Are you aiming to eat without sugar or drastically reduce your daily consumption? For some, that means going without industrial sugar, for others, a sugar-free diet means abstaining from all sugar. It is quite complicated to navigate in the face of the multiple meanings of “sugar-free”. Don’t get me wrong: a sugar-free diet isn’t regarding giving up all carbs. We tell you everything you need to know before starting this type of diet.
The elimination of sugar as part of a diet for losing weight must be one of the first reflexes to adopt. In addition to having no benefit for the body, sugar directly promotes weight gain and related pathologies. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know to start the diet off on the right foot.
Free sugars: Who are they?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines added sugars as “free sugars”. This term includes sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose that are added to foods by food manufacturers, cooks, or consumers. The natural sugar content of honey, syrup, fruit juices and concentrated fruit juices is also included. It excludes the sugars present in fresh fruits and vegetables and in milk.
You must look carefully at the labels when shopping. Since 2016, food manufacturers must indicate the sugar content among 7 other mandatory nutritional values. For example, free sugars are found in many processed foods, sugary drinks, baked goods and sweets. It is more difficult to recognize it in food. Indeed, free sugar is often concealed in the lists of ingredients under the cover of different surnames:
- All terms in “-ose”: glucose, sucrose, dextrose, raffinose, fructose, maltose, lactose
- Syrups like fructose syrup or glucose syrup
- Les dextrines
- The dairy products such as lactose or skimmed milk powder
- malt
- Sweet ingredients like honey
How much sugar to consume per day?
We would therefore all do well to reduce our consumption. Indeed, the WHO estimates our sugar consumption at 100 grams on average per day, four times more than the official recommendations. We consume too much sugar and we don’t know how to do without it. As such, it is advisable to reduce our daily intake of free sugars to less than ten percent of their total energy intake.
Why start a sugar-free diet?
While foods high in sugar provide us with a lot of energy, they contain very few essential nutrients. As a first problem, the increased consumption of added sugars and sugary drinks is associated with higher energy intake as a result of greater weight gain. The development of dental caries is also a direct consequence of sugar consumption. In reality, sugar is neither good nor bad for your health, you have to know how to adopt good consumption attitudes towards it.
What is a low sugar diet?
Low-carb diets reduce the number of calories a person gets by decreasing their carbohydrate intake. Advantage of this type of diet, rapid weight loss. The problem is that carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. Consequently, if this contribution is reduced, the organization burns its reserves of proteins and greases to nourish itself. These diets can be difficult to follow and side effects can be felt. However, these diets are extreme and can have unwanted side effects. For this, it is recommended to reduce sugar intake moderately to help lose weight.
Low in sugar or low in fat: the match
The question has arisen for several years: there are supporters of low-fat and those of low-carb. The second, low in sugar, seems to cause faster weight loss than low-fat, low in fat. Indeed, a study carried out on obese patients for 12 months revealed greater weight loss than with the low-fat diet. In addition, the total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio as well as the triglycerides also decreased more significantly in the low-carb group. However, it is often criticized for being bad for cardiovascular health.
While carbohydrates are important to our health, it should be noted that not all carbohydrates are beneficial to our health. There is a difference between “good carbs” and “bad carbs”. When you’re trying to lose weight and follow a healthy dietit is necessary to consume in priority the good carbohydrates.
The good carbohydrates
Good carbohydrates are complex carbohydrates. They are high in fiber and nutrients and take longer to break down. They have the advantage of not causing peaks or excessive increases in blood sugar.
Here are some examples :
Eating carbohydrates in their natural, fiber-rich form is good for your health.
The Bad Carbs
Bad carbs are simple carbs that break down easily and cause blood sugar to spike quickly.
Here are some examples:
- white sugar, bread, pasta and flour
- sweet drinks and juices
- cakes, sweets and cookies
- other processed foods
The processed foodshigh in white sugar and refined carbohydrates, can lead to weight gain.
What foods should you eat for a sugar-free diet?
A food is considered low-sweet if it contains no more than 5g of sugar per 100g, or 2.5g of sugar per 100ml in the case of liquid foods. Similarly, a foodstuff cannot be qualified as sugar-free if it does not contain more than 0.5 g of sugar per 100 g or 100 ml. Here is a list of sugar-free or low-sugar foods:
- fillet of beef (sugar free)
- unsweetened tea (without sugar)
- coconut fat (sugar free)
- cooked poultry
- steamed mushrooms
- potatoes steamed
- steamed spinach
- raw tomatoes
- Bulgarian yogurt
- currants
