How To Cut Extra Sugar From Your Diet

This question originally appeared on Quora. Answer by Cher Pastore.

First you need to take a look at what you are eating and see if you are eating a well balanced diet. Often times people crave sweets and sugar because their diet is too low in whole grains, fruits and vegetables. In addition, if you are eating a lot of refined and processed foods and sugar you will crave more sugar.

Here are some helpful tips to reduce added sugar intake:

1. Omit all sweetened beverages. Just stop drinking them. Replace with water or sparkling water or herbal teas. Make up a large pitcher of unsweetened iced green tea with lemon and mint and keep it in your fridge - a great start to the summer!
2. If you add sugar to coffee or tea slowly cut down the amount that you put in by half each time until you find you no longer need it.
3. Add in two servings of fruit per day. Especially berries, green apple, oranges and kiwi.
4. Replace sugary with sour foods, for example, lemons, limes, bitter melon, grapefruit, apple cider vinegar, Greek yogurt, kimchi, rhubarb.
5. Don’t skip meals. It is important to make sure you eat at regular intervals throughout the day to keep your blood sugar stable. I recommend three meals and one snack spaced throughout the day.
6. Start your day off with protein.
7. Add spices to your foods: pepper, cayenne pepper, parsley, oregano, turmeric, ginger, garlic. Any spice you can think of. Try new ones.
8. Get exercise!
9. Eat whole foods and omit as many processed foods as possible.
10. Make sure you are getting enough sleep. Aim to get between 7–8 hours of sleep each night. If you are sleep deprived your body will crave more sweets/sugar.