Live the Sweet Life … Without Sugar

One of our sweetest addictions is killing us. Sugar has been linked to weight gain and cavities for decades, as dentists worldwide often remind us. Beyond ruining your beach body or perfect smile, sugar is also linked to cardiovascular disease.  

According to a 2014 study in The Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine, participants who consumed 17% to 21% of daily calories from added sugar not found naturally in foods had a 38% higher risk of dying from heart-related problems than those who consumed 8% of their calories from added sugar. The takeaway is frequently indulging in cake and sugary sodas increase your odds of dying from heart disease.  

The whole reason we are in this mess is that sugar typically makes things taste better and last longer. So how do you continue to enjoy food and take steps to extend your life? Try these tips. 

1. Replace sugary sodas with water. The American Heart Association recommends men consume no more than 35 grams of sugar a day and 25 grams a day for women. Most cans of soda have around 40 grams. Yep, one can and you are likely to be over the limit for the day. 

2. Replace cookies and cakes with fruit. 

3. Check ingredients while shopping and know sugar has several aliases, and an alias is never a good thing. Sugar also goes by brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, malt syrup, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, trehalose and turbinado sugar. 

4. Avoid canned fruit in heavy syrup. 

5. Add fresh fruit to unsweetened cereal. 

6. Reduce sugar in recipes by one-third to one-half. 

7. Try subsisting sugar with almond, vanilla, orange or lemon extracts. 

8. Replace sugar with spices like ginger, allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg. 

9. Use unsweetened applesauce instead of sugar in recipes.