Author: Leticia Celentano
Time for reading: ~9
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
Learn more information about no sugar diet meal plan. In this article we'll discuss no sugar diet meal plan.
Learn how to follow a sugar-free diet, with information on how switching to a sugar-free diet can benefit your health. This post also includes a sugar-free meal plan, including snack ideas.
If you're worried about what you can eat when you're on a sugar-free diet, don't worry! I will share tips and ideas for eating a sugar-free diet. First, let's talk about why sugar is a problem.
Sugar consumption is the highest of all time. The average American consumes at least 17 teaspoons of sugar a day, when the recommended amount is ideally less than 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men.
If you follow a standard American diet, you are likely to find sugar in almost everything you eat. Sugar is mean, it even penetrates spicy foods - you probably have no idea how much you actually consume.
This is especially true of processed foods, which often make up the majority of some American diets. Approximately 39% of Americans are obese, and there is evidence that sugar is the main culprit.
If you are worried about what you can eat on a sugar-free diet, be sure that there are many choices. In fact, if you have decided to avoid processed foods and have simply eaten whole foods, then you will naturally be close to an anti-inflammatory diet with very low added sugars.
You can check out my list of clean eating foods for a list of foods that I consider part of the true eating approach. You may also like my post on how to eat clean without starving.
Also, if you go sugar-free, you may want to check out my sugar-free tips without going crazy.
Breakfast ideasIf you want no sugar, the spicy breakfast will be your friend! It will help reduce your appetite for sugar by first signaling to your brain that sugar is not available. Shoot for at least 25 grams of protein to keep your blood sugar stable. If you need sweetness for your coffee, then see my article with the best sugar substitutes.
Sugar-free breakfast ideas include:
Lunch ideas
Lunch is a good time to get antioxidants from fruits, starchy vegetables or greens. Combined with a lot of protein and fat, any natural sugars or carbohydrates you consume during lunch will be used as energy throughout your afternoon, instead of being stored as fat.
No sugar lunch ideas include:
Dinner ideas
If you've been sugar-free all day, don't hesitate to pair your dinner with a piece of fruit or a healthy baked dessert. Some people also enjoy a piece of dark chocolate as a healthy after-dinner treat.
No sugar dinner ideas include:
This sugar-free diet plan is designed to serve as an example of what it's like to eat for seven days without added sugars. So while you can give up added sugars like honey, cane sugar and maple syrup, you can still get extra sweetness from the natural sugars in fruits and sweet potatoes.
You can also use sugar substitutes if it works for your health.
MondayOther simple snacks without added sugar include:
Other resources
Sugar harms our health by sabotaging weight management, increasing inflammation and leading to addiction.
1. Overweight and obesityWhen you consume sugar, whether natural or refined, your body has to go through various metabolic processes. First, your blood sugar levels rise. Your pancreas receives a signal to produce insulin, the job of which is to send sugar to your cells for use or to store as fat.
The problem with sugar and weight management occurs mainly when we consume more sugar than is necessary for cellular function. Insulin will move excess sugar to store as fat for a rainy day (or at least one when no food is available!)
In addition, the constant stress of insulin secretion in response to changes in blood sugar from simple sugars plays a key factor in the body's ability to maintain a healthy weight. When you are under stress, your body naturally feels insecure and is more likely to store food as fat in case you need glycogen to recharge your muscles (if you are running from a tiger) or if there is hunger on the horizon (if there is none). enough food to maintain health).
2. InflammationThe dramatic jump and drop in blood sugar from sugar consumption can cause a stress response in your body that includes an inflammatory response. If your blood sugar keeps jumping and crashing, you experience inflammation every time.
Living in a constant state of inflammation can cause many problems such as autoimmune diseases, type 2 diabetes and mood disorders. A low low sugar diet and therefore a lower degree of inflammation is the best diet for PCOS and is also good for maintaining hormone balance.
3. AddictionMost of us try very hard to avoid the harmful drugs that are addictive. We know that they are bad for us and that they kidnap the body to make us crave them. But if you don't consider sugar to be one of those addictive drugs, think again!
Sugar and sweeteners have a hyper-pleasant taste that triggers your brain's reward center, eventually rearranging your brain to look for these substances to keep reaping the dopamine surge. So, make no mistake, sugar can be very addictive. If you think you are addicted to sugar, then you should read my article on how to beat sugar addiction.
What is the difference between no sugar and no added sugar?
Being sugar-free can mean different things to different people. For some, this may mean a lack of processed sugar, but natural sugar is allowed. For others, this may mean reducing processed sugar and limiting natural sugars. And for some, this may mean neither processed sugar, nor natural sugar, nor natural sweeteners (ie stevia, monfruit, yacon syrup). Read more about doing sugar detox if you want to go for a cold turkey.
For this article, we will continue with a moderate approach to reducing processed sugar and limiting natural sugars. This means limiting the fruit to a few servings a day or less and keeping natural sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar for special occasions. Read more about deciding if a low-sugar diet is right for you.
What is the best way to eliminate sugar from your diet?
Keep in mind that sugar is an addictive substance, so you can break the addiction. Don't go overboard with yourself if you go back to old habits. With patience and consistency you can stop the craving for sugar.
Try one of these strategies based on abstinence theory versus moderator, and know that you can always switch if you don't see results:
Can you eat potatoes while you are avoiding sugar?
Whether you should eat potatoes on a sugar-free diet depends on your reason for the diet. If you want to retrain your taste buds and just ensure a longer and healthier life, then potatoes are a nutritious food to enjoy.
However, if you want sugar-free to help balance your blood sugar, be sure to include potatoes too often. Potatoes have a relatively high level of glycemic index, which means that they cause a sharper rise in blood sugar. Someone who wants to maintain a stable blood sugar should focus on proteins, fats and vegetables that do not contain starch.
Can you lose weight on a sugar-free diet?
A sugar-free diet can certainly help you lose weight. As described earlier in this blog post, sugar is either used by cells for energy or stored as fat. Going sugar-free allows your body to use all the sugar (from starchy vegetables or fruits) and reduce the likelihood of it being stored as fat. You can also lose weight with inflammation by reducing your sugar intake.
For more support for the sugar-free transition, you are invited to join my sugar-free challenge!