- When it comes to limiting sugar,
my wife, China, and I have had some ups and downs,
trials and errors, successes and sucks (bleep),
but now we're doing great!
- Pretty good. - Pretty good!
So I've taken what we've learned
and I've compiled a list of ways
that you can realistically limit your sugar intake
without coming down with a case of the want to dies.
Stick around to learn!
(cinematic music)
- [Narrator] No Ralph isn't enjoying his dinner much.
Maybe it's because of that candy bar
he had just before dinner.
Ralph's good time with Frank and Judy is spoiled.
- In this video, I'm gonna help you not spoil
your good time with Frank and Judy.
Unless we're talking about Aunt Judy.
It's impossible to have a good time with Aunt Judy.
Here in the U.S. of A, we eat a lot of sugar and we love it.
Maybe we don't even know if it's in a lot of things,
cause it's hidden in practically every packaged thing,
and that's a problem because it adds a bunch of calories
without making you feel full and could make you feel crappy
and make you want to eat more than you want to eat.
I talked to my wife for verification.
- Hey sugar, wanna talk?
Oh, I hate myself.
- I hate you a little, too.
- You're supposed to say "No I don't."
- No I don't.
(both laughing)
- Why are you trying to avoid sugar?
- I was getting to a place where I felt really unhealthy.
There are some days I'm gonna have some candy
and I'll have like 12 pieces of these like chewy candies
that I really like, then I feel worse, tired,
and just kind of like nauseated,
get a little bit of a headache
the whole rest of the day after that.
- And too much sugar can affect your long term health
and make you die sooner.
So that's fun.
Well, no one can really know their ultimate fate though.
- You don't know that I'm not a fortune teller.
- Well, you've never told me you're a fortune teller.
- I'm not allowed to talk about it.
- Okay. - It's part of the code.
- Okay, maybe China can know your ultimate fate.
Regardless, I'm gonna play it safe.
Problem is, you do need sugar to live
and quitting cold turkey might not be the best way
to go about it for a lot of people,
even though it can lead to really successful YouTube videos.
Cold turkey doesn't even have a lot of sugar
depending on how you feed it and what you put in the gravy.
But also sugar is how you say "Nummy, num, num, num"
and enjoying life is important, too.
There's a thing you like to say to me
if I say something like,
"Oh, I'm gonna have a lot of sugar."
- Yeah. Being happy is good for you.
I don't think that food should be
like a bandage for your problems,
but like there's a lot of joy in eating.
- Yeah. Eating is something that
I think most people do.
- Enjoy it! - Enjoy it!
So I compiled a bunch of stuff you can do
to avoid sugar without curling up
in a flavorless, sweaty ball of melancholic slime,
my nickname in high school,
because we want to feel good, have energy,
and at least I want to join human's first expedition
to Jupiter that we have learned about from the monolith
that we found on the moon,
and along the way accidentally become
the all-seeing, all-knowing space baby epicenter
of the universe or whatever,
who knows what's gonna happen?
- You don't know that I'm not a fortune teller.
- Right, right. So first thing to do learn the numbers.
One, two, three, four, five
Six, seven, eight, nine.
Any combination of those?
That's all the numbers.
You did it.
No, what's too much sugar?
It's tricky because different organizations have
different recommendations, but it helps to ballpark it,
cause if you don't have an idea of the ballpark,
you're gonna be in the ball dark.
Let's go with the American Heart Association
cause I'm American, have a heart,
and I'm associated with stuff.
They recommend 24 grams for most adult women
and 36 grams for most adult men of added sugar per day.
I get to eat more such than you, so that's awesome.
- Patriarchy at it again
- Added sugar means stuff like sugar,
high fructose corn syrup, honey, maple syrup,
molasses, gasoline, not gasoline,
but you shouldn't have that either.
So why is sugar in other stuff not a problem?
I found an article.
You don't need to worry so much about the sugars
that are a natural part of fruit, vegetables,
and dairy products.
Most people don't overeat naturally occurring sugars,
as Marion Nestle, no it's not Nestle,
she doesn't work for Nestle,
I looked it up,
of New York University says "The fiber, vitamins,
and minerals that surround them fill you up."
This is something I read over and over again.
Sugar and fruit comes with fiber
and other nutrients that fill you up,
slow the absorption process of sugar,
and I have found in reality that to be the case.
When I eat an apple, I get full longer.
When I eat a chocolate, I energy crash
and get hungry later.
This is a point of contention among commenters
every time we bring up something about eating fruit.
I'm not gonna do your keto diet, okay?
I'm glad it works for you though.
- Anytime we talk about this, people are like,
"Well, yeah but fruit is just all sugar,
it's just so much sugar.
It's a ton of sugar!" and like,
"Um, okay, let's put this to rest
for once and for all."
- We won't.
- Fruit is good for you,
and you know what?
Being happy is good for you.
- That's right.
So getting that number in your head,
24 or 36 grams a day, can help you stay on track.
But how do you stay on track?
Well, next on the list, actually look at labels.
Now that you have a number in your head,
you actually have a frame of reference
so that the label means something.
They usually have an added sugar section.
Yes, companies can do tricky things
like re-label sugar as other stuff,
say that it's natural,
but technically it's not gonna necessarily be good for you
even if it is natural, like juice that has only
natural sugar from the fruit,
but it's removed from all the benefits of the fruit.
So labels are useful.
They're not a hundred percent,
but perfect is the enemy of the good.
You can still use it to catch red flags
like a can of Coke, 12 ounces,
more than the daily recommended amount of sugar,
added sugar, or the amount in certain yogurts
that are supposed to be healthy.
Do you like look at labels?
- Yeah.
The biggest issue for me is not small amounts of added sugar
in random foods, it's like specifically sweets,
candy, cake, ice cream, whatever.
- Unless we're doing a challenge
where we're trying to get rid of all added sugar,
I don't really sweat two grams of sugar
- Or even like five, six, seven grams sometimes.
- So we don't really sweat the small stuff.
Again, we're not doing a keto diet here,
even though I'm sure it works for a lot of you
and that's great.
Speaking of consuming things that don't have a lot of sugar
but have a lot of protein,
time to thank the sponsor of this video, Butcher Box.
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Great transition back into the video.
Next on the list is a classic rule of thumb.
People say that my thumb bends weird and yes it does.
Stay on the perimeter of the grocery store,
because if you stay on the perimeter,
you're usually gonna find the whole fruits
and all whole foods
and more unpackaged and unprocessed stuff
so that you have less temptation at home.
How do you go about reducing sugar?
- Not have it around.
- Just don't buy it and have it here?
- Just don't buy it and have it here.
- Simple, obvious, but effective.
Sobfective. It's hard.
I know if you're craving something sweet
and you don't get it, that could lead to a crash.
Well, maybe the answer isn't no snacks
but find less sugary snacks.
Again, fruit!
Sometimes when I'm feeling snacky,
oh I want a candy bar, ice cream,
I'll go for some bloobs or some nanes,
one nane, and I'll wait like 10 minutes.
Craving goes away.
But if I must, I go for a little chocolate,
but I have dark chocolate instead of the regular,
cause it has less sugar usually.
It ain't perfect, but it's fine.
Be kind to yourself.
But my absolute favorite snack these days,
I have it at least once a day, is an apple.
All right, listen, I cut my apples weird
but it's the way I like it.
And I don't waste the core and peanut butter,
natural peanut butter, no sugar added.
Maybe I have it a little too much
but my snacking habits are way better than they used to be.
- When we first started dating you like never had fruit
at your house except bananas.
- And I wouldn't even eat those very often.
- Yeah.
- Sang about 'em though.
♪ Bananas, bananas ♪
♪ They're sitting on my fridge ♪
♪ Bananas, bananas ♪
♪ They look just like a bridge ♪
- When you started running though, you were all of a sudden
like "Fruit, fruit sounds so good."
- It's weirdest thing.
Whenever I get hungry from running it's I crave apples.
I never eat apples.
I'm gonna eat apple,
maybe a banana,
and then lay down and maybe maybe die.
- So yeah, exercise changed my taste buds, which is weird
but you know what else changed my taste buds?
Reducing sugar, fresh food taste, better.
Sweet cravings kind of went away.
Milk tasted like a milkshake, not the kind
of milkshake that brought all the boys to the yard,
but some of the boys.
I know I poo-pooed quitting cold turkey earlier,
but next on the list, quit cold turkey for a time.
Don't have to do this.
This isn't gonna work for everybody.
This could actually make things worse, but it worked for us.
Once we went back on sugar, I've had less ever since,
and the whole process helped me learn
about where to find the added sugar and how to avoid it.
Also miraculously things got sweeter.
I love sweet potatoes now. Didn't used to.
I like carrots more.
They're sweeter to me now.
And because things taste sweeter,
I now have healthier snacks.
I'll just add fruits to oatmeal, plain yogurt, plain cereal,
and it's a delicious treat.
Quitting added sugar leads to it
being easier to quit added sugar.
Huh? Another big one.
Beware of sugary drinks.
Again in that article,
eliminate soda from your regular diet.
Just get rid of it.
If you must, drink diet soda,
ideally though, you should get rid of diet soda too.
That may sound extreme,
but sweetened beverages are by far the biggest source
of added sugar in the American diet.
47% nowadays, I almost never drink regular soda.
China, a little bit more than me.
- I do enjoy the taste of a Coca-Cola.
- But!
- I'm not having it as a beverage.
I'm having it as a treat.
If I'm thirsty, I'm gonna have water.
- So we try to make it a special thing
whenever we have a sodey pop.
Most of the time I just go with sparkling flavored water
if I'm gonna get into the fizzness business
I drink my coffee black.
Occasionally I have a plain latte, which I find delicious.
If you have to have a sugary coffee, consider it a treat.
Be aware that that's part of the sugar count
for the day or make your own coffee
or order it black and put your own sugar in it.
Take back your sugar power.
Cause if you're ordering coffee in America,
they're probably gonna add the amount that they
think the average American wants.
Remember that chart.
Yeah, honestly I recommend making your own whole bean coffee
pour over because you can get really, really delicious
coffee, and a lot of the main coffee chains do not
have the good standard coffee.
In general. I avoid juice as well,
unless it's in a cocktail. which China and I are quitting
alcohol for a year now, so I'm not really having that either
but we do occasionally have mocktails,
and again it's a special treat.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- And the verdict is, I don't get paloma out of this.
- Okay?
- It is good though.
- Yes, it's good though.
- It's okay.
- Yeah. Okay.
- Okay. I'm not thinking about it as sustenance in any way.
I'm just being aware of it and then not overdoing it.
- Anytime it occurs to me to order a soda, I'm like,
"Hmm, I would rather eat those calories than drink them."
You know?
- If you wanna quench that shirt,
if you wanna wanna quench that thirst,
here's what you do.
Grab a water bottle.
I forgot to bring my water bottle
down while I was shooting this.
Wow. Lead by example, Craig.
Minutes later, water bottle.
Mmm Mmm.
Plain but hydrating.
Mm.
- You know what always really surprises me,
when I'm like with someone
and they're not carrying a water bottle with them.
What are you gonna do if you get thirsty?
I carry a water bottle everywhere I go.
To a different room
and now we're talking about it and I'm
- I'm getting thirsty.
- I'm really thirsty.
I didn't bring it in here.
- Just sippin' water all day helps quell the cravings
of liquid sugar, solid sugar, and gaseous sugar,
which I don't think that's a thing yet.
I don't think it should be either.
You can take it on trips.
When we stop at a gas station
they usually have a fountain where you can just fill it up.
You don't have to buy a bottle of water.
It's great.
Beating the system.
Next on the list is a possible way
you could get yourself to pay attention
to how much sugar is in stuff.
Count calories.
- I know this is not something that works for everybody.
Counting calories leads to me having less sugar.
If you've got something like a piece of candy,
it's gonna have way more calories
versus the physical amount,
and so I would much rather have something bigger
and more filling and less calorically dense.
Why would I have tiny pieces of candy when I could have
yogurt and fresh fruit
and chia seeds that would like fill me up
and be just as delicious, if not more delicious?
- Here's a smoothie I do almost every day.
Plain yogurt, blueberries, milk, protein powder, chia seeds,
flax seeds.
(blender running)
- Frigging delicious, fills me up,
And I've convinced myself that it's healthy.
Another thing, beware of dessert for breakfast.
Johnny Harris, YouTuber, journalist,
made a great video.
- How did this become breakfast in my country?
And you should watch that cause it's really good.
And then you should watch all of his videos
and then you should try to work
on not eating dessert for breakfast.
Here's what I eat almost every single day
for breakfast, eggs, black beans
with a little kotiha cheeses and salsa.
There's a little bit of sugar in the salsa.
Again, perfect is the enemy the good, it's fine.
There's a lot of protein in fiber.
It fills me up.
And third thing it sounded like I was gonna say
but I don't have a third thing.
- I'm doing the same breakfast every day.
A piece of toast, two over medium eggs on it,
and salsa. I feel better when I eat
that for breakfast than if I had pancake cereal or whatever.
- There'll be some people would be like,
"You're not supposed to eat eggs that much."
- Unless you are my doctor,
which would be weird if you're watching this,
if my doctor tells me, then I will eat fewer eggs,
but for now my cholesterol is fine.
- Yeah.
- And I'm enjoying it and it's great.
And mind you own business and my dog ate it and I
- Your dog ate the eggs?
- You're not my real mom.
- You're feeding Birdie the eggs every day?
- I think eggs are good for dogs.
- Really?
Well, we should be giving him, Birdie more eggs then.
- Nah.
- Okay.
Yeah. That's, they're for us.
Yeah. And finally be kind to yourself, cheat sometimes.
Not on your significant other, but you know what I mean.
- Once a week or every other week,
we will go get ice cream with our kid or whatever,
and I'm gonna have ice cream every time
cause we plan for it.
Not overindulge all these other times.
- I have little dark chocolates.
That way I can manage the amount cause they're just little.
Sometimes I have a little too many.
- Sure. - But if you feel bad
about yourself if you have too much sugar?
- No.
- I just take it day by day and I remind myself
of like one day of overindulging,
even if it's all sugar, it's just one day.
- Yeah.
- It would take many days of that to have a real effect.
I just don't care.
- Good.
(hands smacking)
- Thank you, sugar.
- Okay
- I hate, I hate myself so much.
- I kinda hate you too.
- Still? - Again.
- That's it.
Thank you for watching.
I hope this helps some of you reduce your sugar
while still being kind to yourself.
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and sign up for Butcher Box,
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