Lolly, Me and Sugar Free...

I often get asked if i'm on a diet and what I do to keep my weight down. I’ve tried many, many diets over the years – Juicing, Weight Watchers, Calorie Counting, Shakes, Paleo, the Dukan diet, bowls and bowls of Special K and another centred around Beyoncé, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lemons......

But, funnily enough, none of these stuck.

By reducing my sugar intake, I have begun living a healthier lifestyle, organically. I don’t feel like I’m on a diet or that I’m giving something up – if anything, I eat more than I ever used to! Having lived this way for nearly three years, I’ve become more confident in my own skin (I still have a little way to go on this one!), I have more energy, sleep better, bloat less, my skin is clearer, and I feel altogether healthier.

So, I thought I would write my next blog on why I decided to go down this route. What reduced-sugar living is, what it involves, what I eat on a daily basis and how I have introduced this way of eating to my hubby and Lola.

Why?

I want to begin by saying I am NOT a nutritionist, nor am I in any way an expert on the topic! I discovered “sugar free” through researching how I was going to lose my baby weight and fit into a very tight wedding dress soon after! All I can offer is my findings, my experience and some recommendations.

The effect of sugar on our health has been heavily featured in the media over the last couple of years. Health experts have stressed how detrimental high sugar foods are to our health. Weight gain, diabetes, premature ageing, mental health, heart disease, even breast cancer has been blamed on excessive consumption of the stuff!

For children, it causes hyperactivity (help) and tooth decay. Last year, there were 34,205 cases of under-10s receiving hospital treatment for tooth decay, twice as many as a broken arm. In some cases, the child was under a year old! For children, there are no fillings. The treatment is removal, under general anaesthetic. The thought of this terrified me and further encouraged me to reduce Lola’s sugar intake as much as possible.

The Facts

We need glucose in our diet. We don’t need fructose - there’s a difference. Fructose is harmful to our metabolism and deposits much more fat into our bodies than glucose does once digested. Our bodies can easily obtain all the glucose we need if we consumed the recommended daily amounts of protein and good fats in our diets.

Glucose is the body's preferred energy source and is found in things like pasta, whole grain bread, lentils, potatoes and some vegetables.

Fructose is naturally found in things like fruit, vegetables and drinks/foods with added fructose. It can only be metabolised in the liver and is much more fat-producing than glucose.

As you read the blog, you will see that the majority of foods we eat on a day to day basis contain more glucose than fructose.

Just a Teaspoon of Sugar...

The recommended amount of daily sugar intake is 5 teaspoons a day. This is the equivalent of one Low Fat Vanilla Yoghurt, one jar of Stir Fry Sauce, one can of Tomato Soup, one bowl of Fruit Muesli, one Banana, and one Chocolate Digestive! And just to stress, not all these things together.

My Golden Rule

To make it easier to find low sugar foods, I set myself a Golden Rule.

“Choose Foods With Less Than 5g Sugar Per 100g.”

5g of sugar is equivalent to just over 1 tsp of sugar. So, by reducing my intake to 5g sugar per 100g, I am more likely to stay within the recommended allowance of 5 teaspoons a day. This meant the majority of my go-to “diet” foods and snacks were sadly out the window – goodbye fruity cereal bars.

"Healthy" Foods

My Golden Rule brought a lot of foods labelled as “healthy” to my attention. They may have a low-fat content but the sugar content was through the roof! You would be far better off (and thinner!) opting for peanut butter on toast than some of these supposedly “good for you” snacks! That “healthy” organic agave you’ve been pouring all over your porridge is comprised of a whopping 70-90% fructose – to put this in perspective, table sugar is only 50%, honey 40% and Maple Syrup 35%! Those "healthy" Sushi platters have almost the same amount of sugar as two Jammy Dodgers! And those healthy fat-free yoghurts, have almost as much sugar as a can of fizzy drink!

Dairy

In milk, the first 4.7g sugar per 100g is lactose. This is fine – anything more than that, is sugar. Low fat lactose free milk or unsweetened almond milk are generally your best bet for a low sugar alternative. And even better, Starbucks have started selling it! Just don’t ask for the caramel syrup to go with it - this might tip you over the teaspoon limit…...for the WEEK.

Fruit

The next one is a controversial one. There is a lot of sugar (fructose) in fruit and even more in fruit juice. Whilst I understand these are not refined sugars, nevertheless, it’s still sugar! It's still way above my daily allowance. However, there’s no denying fruit contains fibre, minerals and vitamins which help keep us healthy. So, my advice is to avoid all juices and reduce fruits with higher sugar levels such as bananas, pineapples, apples, watermelons and substitute for berries, kiwis and grapefruit. If you love your smoothies, opt for vegetable based ones – my favourite is cucumber, spinach, kiwi, 3 strawberries, mint and a little coconut water mixed with a handful of ice to thicken it up!

Sweeteners

Until I started this, I had no idea sweeteners, other than the “Sweetex” my grandad always had in his trouser pocket, even existed. But apparently, there’s an entire world of sweeteners out there and some much better for you than others. Stevia is a great alternative. It’s entirely natural and contains absolutely no fructose. It’s great to cook with and tastes good. In moderation, I also allow myself very small amounts of sweeteners which are easily digested by our body. The issue with these is that your body will still crave sugary foods. Whereas, if you cut them out completely, your body will slowly stop wanting sweet things and the low sugar lifestyle becomes a piece of cake.

For me, I’m happy having a little sweetener in my daily diet every now and then. I'm a huge fan of a biscuit tea dipping so, after nearly a year of searching, I’ve finally found some great digestive and rich tea alternatives!

https://gullon.es/en

And even better, they've started to appear in ALDI!

Meal Ideas

I thought it might be helpful to give a few examples of what a typical breakfast, lunch and dinner is for us.

Breakfast

If you follow my Golden Rule, you'll soon come to learn there aren't many breakfast cereals you can eat.

When I started this, breakfast cereals were my biggest shock. Favourites such as Shreddies (15g sugar per 100g), Rice Krispies (10g per 100g), Special K (17g per 100g), Cheerios (21g per 100g), Muesli (23g per 100g) - everything that seemed healthy, wasn't. And cereals aimed at children like Ricicles, Coco Pops and Frosties have over 35g of sugar per 100g - that's nearly 9 teaspoons of sugar which is just baffling to me! And this is all before you've added the milk!

I have discovered 4 cereals, and 4 cereals only, that are under 5g sugar per 100g.

1. Shredded Wheat (0.8g sugar per 100g)

2. Plain Porridge Oats (1g sugar per 100g)

3. Wheetabix (4.4g per 100g)

4. Organic Cornflakes( 4.2g per 100g)

Other healthy breakfast favourites are avocado, scrambled egg and chili seeds on toast. Or two slices of Vogels bread with no-added sugar nut butter.

Lunch

My current go-to lunch is baked Falafel, Houmous, Rocket Salad, Pepper, Cucumber and Olives.

It's healthy, low sugar and fills me up! Just remember to look for low sugar houmous and falafel. Some falafels have a high sugar content, usually those which contain sweet potato or ones which are sweetened or heavily flavoured.

I often have the same lunch every day for a month (odd I know!) and then change completely..... so I'll update you when I do!

Dinner

One of our favourite low sugar dinners at the moment is one I found in my favourite recipe book - "I Quit Sugar" by Sarah Wilson.

There are lots of great recipes in here but a favourite for the whole family is the Breakfast Caserole. It takes about 50 minutes to make and is so easy! You need:

1. Coconut Oil

2. Pack of Sausages (pork, turkey, vegetarian)

3. 3 Turnips, 3 Potatos or 3 Sweet Potatos

4. Onions (although these are optional - we aren't an "onion family" so usually omit this part)

5. 4 Eggs (beaten)

6. 1/2 cup Low Fat or Full Fat Cheddar Cheese

Method

1. Oven to 190c

2. Grate Turnips/Sweet Potatos/Potatos

3. Remove Sausage meat from casings, break up into small chunks and brown in pan

4. Add in rest of the ingredients and stir

5. Spoon into baking dish and add cheese

6. Bake for 45 minutes and serve

We often have this with peas and gravy and it tastes just like toad in the hole! DELICIOUS.

If you would like more ideas on meals or any of my sugar free recipes, let me know and I will post some on Instagram - @sophieobergan

Snacks

Steven and I couldn't be without our evening helping of yoghurt and chocolate - yes, chocolate! However, we now opt for authentic Greek full fat yoghurt as this has the lowest amount of sugar. I also love Alpro Soya Coconut Yogurt, which is also very low in sugar. We then finish the day with a square of dark chocolate with a high cocoa percentage - it has far less sugar than milk, but still gives us chocoholics a little fix!

For Lola, I always try to opt for savoury rather than sweet. Raisins are the biggest killer – in a children’s sized box of raisins there are 26g of sugar (6tsp of sugar!) This is almost as much as a can of Coke! Raisins are one of the most probable causes of tooth decay in under 5’s as they stay on the teeth. Raisins are positioned to Mums as being “healthy” like many other children's snacks in the Supermarket. Some of these snacks don’t have refined sugars but are sweetened by fruit juice, honey or other un-refined sugars (note; still sugar!). This is all okay for children, but in moderation.

When tooth decay is such a problem in the UK today, I would rather these snacks be advertised as containing “un-refined sugars” so us Mums aren’t falsely mislead when we’re dashing around the supermarket chasing after a toddler who’s decided to dance next to Sainsbury’s selection of glass candle holders….

I instead opt for cheese, crackers, bread sticks, sandwiches or rice cakes with peanut butter. Children are drawn to high sugar foods and drinks – probably due to the brightly coloured, Peppa Pig packaging they’re encased in – thanks for that! It can’t always be avoided, and of course I don’t want to deprive her of these things completely, but I want to be careful.

My Final Word

Don’t get me wrong, anyone who knows me will tell you I love my pick and mix! I could quite easily munch my way through a bag of Percy Pigs, but I don’t do it every day. I feel fine about it because I KNOW they have sugar in. They aren’t positioned as being “healthy” or “organic” or “low fat” – they’re sweets and near on every ingredient is RED. But everyone needs a little treat now and then.

Low sugar foods are a daily lifestyle choice for me and my family that works. It’s not for everyone and different diets work for some and not for others. But, if you do decide to give it a go, let me know how you get on and if you come across any low sugar snacks, recipes or tips, send them our way!

Thanks for reading. Sophie and Lolly x