If you’re not sure, then there’s a good chance you are.
Apologies for the bluntness, but if we don’t pay attention to how much sugar we eat in a day, it’s surprisingly easy to consume far more than we realise.
For the first time in human history, most of us have constant access to food. We can eat whenever we want, buy almost anything we crave, and rarely have to wait for our next meal. While this convenience has many benefits, it also makes overeating incredibly easy.
We have the freedom to buy whatever we like. A chocolate bar here, a sugary coffee there, a few cookies in the afternoon. None of these choices seem significant on their own, but over the years, they quickly and quietly become daily habits.
Eventually, you may notice that your clothes no longer fit as comfortably as they once did. You might feel bloated more often, notice your energy dropping throughout the day, and constantly find yourself thinking about another snack every couple of hours. Because these changes usually happen gradually, they begin to feel normal.
That’s the problem right there.
Many of us don’t realise how much sugar we’re eating until we dramatically reduce it and discover that foods we once considered normal suddenly taste overwhelmingly sweet.
How many of these sound familiar?:
How much sugar do you put in your coffee or tea?
How often do you eat ready-made lunches or dinners?
How often do you eat cookies during the day?
How often do you drink sugary drinks?
When you order a flavoured coffee, for example at Starbucks, does it taste good, or does it mostly taste like sugar syrup?
When you eat chocolate, are one or two pieces enough, or do you find it difficult to stop?
When you buy a package of cookies, do you eat one or two, or does most of the package disappear that same day?
The point is to notice whether sweet foods have become an automatic part of your day.
If you are used to eating a lot of sugar, it may not feel excessive because it simply tastes “normal”.
But when you’re not used to eating much sugar on a daily basis, a simple trip to a café such as Starbucks may leave you struggling to finish the coffee or cake simply because it tastes overwhelmingly sweet. When you reduce sugar for a while, you will find that your perception of sweetness begins to change. Even a slice of the blandest lemon cake feels like an entire cake. You can’t finish it. It’s just too much.
And you will wonder, how on earth are these people drinking this?
I hope you reach that point. Because its a powerful realisation, of how much “normal” heavily sweetened foods and drinks have become.
Once you feel like this, it can seem as though you are awake and nobody else is. It can be shocking to realise how sugary or salty many everyday foods taste, sometimes to the point where you cannot even finish them.
You become more attuned to your own body and to how you feel after eating these types of foods. You will feel the effects of excess sugar, feeling drained, bloated, or tired, and you won’t want to feel that way again. So you may realise that you no longer want to order the same drinks because of how they make you feel. And that will be an amazing accomplishment.
Reducing the amount of added sugar and heavily processed snacks you consume each day is one of the priorities for better health. We all know this. “A high level of free sugars intake is of concern, because of its association with poor dietary quality, obesity and risk of NCDs,” according to Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children, WHO. And NCDs are: heart attacks and strokes, abnormal cell growth (cancer), long-term breathing issues like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes.
But no one says this. Everyone just eats whatever the stores provide and doesn’t ask questions. But then there is always that friend or colleague who refuses dessert and everyone gives them the side eye.
But in reality, they were right.
We should drastically reduce the amount of sugar we eat.
We’re not supposed to pour two packets of sugar into our coffee while eating an enormous piece of cake, drink caramel coffee from Starbucks, eat cookies several times a day, or rely on snacks from the shelf as our main source of calories.
Most of these foods are not natural, they are made to be convenient and last for months and years.
I once loved going to Starbucks, especially for the October cinnamon coffees. Now? I can’t even drink half of a small cup without feeling off and wanting to throw up, because it feels like drinking pure syrup.
But you never realise this is happening to such an extent until you experience it yourself. Once you do, everything starts to become clear, and you won’t want to go back to your old ways. Hopefully!
Once you start paying closer attention to what enters your kitchen, the next step is looking at the kitchen items you use every day and which ones may be worth replacing.
