Tips for Reducing Sugar in Your Diet:
Tips for Reducing Sodium in Your Diet:
- Avoid sugar-loaded beverages.
- Take sugar (white and brown), syrup, honey and molasses off the table — out of sight, out of mind!
- Cut
back on the amount of sugar added to things you eat or drink regularly
like cereal, pancakes, coffee or tea. Try cutting the usual amount of
sugar you add by half and wean down from there.
- Whenever possible, buy fresh fruits. If you buy canned fruits, choose those in water/ natural juice. Avoid fruit canned in syrup, especially heavy syrup.
- Instead of adding highly processed sugar to your cereal/ oatmeal, add fresh fruit (bananas, cherries, strawberries, etc.) or unsweetened applesauce. To add sweetness without adding white table sugar you can also use dried fruit such as raisins.
- When baking cookies, brownies or cakes, cut the sugar called for in your recipe by one-third to one-half. Often you won’t even notice the difference.
- Instead of adding sugar in recipes, use extracts such as almond, vanilla, orange or lemon.
- Enhance foods with spices instead of sugar; try ginger, allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg.
- Substitute unsweetened applesauce for sugar in recipes (use equal amounts).
Tips for Reducing Sodium in Your Diet:
- Buy fresh or plain frozen vegetables. If it must be in a can, choose "with no salt added".
- Use fresh poultry, fish, and lean meat, rather than canned or processed types.
- Use herbs, spices, and salt-free seasoning blends in cooking and at the table.
- Cook rice, pasta, and hot cereals without salt.
- Cut back on instant or flavored rice, pasta, and cereal mixes, which usually have added salt.
- Cut back on frozen dinners, pizza, packaged mixes, canned soups or broths, and salad dressings — these often have a lot of sodium.
- Rinse canned foods, such as tuna, to remove some sodium.
- When available, buy low- or reduced-sodium, or no-salt-added versions of foods.
- Choose ready-to-eat breakfast cereals that are lower in sodium.
