15 Sugar swaps to QUICKLY make WITHOUT noticing a difference

Today I'm going to share 15 powerful and easy sugar swaps that you can quickly make to drastically reduce the sugar in your diet without noticing the difference. Now, this is going to be so important for you to get off of sugar permanently and also to lose fat from your belly, from your back, from your thighs, and anywhere else that you don't want it. And this is because when we eat foods that break down to sugar and we don't know it, we want more sugar. Sugar is a drug and it causes us to be addicted to having more sugar. The other thing that happens is that our blood sugar spikes when we eat sugar. That creates insulin release, which brings the blood sugar out of our blood and it stores it as fat. And in addition to having more fat storage, you also feel hungrier because you have a blood sugar crash. And that's why it's really important for you to be aware of the foods that have sugars in them and what you can swap them for, because then you can start making these small tweaks and changes to what you're eating, and you're going to start having a lifestyle shift and you're going to start living in a healthier body, having more energy and choosing what you want to eat. Now, I'm Nagina Abdullah. I am a weight loss and metabolism boosting coach for midlife women. I have helped over 1500 women get off of sugar and lose the weight that they want to and live in their dream bodies. Now, I have a degree in molecular and cell biology from UC ber Berkeley, and I also had sugar cravings for my entire life. In fact, I thought that I was born with sugar cravings until I learned the havoc that eating foods that break down to sugar was having on my body. And so I started researching and finding out alternatives to these foods. So, for example, now one of my regular routines is that on Saturday mornings, I go to this bakery in our town and I order my favorite chocolate croissant. But I'm not addicted to it. I'm not thinking about it. I just know that it's a treat that I like. And I also pair it with some eggs on the side. And I have what I want, but I'm not controlled. I'm controlling my choices. I'm no longer controlled by sugar. I'm controlling my choices. Let's get started. And if you want to hear even more about which healthy foods are hiding sugar, let's get started. So now, the first food that I'm going to share with you, and by the way, I'm going to be sharing 15 and they get more surprising as I talk about them. So you really want to take notes. You want to write down these foods and you want to write down the alternatives and then go out and try at at least one of them, if not more. So, first of all, if you are someone that loves their coffee, that loves their lattes or their mochas, and you go to a coffee shop, if you want to have that feeling of comfort and of warmth, but you don't want to have the sugar, well, here's what you can do if you are ordering a latte or a mocha, even if you're ordering them skinny, or if you're ordering them with non fat milk. The thing is that the milk in the latte or mocha, plus the chocolate in the mocha is all spiking your blood sugar. So what you want it exchange your latte or your mocha for. Because you don't want to have that milk which has sugar in it. It's better to order an Americano. And then you sprinkle cinnamon in your Americano. So Americano is shot of espresso and then you have steamed water in it. So you have hot water. In fact, it's steam, so hot that it actually froths and it looks a little bit like milk. Then you want to sprinkle cinnamon on top of it because cinnamon is going to bring down your blood sugar and it's going to still give you that sweetness. So that a latte or mocha, swap that out for an Americano. If you want a nice kind of a gourmet coffee or just have a regular coffee with cinnamon. If you want to put a little bit of almond milk in it, you can. It's better if you do that when you're at home because the almond milks that you find in the coffee shops are also pretty packed with sugars. They don't use unsweetened almond milks at most coffee shops. Number two, let's talk about another swap of a common healthy item. So granola bars are often thought about as a healthy item, but yet they break down so quickly to sugar. And if you just look on the back of your granola bar, you'll see how much sugar is in that granola bar. What I want you to do is to swap that granola bar or any other processed snack. So any other snack that's coming in a package, swap that for something that you may not have heard before. I'd love for you to have one date with one tablespoon of Peanut butter. So a date is actually a. It's a fruit, but it's not going to spike your blood sugar as much as other foods do. And it gives you this nice sweetness. And then when you pair that with a tablespoon of nut butter, it could be peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter, anything that you like, you pair that. So any blood sugar spike that you'll get from that date will really be evened out and brought down from that tablespoon of peanut butter. And you're also having some really nice healthy fats in that peanut butter which are going to keep you full and satiated. And they're. So you're. You're not going to have that sugar in your, in your bloodstream. So try having a date with a tablespoon of nut butter. And this is a really great snack to have whenever you're craving something. If it's late at night, if it's in the afternoon, try to go for that date with a tablespoon of peanut butter. I would love to hear how that goes. And you can, can also sprinkle some cinnamon on top of that, too. Okay, Number three, salad dressing. So salad dressing definitely can have sugar, especially if you're using a raspberry vinegarette or a, a honey mustard or any other sweet kind of mustard. Even if it's not sweet, a lot of times it still has sugar in it. And so instead of using that salad dressing and messing up the intention of your salad, which is to be more healthy, what I'd love for you to do instead is to either use balsam, balsamic vinegar. So not balsamic vinaigrette, which is also a dressing, but actual balsamic vinegar, which is next to the olive oil when you're purchasing it in the store. Or what you can do is also use salsa. Use a mild salsa. It has a nice flavor. It's a little bit of a. It has a liquid to it. So you can just mix it up in there, and that's a really great replacement. So you're not getting that sugar and also a lot of the other artificial ingredients that are in dressings, unless they're made at home. All right, so the next thing is that this is going to be a little surprising to you. I told you before that everything that has sugar in it is not necessarily sweet. So in this example, I'm going to share something with you that's completely savory. Okay. And so a burrito is very savory, but yet that flour tortilla, as well as the rice in it is quickly breaking down to sugar because of the high carbs in them. And a lot of. There's no, there's not a lot of fiber in any of those foods. So it's quickly breaking down to sugar. It's spiking your blood sugar. It's going to cause you to actually want to be hungry and soon after. And so instead of having that burrito, you don't have to say no to your burrito completely, but instead have a burrito bowl, but have the burrito bowl over greens because most of the burrito bowls come over rice. And then you're still breaking down to sugar. That's still creating that blood sugar spike. You're still going to put on fat. You're still going to want more food later because your blood sugar is going to go up and then it's going to come down and you're going to feel hungry again. So you really want to swap out that rice for the greens and have a big nice burrito bowl with greens, with beans, with salsa, with any protein or meat that you have on it. You can even have a little bit of guacamole, but just make sure it's a small portion of guacamole, and that's because of the amounts of fats you want to have in your day. So now the next one, number five, is a fun one. You may know this already, but I want to remind you. So milk chocolate, you know, is very tasty, but it's very high in sugar. But guess what? You don't have to say goodbye to chocolate. You can still keep your chocolate in, but swap your milk chocolate for dark chocolate. Okay, so have dark chocolate. It should be over 70% chocolate, because what that means is that it's more of the actual chocolate and it's less of the added sugar. So 70 or above, of course, you may say, well, what if I do 90? What if I do 95? Sure, if you like it, you can. But those higher amounts of dark chocolate are actually really bitter and they're not too tasty, but if you like them, they're, they are better for you. But 70, I find, is the perfect medium between being sweet but also not having too much sugar. So that was a milk chocolate over 70 dark chocolate. If you are learning some helpful tips here, subscribe and like this video. I have so much information and so many transformative videos that I'm sharing with you regularly every single week, and I don't want you to miss out. Now, the next one I want to share with You. The next sugar swap is to swap out regular bread. So this means white bread, but it also means wheat bread. It also means whole wheat bread. I want you to swap that out because wheat is not good for our gut health. And there it is, breaking down to sugar quickly. Those are very quick burning carbs. So I don't want you to have those for a number of reasons. And what I'd like you to swap them for, my number one choice is for you to swap it for sprouted grain bread. Now, sprouted grain bread is going to actually be very high in fiber. It actually has 5 grams of protein per slice. So if you have two of those Ezekiel breads, you're gonna have 10 grams of protein, you're gonna have a lot of fiber. And so Ezekiel bread is really good. It's not gluten free, but it is a good option for you, you know, as long as you're not gluten free. So Ezekiel bread is found in the freezer section of your grocery store, so you can go there to find that. Okay. Now the other types of breads that also work well that are not going to break down to sugar as quickly are sourdough bread, rye bread, or any other high fiber bread. And if you're looking for a high fiber bread that's white or whole wheat, as long as it's high fiber, it's going to be better, but it's still wheat, and that's still affecting your gut health. It's still not the best option for you. But if it's high fiber, it's not going to break down to sugar as quickly. All right, so now the next sugar swap is ranch dressing or any other dips that you might be eating. So these are things that you might take to a party or you might have at a party. It might be like French onion dip or anything like that. So instead of having that which are very packed with sugar, not to mention a lot of other processed ingredients that are not good for your overall body, what I recommend for you to do is swap that out for either hummus or guacamole. And I want you to try to stay at 2 tablespoons each of those. So, you know, either have 2 tablespoons of guacamole or either have 2 tablespoons of hummus. And so those are much lower sugar, they're much healthier, they're made from natural ingredients, and they're going to really be just a little bit of a tweak to help you. So if you're going to a party Next time, a great thing to bring is carrots and hummus or carrots and celery with hummus. And a lot of people really like that versus doing like a chips with ranch dressing or veggies with ranch dressing. Just swap out that dressing and that's going to make a huge, huge impact. So the next sugar swap I have is one that's very surprising to people that it's even high sugar, because a lot of people are eating this and they think that it's healthy and that is oatmeal. All right, so oatmeal is actually high in sugar, meaning it's going to break down. It's. It's not sweet, but it has significant amount of carbs in it, significant amount of sugar, and it's going to break down and it's going to make your cravings for sugar be stronger. So instead of having oatmeal, what I recommend is either you can have the oatmeal and have that with chopped nuts and cinnamon and you can even put some berries in it. So that would make it better. But what would be even better is if you just swap that entire oatmeal for Greek yogurt with berries and chopped nuts in it, because then you're getting a lot of additional protein. All right, so really swapping that out, you're still getting the creaminess from the Greek yogurt. You can still, you know, you still definitely want to have that fiber from your fruit. You want to have the nuts in there for the crunch and the healthy fats. And you're not going to be getting a sugar spike. I mean, you're going to be losing weight quickly if you listen to it, any of these recommendations, if you're doing them, you know, pretty regularly. All right, the next swap is to swap your bagel. If you're having a bagel, even if you're having a skinny bagel. Now, bagels I know, have been taught to us that they're okay, but they're. I mean, the thing is they're better than a pastry, they're better than a donut, but they're very, very high in carbs that are unhealthy for us. They don't have a lot of protein in them. And so they are creating your body to continue craving sugar. And so instead of a bagel, what I recommend is that you have two hard boiled eggs. So that's going to give you prote protein. It's going to keep you full and satisfied. It's going to be a really great option for you and then it's great if you even have that with a side of fruit, you have something, you know, something else with it too. Check out this video where I'll talk about 11 healthy foods where sugar is hiding. Okay. Another breakfast item we talked about oatmeal swap, bagel swap. Now I want to talk about low fat yogurt swap. So a lot of times you'll see those regular yogurts. Often they're like dan and yogurt. Or you'll see that if you go to a conference or you go to an event, there'll be like these dan and yogurts. I want you to stay away from those. Those are not healthy. Yes, they are not a pastry. But they have so much sugar in them and they don't have protein in them. And they're going to make your sugar cravings be stronger throughout the day. So instead of having that yogurt, have a Greek yogurt. You can also get a Greek yogurt drink where you can get, it's like a shake or a smoothie. You can purchase it. They have some really great ones that are only 20 grams of protein. And so you can have that just like grab it and go really easily. All right, so another sugar swap is instead of diet soda, even though diet soda or obviously soda soda has sugar in it, but diet soda has artificial sweeteners in it. And artificial sweeteners are still going to keep you stuck and addicted to sugar. And that's because the artificial sweeteners make your body continue to crave the taste of sweet. So your body's going to keep wanting that taste of sweet. And so instead of having that swap that diet soda or the non diet soda, either of those, neither of them are good. Though diet sodas don't have sugar in them, they have artificial sweeteners. So they're not not spiking your insulin, but they are keeping you addicted to sweet. So swap either of those for either unsweetened iced tea. So make sure if you're at a restaurant, you ask if it's unsweetened or you go for the unsweetened iced tea. Also, you can have sparkling water. They have a night a lot of really nice flavored sparkling waters that don't have any sugar in them. So those are really good. You definitely want to look at the sweetening agent of it if you wanted to have one of those flavored ones. Or you could just do a plain one. You can also do an electrolyte water, which is really great to help you Be more hydrated because electrolytes help your body have water enter your cells more, which is actually what we need for hydration. And so those are a few different options for that. Now another non sweet sugar swap is something that many of us think is healthy and that's sushi. And so sushi is not, you know, unhealthy. But when you're eating sushi, you're having a lot of the rice that's breaking down to sugar. There is is some protein in there, but it's not significant enough. And so you're going to feel like you ate and then you're going to feel hungry again soon after. And so what I'd recommend is for you to still go to your sushi restaurant, but instead get a sashimi dinner or sashimi lunch and have one of those with a salad. And that's going to really give you that protein without having all that sugar breaking down from the rice. All right, next one, number 13, chips. So if you're having chips or even crackers, that's going to be breaking down to sugar pretty quickly. And so what I recommend for you to do is instead switch it completely. But you know, if you want chips or crackers, a lot of times you're looking for that crunch, right? That's what you're looking for. You want that. So instead of that, I recommend for you to have two tablespoons of nuts. And that could mean mixed nuts that are unsalted because you don't want the bloating from the salt. You could also do almonds, two tablespoons of almonds or one serving of almond. You definitely want to look at the bag and see what is one serving and really limit it to that or any other nuts like walnuts, which are really great for fiber as well. But definitely limit it to one serving because when you're eating foods that have healthy fats in them, like nuts, they are also calorically dense. So if you by mistake overeat on them, that's actually the number two reason that I see women are not losing weight is because they're eating too many fats by mistake. So just make sure you look at those portions now. All right, number 14, Alfredo sauce or any other kind of creamy sauce. Creamy sauces have a milk base case. I already mentioned how milk can really block our weight loss because it causes a lot of inefficiencies in our body to digest food. And there's a lot of sugar in milk. Okay, so instead of having Alfredo sauce, if you're at a restaurant or if you're at home and you're thinking, okay, what kind of sauce should I use? Swap it for a tomato based sauce. And if you can, look for a low sugar tomato based sauce, if you're purchasing one from the store, or of course, if you're making your own, that's great. You know what you're putting into it. But if you're at a restaurant, go for for the tomato based sauce versus the Alfredo or the creamier sauce. All right, and then number 15, ice cream. So if you're craving ice cream, it's likely that you're looking for that creamy texture. So I recommend that you swap it for a flavored Greek yogurt or for 2 tablespoons of nut butter. And when you're using a nut butter, look for a natural nut butter. And a lot of times the nut butters that are really good have flaxseed in them because that really brings up the fiber of that nut butter. Now, these were 15 swaps that you could easily make. And these tweaks and changes will really make a difference to you, creating a lifestyle where you're not thinking of sugar and your body's not craving sugar. I would love for you to comment which is the one sugar swap that you're gonna try. Because the key to this making a difference in your life is for you to take action. Okay, so comment below and let me know the one sugar swap that you're gonna try and like and subscribe so that you can find out all of the current scientific information and you don't miss out on one little bit. I look forward to seeing you in my next video. Definitely. Check out my latest video, 11 Healthy Foods Where Sugar is Hiding. And I would love to see more of you there. Thank you.