Her Unique Glow

Sugar is by far one of the most popular foods – from the flavour it gives to its practicalities during food processing and production. In fact, it’s so popular that it can be all too easy to eat too much! Currently, the NHS and World Health Organisation both recommend that free sugars should make up no more than 5% of your total energy intake (calories) a day – shockingly, in reality that figure is way higher with the UK population consuming, on average, 100g of sugar every day (the NHS recommends 30g!).

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Consider your sources

Whether you’re eating a chocolate bar, drinking a glass of orange juice or enjoying a sweet, juicy apple, you’re still eating sugar. So many foods contain sugar from pasta sauces and tinned soups to biscuits and cake – but wherever you’re getting that sugar from, more likely than not, you’re still overloading your body and your cells with it. In fact, there are so many hidden sources of sugar, sometimes in the most unlikely of places, that it can be hard to track just how much you’re eating!

However, although sugar is still sugar – it does matter where the source of that sugar comes from. When we eat natural sugars (those found in whole fruits, vegetables), the release of the sugar into our blood stream is slower due to the fibre found in these foods as well. This not only means we avoid those blood sugar and insulin spikes, but they also keep us feeling fuller for longer. Plus, these foods come with added benefits like vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are essential for vibrant health.

*A quick note on juice: Although marketing of juices and smoothies say that they count as 1 of your 5 a day, a portion is 150ml. Anything more than this will not count towards your 5 a day as the sugar content is so high and without the fibre, it dumps a whole load of sugar onto your cells and liver. Drinking more than the recommended amount has also been linked to tooth decay.

• Eat whole fruits and vegetables
• Avoid sugary drinks (fizzy drinks, cola, juices, smoothies etc.)
• Limit your daily intake of juice to 150ml (a small glass)
• Check the ingredients on packaging – look for 5g or less of total sugars per 100g serving
• Prioritise home cooking

Be kind to yourself

Don’t punish yourself when you eat sugar. It’s important to remember balance and moderation when it comes to your diet and what you put into your body. Cutting down on sugar isn’t about restricting yourself as that’s what creates an unhealthy relationship with food. It’s not about demonising certain foods as that too will create an unhealthy relationship with food. It’s about understanding what you’re putting into your body and making the best choices possible. Balance is key when it comes to anything sustainable – without balance, you’re more likely to binge, have cravings or even ‘give up’.

Depending on your goals, I suggest that indulging once or twice a week can actually be healthy – as long as these indulgences are small, meaningful and practised with mindful eating. At the end of the day, on average, you have 21 meals in the week and maybe 14 snacks – so if you eat healthy, balanced and nourishing foods most of the time, eating one or two indulgent meals here and there won’t affect you too much.

Be kind and gentle with yourself and don’t punish yourself if you have free sugars.

• Remember balance is key
• Allow yourself to have small, meaningful indulgent snacks/meals once or twice a week
• Consider the ebb and flow of life and what role your diet plays in that
• Don’t beat yourself up just because you had a moment of weakness and ate a cookie!
• The most important thing is the relationship you have with your food

Focus on balancing your meals

Eating a lot of sugar creates spikes in blood glucose which can lead to burn out, brain fog, hunger, cravings and crashes in energy levels. It’s so important to balance every meal so that your body is getting all the macro and micronutrients it needs to thrive.

Fill up most of your plate with non-starchy vegetables (around 2 cups is ideal), then fill the rest of your plate with a palm sized portion of protein and a cupped handful of carbohydrates. You can also add a small serving of healthy fat (a thumb size) if it’s needed, but keep in mind how much fat you use to cook with before adding extra fats to your meals/snacks

*A quick note on fats: Don’t fear fats! So many of us are afraid of consuming fat, under the assumption that eating fat will make you fat. I’m not surprised really, after all, for years we were told to eat low-fat diets, that fat would make us ill, cause disease and that to lose weight we had to cut fat out completely. The truth is, they are essential in our diet as they are needed for the proper absorption of fat soluble vitamins, support proper brain development and plays a role in hormone synthesis (just to name a few!). Our bodies need those ‘healthy’ fats for optimal health so don’t shy away from them and enjoy naturally occurring healthy fats in moderation. Good sources include avocados, nuts, seeds, extra virgin olive oil and oily fish. Fats not only help to keep us feeling fuller for longer but they also provide our bodies with fuel.

• Plate up your meals before sitting at the table
• Consider potion sizes
• Eat whole grains over refined carbohydrates
• Remember that starchy vegetables add to your carbohydrate serving
• If you’re hungry in between meals opt for a small serving of healthy fats and/or protein or a small piece of fruit to avoid spikes in blood sugar

Crowding out

I don’t believe in restrictive dieting. I do believe in focusing on fueling our bodies with nourishing foods. Crowding out is the concept of focusing on adding in more nutrient dense whole foods so that our focus is redirected away from what we’re not supposed to eat. Most of the time, when we think about cutting certain foods out of our diet, they become the only foods we think about! Instead, shift that focus to adding in more of the good foods so that the ‘not so good’ foods naturally crowd themselves out. When it comes to reducing your free sugar intake, here are some guidelines on what to eat more of and less of.

Eat more:

• Whole fruits
• Sweet, root vegetables
• Whole grains
• A rainbow of fruit and veg
• Seasonal and/or organic produce

Eat less:

• Packaged foods
• Processed foods
• Refined or added sugars
• Pre-packaged meals/foods (tinned soups, ready meals, pasta sauces etc.)
• Trans-fats (such as hydrogenated fats found in packaged cakes, biscuits, donuts etc.)

Be prepared

There will inevitably be times when you know you will be eating sweet treats ie: birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, dinners etc. The key here is all about being prepared! Meal planning and meal prepping are two amazing tools that have the power to transform the way you eat. They allow you to actively prioritise making food that will nourish your body and give you the time you need to prepare healthier swaps and alternatives. In short, these two tools help you to make those healthier choices as your food is readily available and prepped to reduce the stress around meal times and celebrations.

If you know that you’re going to be faced with sweet indulgences, then plan ahead and prepare your own alternatives so that you’ve got your own healthier treats to indulge in.

• Meal prep healthier, clean treats for celebrations and events
• Make a big batch of clean treats and share them around at family gatherings
• Make a DIY trail mix of dried fruit, nuts and seeds to snack on
• Meal prep a variety of clean treats and store them in the freezer so you have something to reach for when cravings strike
• Remember balance is key! You can still over indulge in clean treats

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