Excessive sugar consumption is incredibly detrimental to the health. The way our food is produced often results in people consuming way more sugar than is healthy and often more than they realize. This is very bad for the health in a multitude of ways. Taking the steps to reduce sugar consumption is a crucial component in improving both your oral and overall health.
Problems of Excessive Sugar Consumption
There are many problems that are associated with excessive sugar consumption. Understanding these problems can help provide you with the reasons you need to start taking these steps to reduce your consumption of sugar. Tooth decay is an incredibly common impact of excessive sugar consumption. It can lead to cavities and an array of other health concerns. Consuming abundant amounts of sugar also often leads to diabetes, weight gain, and heart disease.
Take Care While Baking
Baking your own treats provides you with the freedom to ensure that the outcome is much healthier. Reduce the amount of sugar that the recipe states for sugar. This can go a long way toward reducing your overall sugar consumption. You may also want to consider switching out sugar completely with unsweetened applesauce to improve the healthiness of the treat.
Get Adequate Levels of Sleep
Ensuring that you obtain sufficient amounts of sleep can go a long way toward helping you reduce your sugar consumption. Many people consume sugar in order to provide them with energy in order to make up for an inadequate lack of sleep. When you ensure that you get enough sleep, you can more easily reduce your sugar consumption.
Find Healthy Methods for Coping with Stress
Comfort food is a way many people handle stress and negative emotions. Finding healthier alternatives to deal with stress can help to minimize the likelihood of turning to sugar-filled foods for comfort. These healthier methods include things like meditation, exercise, visiting a therapist, or additional options.
Don’t Shop When You are Hungry
It is important to reduce the amount of sugar that you keep inside of your home. When sugar is readily available, it is more likely that you will eat it. You should also refrain from shopping when you are hungry. Many studies have shown that people who shop when they are hungry tend to purchase more high-calorie, less healthy foods than those who shop after eating a healthy meal.
Add Proteins and Healthy Fats
Carbs tend to have more sugar than other macronutrients in your diet. Try to reduce the amount of carbs that you consume, while replacing them with proteins and healthy fats. These changes tend to help reduce appetite and hunger levels, while still providing adequate levels of energy.
Avoid Processed Foods
Sugar is in nearly everything that you purchase from the shelves of the store. Avoiding processed foods can go a long way toward reducing your overall sugar consumption. Read labels thoroughly to ensure that you understand exactly how much sugar is present in the foods you are eating. Take care when you choose low-fat or fat-free foods. These foods often contain excessive amounts of sugar. Whenever possible, purchase unsweetened alternatives or make the food yourself.
Handle Cravings with Gum
Sugar-free gum can help to prevent you from eating that candy bar when you are craving something sweet. Regularly chewing sugar-free gum has also been shown to provide benefits to the teeth. This is because gum helps to increase the saliva production within the mouth, which assists in removing bacteria and harmful particles from the mouth.
Make Sweets Less Convenient
Making sweets less easy to access can go a long way toward reducing your sugar consumption. Ensure that it requires effort to obtain foods filled with sugar. This will help to prevent you from frequently consuming sugar.
Take it in Steps
Quitting sugar consumption cold turkey is often incredibly difficult. This also tends to be less likely to provide a permanent lifestyle change and you are more likely to relapse regarding your sugar consumption. It tends to be more beneficial to cut back on your sugar consumption slowly. Cut the amount of sugary snacks you consume in half, until you adjust to that. Then cut it in half again. Continue to do so until you have adjusted to a diet of reduced sugar consumption.
Drink More Water
Drinking your sugar is all too common, with the ready availability of soda, juice, and other beverages. Switching these beverages out with water can substantially reduce the amounts of sugar that you consume. This process can also help you to stay hydrated, as well as aids in flushing out harmful particles from your teeth, which can help to ensure that your teeth remain healthier.
Stick to your Plan
It is certainly difficult to reduce your sugar consumption. Sugar is an addictive substance that can be hard to cut out of your life. However, stick to the plan and reduce your sugar consumption. Your taste buds will adjust in time, which will result in foods you used to enjoy tasting too sweet. This will help you to make permanent changes to your life.
Replace Added Sugars with Natural Sugars
You are extremely likely to crave sugar when you decide to reduce it. Fortunately, not all sugars are detrimental to your health. Replacing added sugars with natural sugars can help to improve your health by a substantial amount. For example, flavoring plain yogurt by adding fruit is healthier than eating yogurt that has added sugars. Honey, cinnamon, and other alternatives can help to improve the health of your diet, while still allowing you to have a sweet treat.
When it comes to consuming substantial amounts of sugar, it is extremely beneficial to reduce your consumption. This is particularly true when it comes to the health of your teeth. When you consume regular amounts of sugar, it often leads to tooth decay. If you have experienced issues with your teeth after excessive sugar consumption, you should contact our office at Hendersonville Family Dental to obtain the appropriate dental services.