Turning to artificial sweeteners is generally not a good method of reducing sugar intake because the adverse effects of these chemicals - however much the manufacturers deny it - may be worse than any benefit in some individuals. Try the following tips to help moderate or eliminate the amount of added sugar in your diet:

• Buy unsweetened cereals.
• Drink 100% fruit juices or water rather than fruit drinks, soda or punches which tend to have considerable amounts of sugar added to them.
• Avoid HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and excessive fructose from fruits. Fructose, it turns out, in higher quantities puts you at risk for insulin resistance, hypertension, kidney damage, and leptin resistance - which translates to obesity.
• Select sugary foods that still have nutritional value. For example, choose oatmeal cookies over sugar cookies; sweeten your cereal with banana slices or raisins instead of table sugar.
• Choose fresh fruit or fruit not canned in heavy syrup to satisfy your sweet tooth.
• Go easy on or avoid foods that have the words sucrose, glucose, maltose, dextrose, fructose or syrup listed among the first three ingredients on the food label. These foods tend to contain high amounts of sugar.
• Try reducing the amount of sugar in your favorite recipes. You may be surprised that some recipes taste the same even when you reduce the sugar content by as much as 25-40%.

Remember that refined sugar includes not only “sugar”, as listed in ingredient listings, but also the brown sugar that is sold in the baking aisle in the regular grocery store. Other refined sweeteners to avoid are glucose, fructose and dextrose. Hidden sources of white sugar are in mayonnaise, ketchup, salad dressings and other condiments, unless you get them at health food stores. When you have finished the condiments that are in your fridge make a point to replace them with the white-sugar-free versions.

A more obvious source of white sugar is in jams and jellies. There are now many all-fruit varieties sweetened with concentrated grape or apple juice. There are also jams that are sweetened with honey, dehydrated cane juice, or unrefined cane sugar. How do you modify your old recipes to eliminate refined white sugar? Replace the sugar with half the amount of raw sugar (dehydrated cane juice, e.g. Sucanat, or turbinado), or half the amount of honey or maple syrup (but reduce the liquid amount by one quarter cup for every cup of honey or maple syrup used). To sweeten you can also use rice syrup, barley malt, date sugar, dried fruit, fresh fruit, fruit juice, or even rice milk. Using sweeter flours such as oat or teff also lends a natural sweetness to baked goods.

One final word - a study of healthy elderly men over many years indicated that "Mortality was lowest among those consuming candy 1-3 times a month and highest among those indulging this habit 3 or more times a week. Non-consumers of candy, however, still had the highest mortality overall." Thus, the infrequent / occasional use of sugar seems to be the best course. [BMJ Dec 19, 1998; 317: pp.9-10] Inspite of this, it remains true that complete avoidance is best for those who are sensitive to sugar.