Kicking off a week without added sugars!
Today is the first day of our week-long challenge of not eating foods with added sugars! Are you in?
Throughout the challenge I’d like to address what kinds of foods are good replacements for the ones that we eat every day which include hidden sugars. I really like my bread and eat either a poached egg on toast or a veggie sandwich with hummus and cream cheese every day, so that will be a tough one for me (FYI, both cream cheese and cottage cheese contain hidden sugars. At least, the ones that I have in my fridge do). Although I have not quite figured out the best way around that, I have been thinking about some other common foods in our diets: the creamy and crunchy textures.
Creamy foods such as yogurts and puddings, and crunchy foods like cereals/granola and trail mix, are both eaten frequently in our society. They come in convenient little travel packs and they taste delicious. Some versions can be healthy; others can be nutritional hazards. Here are some ways that you can enjoy both of these kinds of foods which run rampant in our grocery stores, free of added sugars:
For creamy foods, there are a few options:
– Smoothies made with plain yogurt, 100% juice, and fruit
– Frozen bananas (you can also puree these in a blender)
– Unsweetened applesauce
– Plain yogurt mixed with frozen berries or fresh fruit
– Nut butters
I have also been coming up with some ideas for a make-your-own cereal/granola/trail mix. Here is a list of ingredients free of added sugars which you can mix and match to your liking (and for more ideas, check out MixMyGranola), depending on the type of snack that you’re looking for:
– Grains like puffed wheat, oat or wheat bran, oats (you could try toasting them for added crunch), wheat germ, and even popcorn
– Dried fruit (check the ingredients list!); I like raisins, cranberries and blueberries, but you can also add dried banana or apple slices and just about any other fruit you can think of.
– Nuts, seeds, and legumes such as almonds, pecans, peanuts, sesame seeds, walnuts, Brazil nuts, and (roasted) chickpeas
I know these lists aren’t exhaustive, so I would love to hear what you would add!
Honey
Yesterday someone asked me about honey* and if I would be including that as an added sugar. Personally I do consider it an added sugar, but they made the argument that because it occurs naturally and is really a food product, it should be allowed this week if you are adding it to other things (but not allowed if it is already listed as an ingredient in the food product, because then it would be a hidden sugar). After all, the point of this exercise is not so much to just avoid sugar, but rather to bring awareness about the hidden sweeteners in the foods that we eat. This argument does seem legitimate to me so that is one option if you are really craving something sweet, but for myself I will not be including any honey in my diet this week.
What do you think that your obstacles are going to be this week? What type of food are you going to be craving? Leave it in the comments so that we can figure out together how best to accomodate those cravings in a way that is free of added sugars. It’sgoing to be a fun and healthy week!
* Edited to say: molasses and maple syrup would likely both fall under this exception, too.
Good luck to you this week Sagan.
As I mentioned earlier – I am in, although it might be a slightly modified version. Looking forward to it (or am I???).
HOORAY!!
Good luck to you, Sagan! I will be waiting for your posts regarding how you’re doing with this! Personally, I will also be paying attention to how much sugar is in the foods I eat, but probably won’t be able to go entirely sugar-free. I do not add sugar to anything (like coffee), and don’t eat a lot of pre-packaged stuff, so will just try to avoid it as much as I can this week.
But I am looking forward to hearing how you make out!
So…playing devil’s advocate here, what about maple syrup? It’s also natural and surprisingly it actually has some good stuff in it (iron, zinc, and loaded with calcium to name a few). Just throwing it out there…
Good luck with you challenge, Sagan! You’re so determined – I have no doubt that you’re going to sail through this week!
Lance- oh you know you’re looking forward to it! 😀
VeggieGirl & Bag Lady- Exciting exciting.
Cathy- thanks for playing devils advocate! Much appreciated and I have made a note of it in the post.
While not up to this challenge myself (not with an open bottle of wine on the counter) I was in a slight dilemma pondering dinner choices for my two darling daughters (who ARE up to the challenge) who bless me with their presence for weekly Sunday dinner. After mulling about several choices, I suggested roast chicken and veggies (gravy on the side for only me), which was met with approval. It occurred to me that this was a regular meal for my family when I was a child. My mother always cooked from scratch, we had simple yet good nutritious food, with very few “additives”. I think if you stick to the good old basics, you should breeze through this week.
Best of luck with your challenge Sagan, and I am happy you agree with the argument for honey, molasses & maple syrup. I hope you enjoy dinner tonight 😉 (I guess apple pie is off the menu for this week?)
Delicious Norwegian fiskesoupe:
Ingredients (for 4)
2 small onions
½ leek
2 stalks celery
1 – 2 tbsp butter
600ml fish stock
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tbsp flour
500ml milk
300g salmon
Nutmeg
½ tsp ginger
Salt and pepper
Dill
Chop onion, leek and celery into small pieces. Melt butter in a large saucepan, add the vegetables and cook for 5 mins. Add stock and lemon juice. Mix the flour with a small amount of milk and add to the pan, then slowly pour in the rest of the milk while stirring. Cut the fish into slices and add to the soup. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins. Season with nutmeg, ginger, salt and pepper.
Garnish with dill and serve with brown bread.
Check the fish stock for sugar I guess but it’s not essential if it turns out to contain some, you could always use water with a little lemon and thyme in it or something.
good luck 🙂 i’m always surprised at how much dried fruit has added sugar. baffles me that a concentrated fruit needs it! blueberries are especially disappointing 🙁
Came by to see your progress, Sagan. Maybe you will encourage me to follow your brave pathway with this!
I’ve done the no added sugar week thing before. I think it is fantastic and I 100% agree with your positioning on honey. 🙂 Can’t wait to read if you like it. I think you will!
Anony-mum- LOVED dinner 😀
Liz- thanks so much for this recipe! I’ve never had anything like it.
ttfn300- I know, it’s ridiculous. Grr.
Dr. J- it’s fun stuff, you should get on board!
Juliet- LOVE it 🙂
Very interesting that you’re doing this. I look forward to hearing how it goes!
I’m doing a modified version as well, and I wanted to add that pureed dates are a great sugar replacement in baked goods. And you can buy date baby food (the kind I’ve bought doesn’t have any sugar added) if you don’t want to have to deal with pureeing the dates yourself.
Zandria- it’s fun so far!
EarlyRunner- thanks for that advice, I’d forgotten about pureed dates. They’re great for that 🙂
Best of luck with your week without eating sugar. Looking forward to seeing how you go as I am thinking of doing a similar challenge myself.