Stephanie Linus Daily

Tag: calories

  • 5 Easy Ways To Reduce Your Sugar Intake

    Although a little bit of sugar is OK for most people, eating too much sugar can undermine your health in a lot of ways. Sugar can add excess calories to your diet, crowd out more nutritious foods, and otherwise contribute to aging, weight gain, and disease.

    Here are 5 tips I’m sure would help in reducing your overall sugar intake:

    Read Food Labels
    You’ll quickly realize just how often sugar is added to foods when you look for it on ingredients lists. Even things that you don’t think are sweet, like tomato sauce, crackers, and salad dressings can be packed with sugar. Read the list of ingredients on the packaging before you make a decision on whether to eat/drink it or not.

    Choose Healthy Snacks
    In between meals, you might have the need to chew on a snack. In such situations, opt for a healthy snack. Healthier snack options are those without added sugar such as fruit (fresh, dried, tinned or frozen), unsalted nuts, unsalted rice cakes, oatcakes or homemade plain popcorn

    Avoid Sweetened Drinks & Beverages
    Nearly a quarter of our added sugar in our diets comes from sugary drinks such as fizzy drinks, sweetened juices, and squashes. A 500ml bottle of cola contains the equivalent of 17 cubes of sugar. Try sugar-free varieties or better yet, water, lower-fat milk, or soda water with a splash of fruit juice.

    Trade sweetened foods for naturally sweet fruit
    Replace foods laden with added sugar for fruit, which is naturally sweet and just as satisfying. Fruit – whether it’s fresh, baked, grilled, or pureed — makes a great replacement for sugar in lots of dishes, from cookies to coleslaw.

    Buy unsweetened food
    Once you know where sugar hides, you can start making changes. One strategy: buy foods labeled “no added sugar” or “unsweetened.” You’ll find unsweetened versions of these common foods in most grocery stores. For instance, go for unsweetened milk instead of the regular one. Also, when buying canned fruit, they should be packed in
    juice—not syrup.

    SL Fabz, do you have any more tips to add?

  • Diet Vs. Exercise: What Is Better For Losing Weight?

    It’s a new year and you’ve set for yourself a health goal – to lose weight. The question now is – what’s the best way to achieve this?

    While diet and exercise are both important for long term weight goals, its important to know which one is best for you.

    Yes, you can lose weight with diet alone, but exercise is also important. Without it, only a portion of your weight loss is from fat – you’re also stripping away muscle and bone density. Losing weight through exercise means you’re burning mostly fat. On the other hand, its much easier to cut 500 calories than to spend an hour in the gym burning 500 calories every day.

    Due to our very busy schedules, most people find it very difficult to find time to jog or go to the gym regularly. Also, avoiding those foods with high calories can be very difficult.

    However, both diet and exercise are essential for good health and for keeping that weight off.

    So tell me, which option would you choose for weight loss. Dieting or exercising, and why?