Most of us know that sugar has addictive qualities. You get a sugar high and a nasty crash for a reason. It’s why we use candy as a reward for both children and as adults; sugar gives you a quick burst of dopamine, which is your main feel good brain chemical. One lesser known fact about sugar and its impacts on your body is that your taste buds can actually build up a tolerance to sugar. This is positive and negative. It’s positive because it means when you take a break from sugar it will be easier to maintain a reduced sugar diet. It’s negative because once you have or fall into a sweets-filled routine, you’ll always be craving more. Fortunately, there are simple ways to reduce your sugar intake! 

There are a number of ways to reduce your sugar consumption in a healthy and relatively easy way. You can begin by limiting the amount of processed sugar you intake because that tends to be surrounded with other ingredients that add up to empty calories. This is easy because processed sugars always come with their ingredients listed; and remember to check foods you wouldn’t think of as being sweet like frozen entrees, appetizers, pizzas, and even breakfast sandwiches.  

Cutting back on one type of sugar is one way to step down into a sugar fast. Avoiding all processed sugars is a tough one, so in addition to looking for healthier processed foods:

• try using more natural sweeteners in your cooking and eating.
• stick to natural sugars that are in fruits and vegetables.
• use honey as a sweetener.
• experiment with different syrups as sweeteners. There are tons of different flavors of honey out there as well as syrups like maple, agave, or orange blossom (a personal favorite).  

Stevia is one of the better known sugar alternatives, but there’s also date sugar, beet sugar, monk fruit, and even coconut sugar. Each has a unique taste that’s distinctive from white sugar, so don’t use them blindly as substitutes in recipes that call for sugar.  

Habits are easier to develop and drop when you approach them incrementally, so set your end goal as something measurable. For example, try having 100g of processed sugar per week or cutting your total sugar intake to a certain amount per week or day, then work towards that end piece by piece. Once you’ve got it, a sweet tooth is a hard habit to kick, but it’s completely doable and easier than you think.