Let us know what you're eating today. Are you finding it difficult to find foods without added sugar? Have you tried anything new? Are you craving sugar?
I hope this is an eye-opening experience for everyone!
I was excited to try a sugar-free day and I was hoping my kids would be too. The only problem is that without thinking, I added homemade strawberry jam (which I know is full of white sugar) to my daughter's natural peanut butter toast. The good news - the whole wheat bread was homemade so I know it was sweetened with honey instead of sugar.
For lunch I gave the girls homemade leftover chicken and brown rice soup...but when I checked the label on the bouillon cube, sure enough, sugar was on the list! It was McGormick's, which I bought for its slightly better quality and MSG free-ness.
I only added a bit to my soup since it was mainly homemade stock, but it just goes to show you where sneaky sugar hides. After investigating the other bouillon cubes in my cupboard, the only truly natural and "bad-stuff-free" bouillon cubes are the "GoBio" brand organic veg. cubes I found in the health food section of the Superstore. The meat-flavoured cubes of the same brand DO contain glucose syrup. I'm starting to feel like a secret-ingredient sleuth!
On a delicious sugar-free note we have been enjoying fruit and yogurt smoothies, perfect for a hot day like today. Totally sugar free and delicious. For lunch I'll be having Greek salad and thankfully my Renee's dressing is sugar-free. For supper we're having creamy chickpeas and broccoli, a recipe my friend shared with me and that I'll be trying for the first time. I'll use a homemade onion white sauce in place of condensed canned soup - a great substitute that I know is sugar, salt and preservative free.
I had oatmeal with raisins for breakfast, followed by whole grain breadsticks with hummus for midmorning snack, a pita with goat cheese and veggies for lunch, Ryvita crackers with cashew butter for afternoon snack, a toasted wrap with raw veggies and cheese, and strawberries/bananas/blackberries for dinner.
Confessions: 1. I ate a bowl of plain cheerios out of desperation (I had a busy day and things didn't go quite as planned) and half-way through I realized there's sugar in cheerios. Then I was late making supper and in my rush forgot to look at the ingredient list and there's sugar in mayo.
The supper recipe was good, but it needs a little tweaking...and the mayo content makes it not sugar free. Too bad! Boy, it takes a lot of planning to take sugar out of one's diet.
Motivation: I'm motivated to read ingredient lists more carefully now! And I am looking forward to trying a better-planned sugar free day some other time, kids included. Thanks for all the great info., Paulette! Ps. You had quite a healthy day!
Well, I certainly tried. Even though I'm a nutritionist, and I know what I should eat, I still crave not-so-healthy foods sometimes. I might have enjoyed a little something sweet with my afternoon tea at William's while I worked, but I didn't give in. Today.
Don't worry about your confessions- you really got the point of the challenge- reading labels and becoming more aware of the added sugar in our foods. I'm not saying that we should never eat sugar, but it would do most of us a world of good if we cut back on it and chose natural sweeteners more often.
Maybe we should plan another sugar-free day soon, now that people are more aware and perhaps more prepared. Feedback would be greatly welcomed!
This challenge wasn't too difficult for me as I don't normally eat a lot of sugar. I did miss my GF bread though and substituted rice cakes just for that day. Oddly enough, the next day, I did chow down on some sugar coated beer nuts I had bought for my hubby. It's strange that I got that craving when I normally don't even eat them.
I was excited to try a sugar-free day and I was hoping my kids would be too. The only problem is that without thinking, I added homemade strawberry jam (which I know is full of white sugar) to my daughter's natural peanut butter toast. The good news - the whole wheat bread was homemade so I know it was sweetened with honey instead of sugar.
ReplyDeleteFor lunch I gave the girls homemade leftover chicken and brown rice soup...but when I checked the label on the bouillon cube, sure enough, sugar was on the list! It was McGormick's, which I bought for its slightly better quality and MSG free-ness.
I only added a bit to my soup since it was mainly homemade stock, but it just goes to show you where sneaky sugar hides. After investigating the other bouillon cubes in my cupboard, the only truly natural and "bad-stuff-free" bouillon cubes are the "GoBio" brand organic veg. cubes I found in the health food section of the Superstore. The meat-flavoured cubes of the same brand DO contain glucose syrup. I'm starting to feel like a secret-ingredient sleuth!
On a delicious sugar-free note we have been enjoying fruit and yogurt smoothies, perfect for a hot day like today. Totally sugar free and delicious. For lunch I'll be having Greek salad and thankfully my Renee's dressing is sugar-free. For supper we're having creamy chickpeas and broccoli, a recipe my friend shared with me and that I'll be trying for the first time. I'll use a homemade onion white sauce in place of condensed canned soup - a great substitute that I know is sugar, salt and preservative free.
Thanks for sharing Sarah!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear how your dinner works out - maybe you could share the recipe?
I had oatmeal with raisins for breakfast, followed by whole grain breadsticks with hummus for midmorning snack, a pita with goat cheese and veggies for lunch, Ryvita crackers with cashew butter for afternoon snack, a toasted wrap with raw veggies and cheese, and strawberries/bananas/blackberries for dinner.
ReplyDeleteConfessions:
ReplyDelete1. I ate a bowl of plain cheerios out of desperation (I had a busy day and things didn't go quite as planned) and half-way through I realized there's sugar in cheerios. Then I was late making supper and in my rush forgot to look at the ingredient list and there's sugar in mayo.
The supper recipe was good, but it needs a little tweaking...and the mayo content makes it not sugar free. Too bad! Boy, it takes a lot of planning to take sugar out of one's diet.
Motivation: I'm motivated to read ingredient lists more carefully now! And I am looking forward to trying a better-planned sugar free day some other time, kids included.
Thanks for all the great info., Paulette!
Ps. You had quite a healthy day!
Well, I certainly tried. Even though I'm a nutritionist, and I know what I should eat, I still crave not-so-healthy foods sometimes. I might have enjoyed a little something sweet with my afternoon tea at William's while I worked, but I didn't give in. Today.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about your confessions- you really got the point of the challenge- reading labels and becoming more aware of the added sugar in our foods. I'm not saying that we should never eat sugar, but it would do most of us a world of good if we cut back on it and chose natural sweeteners more often.
Maybe we should plan another sugar-free day soon, now that people are more aware and perhaps more prepared. Feedback would be greatly welcomed!
Thanks for participating!
My heart thanks you!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how many products I buy, have sugar in them. No wonder we're all addicted.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge wasn't too difficult for me as I don't normally eat a lot of sugar. I did miss my GF bread though and substituted rice cakes just for that day. Oddly enough, the next day, I did chow down on some sugar coated beer nuts I had bought for my hubby. It's strange that I got that craving when I normally don't even eat them.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to the next challenge.
thanks Paulette
Thanks for participating Lauren!
ReplyDelete