Mens Health

 

Lose weight with a low sugar diet

This is both obvious and tricky.

The obvious

Avoid fizzy drinks, juice, sweetened teas and coffees, sugary cereals and chocolate.

The tricky

Sugar hides on ingredient labels behind such names as…Barley malt, Brown-rice syrup, Corn syrup, Dextrose, Evaporated canejuice invert syrup, Fructose, Fruit juice, Galactose, Glucose, High-fructose corn syrup, Honey, Lactose, Maltodextrin, Maple syrup, Molasses, Organic cane juice, Sorghum, Sucrose, Turbinado

Our advice

Try an experiment. For one month, use this list to avoid any sugar unless it naturally occurs in a food (like the kind in milk or fruit). When scientists at Cornell University examined the eating patterns of more than 14 000 people, they observed that those who ate the most baked confections and chocolate also ate the most fruit – so try satisfying your sweet tooth with the natural sugar in a peach or melon instead of a chocolate bar. As dieticians like to say: “No one ever got fat from eating fruit.” Also, start substituting protein-rich snacks (low-fat cheese, hardboiled eggs) for seemingly harmless fare like bagels, popcorn and pretzels. The latter are primarily composed of starch, which your body quickly breaks down into sugar. So, technically, you’re still feeding your body