Learn How to Stop Eating Sugar with this tutorial! Here’s advice from the trenches on quitting sugar, avoiding cravings, and getting the family on board! For a delicious snack that is naturally sweetened, without the refined sugar, try our delicious Chocolate Hummus recipe!
Depending on which news channel you’re watching, or article you’re reading, sugar can cause any number of serious illnesses such as diabetes, acne, cancer, obesity, kidney disease, heart disease, and liver damage, to name a few.
I don’t know exactly how much of the research is true, but I think we can all agree that sugar isn’t something we should be eating a lot of, yes?
That’s why several years ago, my family officially quit sugar with the goal to completely eliminate white processed sugar from our house.
Is that a lofty goal? Absolutely. It’s so high up in the sky that many wouldn’t dare to even attempt to reach it.
But I DO believe that sugar is responsible for some serious health issues and I want to do whatever is in my power to keep my family healthy.
If you’re trying to keep your family healthy too, quitting sugar (or at least cutting back) should be on your radar this year as well. But you don’t have to go it alone!
With a good plan in place, here’s how to stop eating sugar with your family on board too!
How to Stop Eating Sugar: 3 Steps
1. Get the spouse on board to stop eating sugar too!
Not being on the same page as your spouse is a surefire way to fail at this goal.
- Start talking to your spouse now, sharing your concerns about sugar and how you need his/her support on this issue. Remind them that it’s not a cold-turkey quitting type of thing, that it’ll happen slowly over time.
- Remember that you’ll be working together as a team on this challenge, it’s not you spearheading a trek while you drag your family along behind you.
2. Identify when/where you have sugar in your diet
Keep a food journal for 2 days, writing down everything you eat. After 2 days, go back through the journal and put a star next to every item that had sugar.
Some will be easy, like coffee with cream and sugar, or a muffin or a brownie. Others will be harder, like a granola bar or hidden sugar in the bread for a sandwich. Pull out packaged and processed food and read the ingredients list.
3. Find a substitute or workaround for sugar in snacks and meals
The goal here is to find a replacement or workaround for every item you starred in your food journal.
Steps #1 and #2 can be done in 2 days. But step #3 will take you anywhere from 2 months to 2 years. It all depends on how many items you starred in your food journal, and how much sugar intake your family (and you!) are willing to change.
Start with the easiest item to fix on your list, and go from there.
- If there is sugar in your bread, start making your own bread and use natural sugar like honey or maple syrup to feed the yeast instead of sugar. (Here are all of my homemade bread recipes.)
- If you found sugar in a muffin, try swapping the sugar in the recipe with a 50/50 ratio of honey and maple syrup (like I did in Zucchini Muffins with Carrots and Apples).
- If you put sugar in your coffee, try adding honey or drinking it black! Don’t be tempted to use ‘sugar-free,’ artificial sweeteners which are not healthy foods.
Remember to have grace with your family. Sugar is in so many foods that it isn’t always easy to wean off and learn to enjoy foods for their natural flavor.
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Practical Ways for How to Stop Eating Sugar
Those who are in the process of quitting sugar – or who have successfully cut sugar from their kitchen – know that certain tricks helped them along the way. Here are some practical ideas to help you along this sugar-eliminating venture.
- Eliminate the worst ingredients from the kitchen. You won’t be tempted to eat them if they’re not there in the first place.
When grocery shopping, read labels. Read every single one of them, including the “healthy” items. Not letting new sugars into the house, after clean-up, will set you up for success. - Don’t go too long between meals. Your blood sugar levels will drop during large time lapses, which will increase your cravings for something sweet. Pack a piece of fresh fruit or keep a small baggie of nuts (which have healthy fats) in your purse/desk/car for emergencies.
- Include protein with every meal. Protein helps to reduce the cravings for sweets, so add nuts/seeds to breakfast, beans/legumes to lunch, and eat grains that are naturally higher in protein like quinoa.
- Starting the day with protein pancakes is a good option, as are high-protein smoothies.
- For snacks, consider black bean brownies or chocolate hummus – both are naturally sweetened with maple syrup, but the fact that they’re made of beans means you’ll crave less sugar in the end.
- Trick the taste buds. Certain spices and foods make our brains think we’re eating sweet food, like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and coconut oil.
- Eat naturally sweeter foods. Sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes are naturally sweet vegetables. Reach for these instead of other vegetables if you’re struggling with a sugar craving.
- Tip: try a baked sweet potato with butter, cinnamon, and pecans – you won’t even miss the sugar!
- Use less sugar when baking. You can reduce the amount of sugar in most baking recipes by up to ¼ without affecting the final result. For beginners, try reducing it by 1 tablespoon at a time each time you make the recipe, until you reach ¼ cup (that’s 4 tablespoons, by the way).
- Try different sweeteners. Honey, maple syrup, natural fruit juice, and molasses all have different sweetening properties and taste different in recipes. Try substituting honey and maple syrup equally, or adding 1 tablespoon of molasses in lieu of some of the honey and maple syrup.
- Note: Molasses should not be used as an all-purpose sweetener, but rather as a partial substitute to use less sweetener overall.
It takes time to notice change. The more sugar you eat, the longer it will take to reduce it significantly without going cold turkey. There’s nothing wrong with this, just commit to the long haul.
Budgeting Tips for Quitting Sugar
White granulated sugar is by far the cheapest sweetener available. By default, switching to a more natural sweetener will cost more money. We can’t ignore the grocery budget just because we’re quitting sugar, so here are some ideas to help offset the costs of natural sweeteners:
- Create a Price Book for honey and maple syrup
- Go through local circulars and update with prices, if available.
- Go through recent grocery receipts and update with prices, if available.
- Check common online sites for prices – Amazon – and update with prices.
- Buy at the regular low price and buy 2 extras (stock up) when it’s lower.
- Use Swagbucks to earn gift cards and use that instead of cash.
- Eat fewer sweets in general (i.e. baking, or eating ice cream, once a week instead of every night)
- Know that per ounce, honey is less expensive than maple syrup.
Are you quitting sugar this year? What practical steps are you taking to reach this goal?
Why aren’t Stevia, Xylitol, and Erythritol mentioned as sugar alternatives? I am quitting sugar and baking using these sweeteners and I find that I am able to satisfy my craving without being a sugar monster. Overall, I crave less sugar.
Alicia, they can work for some people we just prefer as natural and organic as possible. The best thing to do is make sure you research whatever sugar alternative you choose for yourself and your family.
Honey, maple syrup and fruit juices are not sugar alternatives. They are sugar.
Hi Chana, Yes they do still have sugar but they’re not as processed as white sugar. We are all about the baby steps to healthier living and they are a great bridge for some people to healthier eating. Some people need to go cold turkey on all sugars while others can handle some natural forms. We are all different. 🙂
Just wanted to add that you can even go lower with sugar reduction in recipes. Even before we really started reducing/cutting sugar, I’ve always made recipes with 1/2 the amount of white sugar it calls for – based on a tip my grandmother gave me years ago. I’ve tried this even with cookies – no problem! The other day my 11yo made our favorite coffee cake recipe and I reminded her not to forget to cut the sugar. EVERYONE loved it – AND THEN I found out she actually used 1/4 the amount of sugar – a good sign our taste buds have really changed!
So I’m curious: for those times when you do want to use granulated sugar (like Apple Cider Vinegar), what have you decided to have on hand for that?
For fermenting I use plain white sugar. A shock, I know! I’ve found that the bacteria does better with white sugar, and since it’s consumed by the bacteria and not by me, it’s not so bad. I have tried a better granulated sugar, but I didn’t feel like the quality output was there. I’ve also heard conflicting reports that “better” sugar isn’t great for scobys (used to make kombucha).
So that’s where I draw the line. Baked goods (muffins, cookies, brownies, etc.) gets better sugar. Bacteria gets “bad” sugar, lol.
Thank you! That’s helpful. And by “better sugar” do you mean something like Sucanat?
You’re welcome! Yes, Sucanat, raw, organic, evaporate cane juice… they all have pros/cons, but they’re a step above white and that’s the goal. 🙂
I run raisingsugarfreekids.com and our family have been living a very low sugar lifestyle for the last couple of years. I have to say – I’d tried reducing/quitting sugar several times before as you have, substituting honey or maple syrup or “natural” sugars, but found I would go right back. It was only when I stumbled across “I Quit Sugar”, Sarah Wilson’s book/program that I realised that I needed to quit those, too, in order to properly do it. After a proper detox, where we quit all sugar including syrups, honey, fruit juice, dried fruit and even (for a few weeks) fresh fruit, as well as sweeteners that we were able to quit properly. We eat plenty of fruit (whole fresh fruit or the occasional smoothie, no dried or fruit juice), but other than that we try to keep all “free sugars” (as defined by the World Health Organisation) and dried fruit to no more than the WHO recommended daily allowance (6 teaspoons for adults). We do the 80/20 rule as you do, and are doing really well as a family with it! 🙂 Wishing you the best in this – if you want any advice or recipes, do pop on over!
I’ve been advised to cut out sugar (at least for a while) by an alternative health practioner. I find it hard, having sweet tooth. I’ve been using vegan recipes to bake, which uses banana or apple sauce instead of egg, so no added sugar needed. I also use dried fruit in baking or breakfast (oatmeal, pancakes and such). Although I’ve only just started with minimizing sugar (I’m a realist 🙂 ) I find that I crave less if I use less, but once I have something sweet I want more.
I’m the same way Sylvia! One bite is all it takes for me to want it again. It’s just easier to say no than to keep trying to quit over and over again. I like your realist approach – minimize is a great starting point!!
It is fructose that makes us craving for more food and causes liver fettering. Fructose is in may sweeteners – honey, all sugars, maple syrup, agave syrup, don’t mention fructose added to processed foods.
I’m substituting sugar for pure glucose powder, which is also less sweet than fructose.
I would love to see a follow up post for how you manage birthdays and holidays with a low or now sugar approach. Most of our cultural celebrations include special treats and candy as a central part of the celebration. Can you share your holiday recipes and any advice on celebrating with others that arnt on the no sugar band wagon?
Hi Mary! Since we don’t have much control over what is served at parties, we will usually have a smoothie or a couple pieces of fruit at the house before we leave. Then we make “smart choices” at the party, essentially choosing the best from what is available and using moderation so that the kids don’t feel out of place among other kid. An example of that last one is letting them have one piece of candy at the party, but bringing the rest of it home for us to sort through.
We’re in the process of teaching the kids about making good decisions when we’re not there, and I was pleasantly surprised at what they chose at the end of the year school parties! There are only a couple hard line rules in place: no sugary drinks, just one serving of dessert and no dessert unless they’ve eaten both the smoothie/fruit AND a “meal”. I’m often surprised at how the kids will avoid many items served so that they have enough room to finish their dessert!
I found your post through Pinterest. These are great steps to start. But I also wanted to provide a documentary that goes more into detail about how added sugar really is causing a lot of diseases, and is involved in childhood obesity. Look up the Fed Up on Netflix 🙂 very informative.
Yes! We watched this Amanda and were SHOCKED to see how sugar played a role with health, and how (unfortunately) our government seemed to be playing both sides of the fence. 🙁
I’ve been eating almost no sugar for 7 months now. I was completely addicted to it and was constantly eating sugary foods a d drinking soda. I definitely recommend watching the documentary “Fed Up”; it broke that habit for me. 🙂 There’s some pretty crazy info in there that made me realize just how bad sugar is for you. My saving grace since going off sugar has been using coconut sugar in baking and sauces. It seems weird at first because of the different consistency and smell, but it allows me to still eat sweet things while still staying low on sugar. It has a very low glycemic index and is actually good for you!
We’ve been trying to eliminate refined sugar and reduce overall sugar consumption for a few years. I find it hardest when baking sweets like cookies and cakes. Coconut sugar has been a fare substitute but it’s pretty pricey which does encourage us into the “use less” department 🙂 My biggest hurdle has been powdered sugar and glazes or frosting. I’ve had success with a coconut butter and maple syrup or honey combo but it’s not the best for some recipes. Any suggestions for a good powdered sugar substitute?
Hi Brie! I totally agree. There are just some desserts that don’t do well unless it’s granulated. 🙁 I found this glaze while working on March’s meal plan, if it helps:
http://www.primallyinspired.com/no-grains-delicious-lemon-bread-with-a-lemon-glaze/
I bet it can be customized to whatever you’re working with. As for powdered sugar, my best recommendation (so far) is to make your own with your preferred granulated sugar.
Great post! We have slowly been cutting back on refined sugar the past several months, replacing with honey, maple syrup, and stevia.
So many “more” nutritious sweets use chopped or ground dates, which I love but are unfortunately quite pricey. I had an “aha!” moment the other day when I made a carrot cake for a friend. The recipe called for ground raisins to sweeten the cake (in addition to some sugar, but that amount was quite small)! I thought the ground raisins were such a great idea (so budget friendly, too!) that could be applied to many types of quick breads and muffins that I make, and also sub in for those ground dates in those more nutritious desserts!
You will be amazed at how many products have sugar in them! Just last week I saw that the usual canned peas I buy has as its ingredient list peas, sugar, salt. The unsalted ones are just peas and water. We’ve been white sugar free for a few years, and this one truly shocked me (we keep canned veges for just-in-case, but rarely use them).
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We use honey for almost all sweetening now. Iced tea, coffee, chocolate milk (dissolve a small amount of honey in a small amount of water, then dissolve cocoa in that honey water, then add milk). Those very few things we need granulated sugar for we use sucanat bought in bulk from Azure Standard. We use that mostly for birthday cake and some Christmas baking, but I”m hoping to switch to honey even on those.
Do you add the honey when you make the tea or when you get ready to drink? How much honey do you add for a gallon of tea?
Yes, yes, and yes! My husband in particular is a white sugar FIEND, and it’s been one of my missions this year (we just got married 5 months ago!) to try to eliminate this from his diet. He’s been a good sport about it (for the most part, haha), but it may be a long road.
One victory: maple syrup in coffee!! It’s amazing, and he now really, really, really enjoys it in his coffee and prefers that to sugar! I highly recommend.
Also: AMISH grocery store. Look for one in your area, and then check it out. There’s one about an hour from me (called Sauders), and it’s amazing for its prices on *herbs and spices* (pennies per ounce!), plus creamline milk, fresh breads, eggs, and *bulk baking supplies* (5 pounds of fresh unbleached, unenriched, stone ground wheat flour for $0.45/pound? Yes, please!).
In this with you, Tiffany. Thanks for the tips.
*high five* We can do this!! Thank you for the tip on the Amish grocery store. I don’t know if there are any in Georgia, but it never hurts to look. My SIL gets great deals at the one by her (in Delaware).
We switched to honey from refined sugars. While honey is much more expensive we need much less in a recipe, usually about a third of what the sugar called for. It got to be to the point that once we got away from eating refined sugars we could taste how sweet everything really was. Store bought bread tasted like someone had dropped it a bowlful of sugar. Canned cranberries (which I LOVED) tasted like a can of candies. The chocolate milk I bought for the kids as a treat, tasted so sugary they couldn’t drink it.
I agree with everything you said Shannon! I noticed that we use less too, and more and more foods are tasting “sweet” despite them being fine several months ago.