Are you killing yourself with sweet kindness? Sugar is a good soother, and at times of stress it can be an answer to your prayers. But how much danger are you exposed to when you feed your body with spoon after spoon of these sweet granules. We add sugar to so many of our food choices, like our weetbix, our steaming bowl of porridge, and a raft of other cereals that we feel the need to give some added taste. And of course, there is the tea and coffee that we down several times a day. But at what cost to we indulge in this habit?
Harvard Medical School conducted a study over a period of fifteen years which was published in 2014. The focus of the study was whether http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-sugar-increases-the-risk-of-dying-with-heart-disease-201402067021eating too much added sugar increases the risk of dying with heart disease. It makes for interesting reading if you are a sugar lover.
In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it was cutting its recommended sugar intake for adults in half. Originally, they recommended that no more than 10 percent of total daily calories should come from sugar. They reduced the recommended rate to five percent. That equates to about 25 grams for a normal adult or 6 teaspoons, per day. If you’re a tea drinker who downs around six cups of tea a day with a spoonful of sugar in each, then that’s your whole sugar allowance for the day gone. Kaput! Every other food item that you eat for the rest of the day should be totally free of sugar.
I solved that problem, I don’t add sugar to any of my drinks. Tea, Coffee. I know you are probably saying Ahhh, I hate coffee without sugar but I used to say the same things years ago. Coffee has to have sugar. No it doesn’t!! Just try it. And I have to say it is more about attitude than taste. Just because you’ve always had a spoon or two of sugar in your coffee, doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it. Ok, sure it will taste a bit strange at the start, but you just have to persevere. Don’t keep telling yourself that it tastes awful, just keep telling yourself that you don’t need sugar, you’re not doing to die if you don’t have that spoonful of sugar. It will only take a couple of days before you realise that coffee doesn’t taste too bad without sugar. After a week you will have forgotten all about reaching for the sugar bowl. After a month or two, an interesting exercise is to have a sip of someone’s coffee that has sugar in it. I promise, you will gag!! You’ll realise that you have at last broken a habit of a lifetime.
I remember as a teenager, I was staying with a favourite aunty, (who I just happened to be named after). Once a week in the evening, the local baker would drive around the streets selling his fresh bread. The aroma of fresh bread would waft up the street and everyone would head outside to buy a loaf of the freshest bread you could imagine. I still think about that when I get caught in the bakery department at the supermarket. Anyway, I digress. My aunty would serve up slices of warm deliciously fresh bread and cups of tea. One particular time that I recall, I asked for a spoonful of sugar for my cup of tea. Aunty was most indignant. “You don’t need sugar in tea!” And she wouldn’t give me any. She said that it was just a bad habit to sweeten your tea and that it wasn’t at all good to be eating sugar unnecessarily. That was the last time I had any desire to put sugar in my tea. The greatest advantage for me was that it altered my tolerance level towards sweetness. I find that I can’t drink products like Milo which are pre-sweetened. But that’s ok, right? It just makes it a bit easier to resist anything that is sugar-laden.
So, it you want to take just one small step to a more healthy eating regime, stop adding that sugar to your tea and coffee. Your body will thank you for it.
End.
Thanks for reading.
If you enjoyed reading this post, please Share with your friends and family on your favourite Social Media site on the links below.
I look forward to reading and responding to your Comments. So, if you have anything to say about my views and opinions on this post or other posts on my website, please enter your Comments below.
Also, if you would like to keep updated on my new posts, you are most welcome to Subscribe to my mailing list.
I’d be honoured to hear from you.
Cheers,
June.
