Reducing sugar in dc's diet

[holmessweetholmes]

I've been inspired to cut out sugar in my own diet, thanks to a thread on the big/slim/whatever board. So I'm now feeling bad about how much sugar my dc eat.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not stuffing them with sweets, but they drink apple juice by the gallon and have chocolate spread/honey/cereal in the morning. Plus sweet treats maybe a bit too often.
Anyone successfully cut back on this kind of thing with their dc? Any tips for tempting non-sugary breakfasts/snacks? Anyone want to join me in de-sugaring their dc?

Put the apple juice in a jug and water it down? ( my teens haven't noticed yet)

I am de sugaring my lot as I have done it to myself through low carbing. It's hard!!

I've stopped some cereals. Nutella who?? Replaced that with low sugar peanut butter which raised some eyebrows, but they got on with it

I water it down already! I'm now going to try and reduce the number of times a say they have it. The cereal is a tricky one. We're on Raisin Wheats atm - at least they have no actual added sugar, only raisins. Now I need to find something other than Nutella for ds to have on toast... He hates peanut butter, and even butter.

When I was a kid, we didn't have Nutella, juice, squash and so on in the house.
We'd get bread with jam, cheese, salami and so on instead.
We had more rye bread and wholegrain bread than white bread - it's healthier.
For drinks, we'd get milk (with/without Nesquick) or water.

Breakfast was raw oats (like these) with raisins or fresh fruit and cold milk.
I still eat it every single day - and I love it. As a bonus, it's quick and cheap.

Sounds good. Although jam and nesquik (which mine have too) are probably just as sugary as juice and Nutella. I almost never buy white bread, so that's one good thing. Mine won't eat muesli-type cereal. Ideally I'd like to put out plates of fruit, Greek yoghurt (easy on the honey! ), nuts, hard-boiled eggs, maybe some buttered wholemeal toast etc - tempt them with a whole array of healthy stuff so they feel they have a choice. It's a lot to get ready on a school morning though!

We de-sugared our DC at the start of the year, and while it's not easy, it's had a really positive effect on their behaviour. We also cut out E numbers. My DC are 1 and 3. I think they don't suffer the sugar high and lows they used to so seem more even tempered and less prone to tantrums.

Things I did:

• changed from normal jam to st dalfour fruit spread
• cut out all breakfast cereals
• breakfast now porridge or something more proteiny like eggs, beans etc
• no sweets, though my weird DS wouldn't eat them anyway
• only "good" high cocoa chocolate which is lower in sugar
• apple juice at breakfast to get a multi-vit in them, then water during the day
• cut down the sugar in a lot of home baking
• snacks: fruit, breadsticks, cheese, hm flapjack
• cooking as much as possible from scratch (there can be loads of sugar in some processed stuff)
• check labels on everything to see where sugar is in the ingredient list

That makes it sound like I'm really strict and they never get treats but I promise they don't complain! And as a self-confessed cake addict, we do have lots of homebaking. Hope some of that helps.

Another thing is to know that sugar can crop up in the ingredients under many different names. I think as a general rule, if it ends in 'ose' it's probably a sugar.

That sounds brilliant, lookslikerain! I wish mine would eat porridge, but the rest sounds doable.

And yy to hidden sugar. I had quite a search this morning in the supermarket to find mayonnaise with no sugar in!

Yes! They hide it everywhere!

You might find they become more open to change as you wean them off it. I think it almost seemed like I'd broken an addiction. They are now more open to trying things (well, the fussy one year old is more hit and miss) and don't ask for the sugary stuff as much as I'd thought they would.

Good luck!

We just don't buy much sugary stuff.

So, dc only drink water or milk (mainly water).

Dh checked out the sugar and salt content in all cereals and made a list that we stick to:

Weetabix
Shreddies
Rice Crispies
Cornflakes

Not ideal but until youngest is old enough to reason with, it'll do.

We have oatcakes rather than biscuits for snacking and dc can put hummous on it they fancy it.

I have to say, the less my dc have sugar the less they ask for it.

We only buy dark chocoate which has far less sugar and dc now prefer it. Well, they prefer it to the alternative - nothing.

Right, dark chocolate it is... And no more Nutella. Cereal might have to go altogether - they just won't eat non-sugary ones. Maybe try some after I've broken the addiction! .

Am marking my place.

Tis hard as I am a low carber but find it hard to cut out sugar for the boys.

Will wait for the cereal to run out and not buy more.

Ds2 would eat eggs for breakfast but ds1 is a fussy bugger!

Hi Ruprekt - I've lurked occasionally on the low-carb threads and wondered if the low-carbers got their dc to low-carb too. I'm not sure about going properly l-c. I tried Paleo for about 2 weeks and didn't get on very well with it.

My older dc like the low carb food I make. So it's getting expensive, teens can pack it away

Will get oatcakes. Only biscuits I buy are rich tea.... They still turn them over hoping to find they are the chocolate variety!

Hard boiled eggs as snacks go down well here

*they are NOT the choc variety!

We're not mad keen on dark chocolate but tesco do a lovely high cocoa content milk chocolate. I think it's 39% cocoa. We buy that and I ration it out. I break it into very small pieces and they think they've had more!

I might go for Green and Black milk chocolate then. They do a creamier one, but their normal milk chocolate is a bit darker and higher cocoa than most. It's my favourite too.

I've cut out fruit juice completely, fruit available in whole form.
No processed cereals except for holidays.
Once a week sugary shop bought treat.
Home made ice cream, cakes, biscuits made with less sugar and almond flour. Home made ketchup - no sugar and not missed.
Focus on good fat, protein and veggies and good flavour.

Objections at first but they quickly come around, we're not strict when around other people and on holidays.

Mine are older. They all know my views about sugar but I do not impose them on them. I just let them make their own choices.

With very little children they only eat what is there although it can be hard to break habits. If all there is to drink is tap water which is all we drink in this house then that's all they can drink.

They are teenagers so we are at the stage where I love them to have views and debates and am happy if they take a different view from me about a particular food if they have checked it out on line. One does have honey on his muffins and I am sure the others buy chocolate from time to time. One has just won a school prize voucher WHS and is going to spend the entirety of it on sweets apparently - silly silly boy.

Success so far - down to one cup of diluted juice per day. Fruit, Greek yoghurt with a bit of honey and nuts and seeds and plain buttered wholemeal toast for breakfast. Pretended we had run out of Nutella! DS still had his hot chocolate but I put less chocolate stuff in it. Maybe I can gradually turn it into just milk...

How is the sugar reduction going now, holmes? Continued success, I hope!

Slightly stalled by a weekend's camping... but onwards and upwards!