There’s a story my dad tells about the first time I tried chocolate. I was two years old and someone had given me some surreptitious Dairy Milk buttons. I apparently scurried away, knowing they were contraband, and ate them hurriedly.
I don’t remember that first experience, but my dad says he found me looking blissed out and buzzing, with my eyes “like saucers”. It’s a deep, resonant dopamine hit I feel, or hope to feel, when I bite into anything sweet.
All of which to say I really, really love sugar. Days are anchored around what snack I’m planning on having; I will always have at least two types of chocolate in the house; every grocery shop includes a trip to the confectionery aisles, to see what takes my fancy. It’s a great joy in my life.
But it is not a healthy relationship. I grew up feeling beholden to it and then guilty for giving in: both for the physical nausea it made me feel when I ate beyond my appetite, and for the self-loathing I’d learned for eating so indulgently.
I spent my teen years soothing my hormonal troubles by eating sweet stuff in excess and berating myself for it, before attempting to do a full 180 and eating as healthily as possible. This morphed into anorexia in my early twenties, and then bulimia during the course of recovery.
As I recovered from my most disordered behaviours, I knew I shouldn’t cut sugar out entirely again. My priority was to stay out of that self-destructive cycle. And so I tried to find that elusive “balance” – never cutting out entirely, just eating “mindfully” and intuitively.
But overeating once again became a habit. It felt impossible, not to mention deranged, to only have a square or two of a chocolate bar. I scoffed when people told me they genuinely didn’t eat chocolate that often and assumed they were lying to feel better about themselves. In my efforts to be balanced I would make sensible choices throughout the day, then spend the evening on the sofa eating the bulk of the chocolate I had optimistically declared to be “for sharing”.
I felt unable to stop myself and conflicted about my desire to in the first place. Eating that extra row was intuitive, it was mindful, and if I denied myself, would I become obsessive?
Sweet treats became even more loaded with meaning when I stopped drinking in 2021. Without booze, especially at first, it can be hard to know how to mark occasions. How do you celebrate a win, commiserate a loss, or just treat yourself for enduring the mundanities of everyday life? Like many I celebrated instead by buying posh pastries, baking for loved ones, eating expensive chocolate (Tony’s Chocolonely, specifically the dark milk with pretzel).
Life has now opened up for me without drinking, but my relationship with sugar still doesn’t always feel normal or happy. I’m far from the only one to feel this way: despite years of government campaigns and policies such as the sugar tax, Britons still spend billions of pounds each year on chocolate, biscuits, cake and ice-cream. So is it possible to get a sweet tooth under control, without giving up sugar completely?
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Read MoreExperts say that not only is it possible, it’s better to do this than go cold turkey. “Restricting all sweet foods can lead to you wanting them more,” says Priya Tew, registered dietitian. “Then when you have access, this can turn into over consuming, feelings of guilt, restricting again and the cycle continues. So is it best to allow yourself these foods regularly in moderation.”
“Overly restrictive diets can feel isolating and take up a lot of mental energy,” adds Laura Tilt, registered dietitian. “A healthy, balanced diet can absolutely include sweet treats like biscuits and cakes – they should just be a small part of our overall diet.”
The research supports this – including an eye catching study of 70,000 people from Sweden published in December. Data on their sugar intake over 22 years showed eating sweet treats might lead to better health outcomes – and some sweet treats are better than others.
Looking at three types of sugar consumption, the study found having the occasional pastry or topping your porridge with honey is better than having none at all (lowering your risk of stroke by 22 per cent and heart attack by 22 per cent), but consuming sweetened drinks was significantly worse for your health, increasing risk of stroke and heart failure.
How I got my sugar addiction under control
Last year, I set out to unpick my vulnerability with sugar and find a way to a happier relationship with it. With advice from the experts, I created five rules:
1. Making sure I was eating three filling meals a day, with plenty of fibre, and cooking from scratch as much as possible
2. Limiting unnecessary added sugars – sugars that are not naturally occurring in foods – for the daily treat, and aiming to stay within the recommended daily 30g limit
3. Paying attention to when a sweet food made me feel good or bad
4. Allowing myself sweet treats, but only ones I really enjoyed
And I feel like a new, more grounded version of myself. I discovered that the afternoon is my (pun unintended) sweet spot: a late-morning doughnut sounds good at the time, but I found it threw off my appetite for lunch and made me feel hungry and highly strung come the afternoon. And if I leave it to the evening, I develop this free-for-all attitude that I can quickly spiral into the kind of overeating that made me unwell in the first place.
But a few afternoon snacks (I’m currently on a ginger kick, particularly the dark chocolate and ginger biscuits from M&S) really works. I wouldn’t crash, or overeat, or resent myself: I just really enjoyed every biscuit, every time. I have no overeating impulses, fewer late-night cravings and still enjoy something chocolate-y daily.
Here, experts offer their advice for scaling down your sugar without giving it up completely.
Choose flapjacks, carrot cake, and dark chocolate with nuts
Despite what you may have read or heard, there’s virtually no difference nutritionally between the various types of sugar (eg white sugar, brown sugar, honey). But what does make a difference is whether a food contains free sugars (the ones found in syrups and honeys or added to foods) or naturally occurring sugars (found in dairy products, fruit and vegetables).
The latter are absorbed much more slowly, thanks to the other components that make up that food (protein, fibre, fat etc). This means a slower energy release and a longer sense of fullness. By contrast, Hazel Shore, a Weight Management dietitian at Phlo Digital Pharmacy explains that added sugars found in baked goods, sweets and stirred into tea “are rapidly absorbed, providing quick but short-lasting energy.” As a consequence they can be far easier to eat a lot of and they can have far more negative consequences.
Not all “sweet treats” are created equal. A brownie or doughnut, or shop-bought biscuit or cake is a delicious vehicle for sugar and fat, but will have very little on offer nutritionally. Sweet treats that also contain fibre (found in nuts, seeds, dried fruit and wholegrains) will slow digestion, increasing fullness and making it less likely for you to over-indulge.
This makes flapjacks, carrot cake, and even dark chocolate with whole nuts a better choice while still satisfying that sweet tooth.
Avoid sweet drinks
With drinks it can be harder to find a nutritional counterbalance, which is why sodas and sweetened drinks can have such a negative impact.
“Drinking sugary drinks in particular has been linked with an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes,” Tilt says. One reason is the calories consumed in sugary drinks are less filling than those from solid foods, so they’re easy to overconsume. Plus, “high intakes of sugary drinks have also been linked with other less healthy behaviours like eating fast food and lots of screen time.” Fizzy, sugary drinks and hot chocolates are particularly high on the naughty list, closely followed by squash and juices with added sugars.
“Make smarter drink choices by opting for water, unsweetened tea and coffee, or low-fat plant-based milks,” says Shore. “Also, be mindful of your alcohol intake, as many alcoholic beverages can contain added sugars.” In other words, avoid liquid sugar, particularly in energy drink form.
Again, that doesn’t mean no sugary drinks point blank. But the one with the least added sugar (pure fruit juice, or a single teaspoon stirred in a black coffee) is a better bet than a glass of squash or a syrupy caramel latte, if that’s your particular poison.
See sugar as a treat, not something to rely on
Try to stick to the recommended daily limit for added sugar, which is 30g or five per cent of your total daily calorie intake – this could look like four chocolate hobnobs and a teaspoon of honey on your porridge, as well as having the naturally occurring sugars found in fruit, vegetables, dairy and grains.
Hazel Shore recommends working out your personal preference, to manage rather than inflate any sugar cravings. “Treats should be kept small, occasional, and based on personal preference. This will vary from person to person – some may have a small chocolate bar each day, while others might enjoy a treat on weekends when out and about.”
Knowing you’ll be having your daily custard cream with a cup of tea come 3pm, or looking forward to your Saturday almond croissant from the local bakery is far more manageable than going cold turkey. If you have any gaps in your day that were previously fuelled by the sweet stuff, see if there’s another “treat” habit you can adopt: 10 minutes guilt free scrolling, something savoury, a walk around or a power nap.
Be honest about your sugar intake
If your sweet tooth remains impossibly strong, Tilt says it’s important to have an honest look at how you’re eating. You could keep a diary and observe what triggers a craving – is it stress? Loneliness? Are you actually thirsty, tired or hungry?
“Make sure you’re eating enough throughout the day, as undereating often leads to cravings for sugary foods as a quick energy boost.” Being honest about how you eat and the way it makes you feel can make it clear that you are over-relying on sugar to get through the day, and therefore need to consider pairing back.
And again, this should be a gradual process, but you’d be amazed by what your palate will adjust to in even a short period of time.
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