Should I Say Goodbye To Sugar?

It's a little scary to think there is LOTS of sugar in bread from the supermarket, cartons of milk and in sauces that don't even taste sweet! The answer to the big question on whether it's a good idea to quit sugar altogether is entirely up to you.

Should you say goodbye to sugar?

The wholefoods eating guideline and Eat Clean, Live Lean recipe book includes lots of fruit simply because you can't really reap the same benefits of natural fruit from supplements or tablets. 1 cup of blueberries has roughly 15 grams of sugar, which may seem high, but is still less than half the sugar in a Mars Bar! And when you consider the dietary fibre, vitamin C, vitamin K and manganese in blueberries, you're way better off snacking on these than some chocolate. It can be confusing choosing where to source your sugar from when it's EVERYWHERE! A failsafe method is just to go for the things that have a short shelf life. The less processed the better. It's quite hard to avoid the natural sugar in fruit and veg that have benefits that are great for our bodies. Even carrots have sugar.. but are also full of Vitamin A and C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper and manganese. We are all easily led to believe that a lot of the grocery staples that are in packets and bags are good for us when realistically, this isn't the case. Food brands have a knack for slipping in lots of unnecessary sugar into products to boost the taste of the food, disregarding the health of consumers. There isn't really a way to change this hard truth, but what you can do is; limit yourself to eating high sugar foods to rare occasions, or sourcing your sugar from natural sources.

Sourcing from natural produce can be broken down into two parts:

1. Source sugar from natural staples, like fruit and vegetables. Complement this with natural condiments like honey.
2. Always read the label of processed foods and be aware that the low-fat label isn't always a good thing A low fat yoghurt is more than likely higher in sugar than full-fat yoghurt to make up for the taste, and bread from a local bakery would contain far less additives and fillers compared to long-life bread from supermarkets.

The natural sugars in fruit are a perfect accompaniment for before or after a workout and this is the part where I keep my diet a little sweet! Leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts are on having refined and/or natural sugar in your diet!