Who’s ready to ditch the sugar? Join us tomorrow for the Hip & Healthy 10 Day No Sugar Challenge in association with Natvia, our favourite natural sugar alternative. We’ve compiled some simple challenge rules below to help you get started!

Rules

Cut out any food that has added sugar from your diet – read the label on everything you eat, things that you wouldn’t think contain sugar often do, such as pasta sauces, sweetcorn, tinned beans, yoghurts, breads and even juices.

Eat protein with complex carbohydrates – this will ensure that the glucose created from the food is consistent and avoids ‘flooding’ the cell with more glucose than it can absorb leading to excessive insulin production.

Eat every two and half to three hours – even if it’s only something small and even if you aren’t especially hungry.

Eat breakfast – never skip breakfast, you can have any protein with any complex carbohydrate you want. (Ideal breakfasts include – eggs with rye bread / berry smoothie with protein sources such as cashews or protein powder / porridge oats with chopped nuts and dollop of coconut yoghurt / avocado, smoked salmon and oat cakes / sugar-free muesli with berries and sunflower seeds)

Avoid refined (white) carbohydrate foods – where you can, replace white/refined carbohydrates with complex carbs. For example, wholegrain brown rice for basmati rice; quinoa for cous cous; sweet potato for white potatoes; following this plan should help reduce sugar cravings, but avoiding sugar will itself help balance glucose levels and also reduce the craving for sugar. This will help create consistent energy levels.

Avoid alcohol – most alcohol is incredibly high in sugar. In fact, it affects blood sugar levels so much that you’ll still be craving sweet things for the entire next day. Plus this is a health challenge people so lay off the booze before party season really sets in!

Replace sugary biscuit-type snacks with convenience health foods – such as miso soup (sachets available from supermarket), nuts/seed blends, protein rich smoothies, and /or hummus/crudités. Eat two snacks per day and aim not to leave more than 2-3 hours without having eaten.

The challenge starts on Monday 7^th April – If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you as quickly as we can. Keep us updated on your progress by using the hashtag #NoSugarwithNatvia

Twitter: @hipandhealthyuk @natviauk

Instagram: @hipandhealthyuk @natviaUK

Facebook: Hip and Healthy