12 Ideas on How To Reduce Sugar Intake For You And Your Child

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How to Reduce Sugar Intake for You and Your Child

How to Reduce Sugar Intake for You and Your Child

There are sugars everywhere, and it may seem difficult to completely avoid them. So let’s break down how to find them and what we can do to eat less sugar.

Read the Nutrition Label

The first step to reducing sugar intake is to be aware of the sugars and know how to identify them in foods. Start by taking a look at the nutrition facts label on the sides or the back of the food packaging. Sugar-sweetened beverages, packaged desserts, sweet snacks (like cookies and brownies), will most likely contain high amounts of added sugar per serving. A quick tip: if the product has sugar listed towards the beginning of the ingredient list, that is a warning sign it contains mostly sugar!

Recommended Sugar Intake Per Day

According to the Dietary Guidelines of Americans 2020-2025:

Individuals 2 years or older should limit their intake of added sugars to less than 10% of total daily calories. This means that, in a 2,000 calorie diet, no more than 200 calories should come from added sugars (about 12 teaspoons or 48g of sugar) per day.
Children younger than 2 years old should not be given foods and beverages with added sugars at all.

What are the benefits of reducing sugar intake, you may ask? Eating less sugar and added sugar can decrease the risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease!

Natural Sugar vs Added Sugar

Natural sugar refers to the sugar that is naturally occurring in foods like fruits, vegetables, and milk. Even though these foods contain sugar, they can also provide health benefits like fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins, whereas added sugars provide you with empty calories and an increased risk for diseases.

So what is added sugar? Added sugars are exactly what the name says it is – they are sugars that are added into foods and can be added during the processing of foods to make them taste appealing. Even those that are known as sugars made in nature, like honey and maple syrup, are also considered added sugars. Added sugars can be found in almost anything that is packaged at the grocery store, like cookies and granola bars. Be mindful by doing your research on what is considered added sugars and natural sugars!

Reducing sugar intake is not easy. Many of our fondest memories in childhood (and let’s be real, adulthood too) involves treats like ice cream and cupcakes on birthdays and celebrations. This is why the goal of this post is not to tell you to cut sugar out completely from your family’s diet, but to reduce your sugar intake when you can and make educated food swaps that can be just as enjoyable. Take baby steps to reduce sugar intake one teaspoon at a time!

Ideas and Food Swaps to Reduce Sugar Intake

Mix and match your cereal.

Love Honey Nut Cheerios but think the regular Cheerios are too plain? Mix the two together! You can mix any other sweetened and unsweetened cereal together too. Here are some combinations worth trying:

Frosted Flakes + Bran Flakes
Reese’s Puffs + unsweetened puffed rice cereal
Frosted Rice Krispies + (regular unsweetened) Rice Krispies cereal
Mix plain and sweetened, fruited, or flavored yogurt together.

The taste of a bowl of plain yogurt might not be for everyone. A quick tip is to mix in some flavored yogurt with your plain yogurt. Or even better, try adding fruits and other toppings such as:

Diced apples + pinch of cinnamon
Sliced bananas + nut butter
Strawberries + cacao nibs
Pears + unsweetened coconut flakes
Sweeten plain yogurt and oatmeal with fruits instead of honey or sugar.

Fruits contain natural sugars along with tons of vitamins and antioxidants! As a bonus, most fruits are packed with fiber which can help to regulate blood sugar levels.

Berries such as blueberries and raspberries, or other fruits like bananas and pears are great fruits to sweeten up your bowl of oatmeal or yogurt. You can even try frozen fruits to add some cooling textures on a hot summer day. Your child might enjoy a bowl of yogurt a lot more with fun textures!
Dilute fruit juices with equal parts juice and water.

If equal parts sound a little too ambitious in the beginning, you can try starting with 3/4 fruit juice and 1/4 water. Give your child some time to get used to this diluted flavor, and then slowly adjust the ratio by adding more water and less fruit juice. Doing this gradually will seem very minimal to them that they may not even notice the difference.
Chocolate milk – your child’s favorite.

There is a reason for chocolate milk to be so irresistible – it is chocolatey goodness with added sugars! Typically, chocolate milk contains about 10g of sugar per serving, which is about 2.5 teaspoons of sugar. If chocolate milk is the ultimate household favorite that you can’t part ways with, mix chocolate milk with regular milk to dilute it! Still chocolatey but less sweet.
Swap Pedialyte (or equivalent electrolyte drinks) for sports drinks.

If you or your child need an extra boost of electrolytes, sports drinks are not your only option. There are many lower-sugar alternatives you can reach for! Pedialyte has 2 times less sugar than sports drinks and is effective in replenishing lost electrolytes. Other electrolyte alternatives include coconut water or milk.

You can even make your own sports drink by adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for every cup of water, with a pinch of salt. To make it more flavorful for your child, you can add a splash of orange juice.

Whether your child is under the weather with the stomach flu or has been out and about on a summer day, it is absolutely important to keep electrolytes up to prevent dehydration!
Swap sugary sodas and soft drinks for sparkling water, club soda, or water flavoring drops.

This tip is meant to go out to the adults, but if your child is also drinking soda, know that soda is very high in sugar with no nutrients to support their growth. Children should focus more on drinking milk and water, with the occasional fruit juice if desired.

And for the adults who just love the nostalgic flavor of Coca-Cola, or just prefer some flavor and carbonation over plain water, sparkling waters, club sodas, and water flavoring drops should do the trick for you.

For those who are battling morning sickness or nausea, carbonated drinks help a lot! I talk more about it in this post: Morning Sickness: Remedies, Food, And Bedside Habits
Reduce sugar in your homemade recipes for baking and cooking.

When it comes to sugar in some baked goods like banana bread or muffins, you don’t always have to follow the recipe exactly. Try cutting the amount of sugar that the original recipe calls for, and you might not even notice it! You can also serve your baked goods with some nut butter or spread some yogurt on top to add some different flavors other than sugar.
Check for added sugar in canned fruits.

Canned fruits are convenient and affordable, but the syrup or juice that the fruit is canned in may not be very health-friendly. Pick up those that are labeled with “no added sugar” or “in own juice”. As an alternative, if you happen to have picked up the added sugar or syrup version, drain and rinse the fruit and toss out the syrupy liquid!
Be mindful of sugars when snacking on dried fruit.

If your family enjoys dried fruits, check the labels and ingredient lists for no-sugar-added dried fruit. A quick tip is to select the product with the fruit as the only ingredient on the list.

For example, dried mangos should only have the ingredient, mango, on the ingredient list if the product is advertised as unsweetened. If the list also contains sugar, that means that sugar was added to the product.

(And yes, I’m talking about fruit snacks and fruit leathers too. They can be tasty, but watch out for those added sugars!)
Make your own popsicles with fresh, frozen, or pureed fruit.

Many store-bought popsicles can contain lots of sugar. By making your own, you know exactly what you are putting into the recipe, and as an added bonus, you can customize your popsicles exactly the way you like.

Puree all your favorite fruits together and pop them in your popsicle molds! You can add nut butter, cacao nibs, and chunks of fruit for added texture. You can even skip pureeing altogether and freeze cut-up fruits for the frozen treat.

If you have extra breast milk, you can make breast milk popsicles and other delicious recipes! Learn more from this post: What To Do With Leftover Breast Milk
Share your snacks and dessert.

This is a great opportunity to teach your family how to share with others, and learn how much joy can be brought by sharing food with one another. By sharing a sugary snack or dessert instead of having one entire serving per person, you are able to split up the sugary treat and end up cutting sugar from your day.

There are many different ways to make reducing sugar intake to be fun, affordable, and enjoyable for you and your family. If one method does not work, try another method with different combinations of foods. It is important to consume sugary treats and snacks in moderation, and be well-informed about the risks of excess sugar intake and the recommended guidelines for you and your family.

I hope this post helped you learn how to reduce sugar intake and make healthy food swaps to eat less sugar.

Happy food swapping!