners and cutting out the biscuits, crisps, chocolate and cake. All the things I love, I do use a sweetener in my brew but then there is a lot of negative publicity about artificial sweeteners  too. Maybe it's good to try and cut it out altogether......I may try. 

I'm not sure whether there is more temptation around now days or whether we just don't move around like we did years ago. A lot of us sit at desks all day while working, the kids don't play outside as much as they used to and we exercise less. If we turned all that around maybe the nation would start getting slimmer.

It is difficult but not impossible. I'm going to keep trying to cut down and not only lose some more pounds in weight but improve my general health and hopefully save my teeth too. It's scary to think a can of Cola can have as many as nine sugar cubes so that goes over the average adult daily allowance No wonder we now have a sugar tax which I can't help thinking is a great idea.

​Let me know if you struggle with sugar and have you conquered the addiction to the sweet stuff? What techniques have you used? What foods do you use to replace sugary foods? Lets help each other.

Thank you for reading today. If you would like some useful information about sugaring our diet then go to the NHS Change 4 Life website here 
www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/sugar

There is even details about a useful app there too which you can use to scan certain food products and find out how much sugar it contains. 

Join me tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday but for now......

Take care.