Let’s Talk About: How to Reduce Sugar and Increase Veggies

Raise your hand if you made a New Year’s resolution to eat healthier! If you are like me, you are looking for some realistic ways to incorporate some healthier lifestyle changes into your everyday diet. But where do you even start? Let’s face it. Many of us probably eat a little too much sugar. When you really look at ingredient labels, you will quickly find that sugar is in just about everything. It’s almost impossible to avoid, but there are small changes you can make to help reduce the level of sugar intake in your diet while increasing your veggies at the same time. According to Dr. Edward Bauman and Dr. Helayne Waldman, “one of the greatest risks to immune health, and one that we can completely control, involves the intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates.” Too much sugar can also lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and tooth decay. Not only do we as parents want to live long, healthy lives to see our children grow, we also want to be good role models and set our children up for success in helping them lead a healthy and long life, too! So what can we do?

 

We all know not to eat too many sweets like cupcakes and candy, but what about everyday foods like salad dressing, spaghetti sauce, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, yogurt, and milk? I mean, there is approximately 6 grams of sugar in every tablespoon of traditional BBQ sauce! And Sriracha contains more sugar per teaspoon than marinara sauce, approximately 1 gram per teaspoon! And then there is ketchup. I don’t know one adult or child that can’t live without it. It’s often a parent’s go-to for how to entice their children to eat their meals – whether they dip their chicken and veggies in it or put it on top of breakfast potatoes, a hot dog, or a cheeseburger. But not only does most ketchup have way too much sugar in it, it also contains high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients that would make your heart stop if you really took a good look. And when I say too much sugar it, I mean 4 grams of sugar for every tablespoon! In fact, one cup of ketchup has 21 more grams of sugar in it than a cup of vanilla ice cream! And worst of all, sugar goes by many names like High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Cane Sugar, Agave Syrup, Maltodextrin, and Tapioca Syrup, just to name a few, so you have to be really careful when reading labels. But here’s the thing, if you don’t buy it, you won’t eat it! If it’s in the house, you will be more tempted to eat it since it is so accessible. But if you don’t even buy it, it won’t even be an option for you to eat!

 

 

Here are my TOP 5 Ways to Reduce Sugar and Increase Fruits and Veggies:

1. Change Your Drink Choices: Cut back on juices, sodas, and chocolate milk and choose herbal tea, sparkling water, or a cup of spring water with cucumbers, raspberries, or even mint inside!
2. Change Your Sweet Tooth Choices: Cut back on the donuts, cakes, pies, and cookies and replace them with a healthier treat like Greek yogurt with cinnamon and fresh fruit!
3. Change your Snack Choices: Cut back on the chips, crackers, and bars and replace them with dried fruit or trail mix!
4. Change Your Breakfast Choices: Cut back on the processed cereal, frozen waffles, and sugary muffins and replace them with a smoothie, oatmeal with flax seeds, chia seeds, cinnamon and fresh fruit, a hard boiled egg with fresh fruit, or some avocado stuffed with eggs!
5. Change Your Sauce Choices: Cut back on the ketchup, barbecue sauce, and hot sauces that are currently in your fridge and replace them with True Made Foods plant based sauces that will also be packed with veggies!

 

I recently met the CEO/Founder of True Made Foods, a dad of four children, at a conference I spoke at a few months ago. I couldn’t wait to try his products because I am always trying to find ways to incorporate more fruits and veggies into my children’s diets without them knowing it! And every bottle of his sauces have more than a full serving of veggies!!! And I also wanted a healthier alternative to traditional sauces we had in our home. I love a company that can make a great tasting product that is also cognizant of a healthy lifestyle.

 

True Made Foods makes variety of products. Their first product is a Low Sugar Pitmaster BBQ Sauce! This sauce is a Kansas City BBQ style sauce with only 35 calories per serving and only 5g of added sugar. Plus it’s packed with carrots, squash and spinach! The vegetables naturally sweeten the sauce, which helps eliminate the use of corn syrup and brown sugar! And True Made BBQ Sauce is the only BBQ Sauce with potassium, protein, Vitamin K, and Iron! They also don’t add any artificial ingredients or other refined sweeteners and they are Paleo friendly, Gluten-free, and Non GMO. I love the taste and me and the kids eat it often with either a BBQ chicken or chicken strips!

 

 

The second product is their Veracha – Vegetable Sriracha with medium heat! This gem has no added sugar and is packed with tomatoes, spinach, carrots, and butternut squash! And with the exception of the vinegar and salt, every single ingredient in this product is a vegetable. They add pureed jalapeños and a dash of cayenne for a little kick, but it’s a mellow sauce and isn’t too spicy in my opinion at all! I love eating it on my eggs in the morning and on pretty much everything else like sandwiches, burgers, avocado toast, fish, and chicken!

 

 

 

And they also make two types of Vegetable Ketchup: Low Sugar and No Sugar. You can get both of these in either a squeeze bottle or a glass bottle. We personally own the Low Sugar Squeeze Bottle – its perfect if you have children. It’s packed with carrots, butternut squash, and spinach AND has 50% less sugar than other brands. And it’s KID APPROVED! My children prefer it over anything they used to eat and ask for it at almost every meal, whether it’s fish, chicken, hot dogs, etc. And I don’t feel guilty when they eat it! And just to note, the No Sugar ketchup is Paleo Certified and Whole30 compliant!!!

 

 

And I love that the True Made Foods website has an entire page of recipes! I dare you to try and find a meal on there you wouldn’t like!

 

You can order their products right off of their website, other retailer websites like Amazon.com, or shop at a local store like Safeway, Sprouts, Walmart, ShopRite, and Wegmans! To find a location near you, please visit this link!   So what are you waiting for? It’s a new year and a new you!! Make these changes part of your new lifestyle!

 

 

 

This post is sponsored by True Made Foods. All opinions are my own. If you are concerned about your or your child’s health or have questions about sugar intake and health risks please talk to your pediatrician or family physician. I am not a medical doctor.