People believe they are not addicted to sugar because they don’t eat lollies or chocolate. Sugar is also found in High GI foods such as white bread & pasta and of course fast food. So if you crave these foods often it’s highly likely you have an addiction.

Other signs of addiction are always craving something sweet after every meal & in the afternoon, feeling guilty when you eat sugar, you carry weight around your middle, you go out of your way to eat sugar and you have tried to give it up unsuccessfully many times.

Top 10 ways to quit sugar:

1. Always start the day with breakfast.
2. Don’t go more than 2-3 hours without eating. Keep snacks in your bag.
3. Drink at least 2 litres of water per day, sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger.
4. Eat no more than 2 pieces of fruit per day. Berries are the lowest in sugar, bananas & mango are 2 of the highest in sugar.
5. Don’t keep any sugary treats in your house. Especially people that don’t have any self-control. If it’s not easily available to you your less likely to consume it.
6. Check food labels there are lots of words that disguise the word sugar. Here are a few of the culprits: beet sugar, brown sugar, buttered syrup, cane-juice crystals, cane sugar, caramel, carob syrup & corn syrup.
7. Avoid artificial sugar such as diet coke & Pepsi max they may be low in calories but they have sweeteners in them, your brain does not know the difference between real and artificial sugar so you will still get the same cravings.
8. If you are craving sugar then have something small like a piece of dark chocolate as this may curb the craving & avoid a massive binge later on.
9. Let yourself once per week have a sweet treat that you really love. You will look forward to it. Tip: Save it for the weekend, if you have it on the Monday I can guarantee you will end up indulging again!
10. This is the most important one! If you slip up DO NOT dwell on it. It happened, move on don’t let one bad treat turn into a bad day then a bad week of eating.