Don't add it to foods. This is the easiest and most basic way to immediately reduce the amount of sugar you're eating. Biggest targets: cereal, coffee and tea.
Don't be fooled by "healthy sugar" disguises. Brown sugar, turbinado sugar, raw sugar ... it's all pretty much the same thing as far as your body is concerned.
Make a real effort to reduce or eliminate processed carbohydrates. Most processed carbs -- breads, bagels, most pastas and snacks -- are loaded with flour and other ingredients that convert to sugar in the body almost as fast as pure glucose. That sugar gets stored as triglycerides, which is a fancy way of saying fat.
Watch out for "fat-free" snacks. One of the biggest myths is that if a food is fat-free it doesn't make you fat. Fat-free doesn't mean calorie-free, and most fat-free snacks are loaded with sugar.
Shop for color. The more your grocery basket looks like a cornucopia of color, the better. It usually means you're getting more fresh vegetables and low-glycemic fruits such as berries and cherries.
Become a food detective. This tip is from the wonderful author and nutritionist Anne Louise Gittleman, who adds that "To reduce sugar, you have to know where it is first." Start reading labels.
Beware of artificial sweeteners. Unfortunately, they can increase cravings for sugar and carbohydrates. According to Gittleman, they also deplete the body's stores of chromium, a nutrient crucial for blood-sugar metabolism.
Do the math. Look at the label where it says "total sugars" and divide the number of grams by four. That's the number of teaspoons of sugar you are ingesting. This exercise alone should scare the pants off you.
Limit fruit. (Notice I didn't say "eliminate.") Fruit has sugar, but it also has fiber and good nutrients. Just don't overdo it. For weight-loss purposes, two servings a day maximum.
Eliminate fruit juice. It's a pure sugar hit with none of the fiber and less of the nutrients that are found in the fruit itself.
