To mark Diabetes Awareness Week, GP Dr Dawn Harper has revealed how to reduce sugar consumption.

For type-2 diabetes sufferers, lowering sugar intake is very important in order to keep blood sugar levels at bay.

Sweeteners are a useful tool in managing blood glucose levels, as they are shown to be safe in the management of weight and diabetes.

Dr Dawn said: “Excessive sugar consumption has a massive impact on our health and is a major factor in problems such as obesity and diabetes, so it’s important that we think carefully about how we can reduce the sugar content of our diet.

“One way of doing that is to replace sugar with Low-or-no-calorie sweeteners.”

“One way of doing that is to replace sugar with Low-or-no-calorie sweeteners”

GP Dr Dawn Harper

To lower blood sugar levels, Dr Dawn has revealed three tips on how to reduce your sugar intake.

1. Your favourite cup of tea:

There is nothing better than a warn cup of tea. However, far too many of us are adding a spoonful of sugar for each cup of tea, which is often a couple a day.

This results in us consuming much more sugar than we realise.

If you have two cups of tea a day with one teaspoon of sugar in each, this amounts to 730 teaspoons or nearly 3,000g of sugar over the course of a year – resulting in an additional 11,600 calories consumed.

However, you can still enjoy a sweet cup of tea by simply swapping your teaspoon of sugar for a sweetener, which are much sweeter, so you only need a tiny amount to provide a high level of sweeteners. By swapping sugar in your tea for sweeteners, you could reduce your sugar intake by 3,000g a year.

2. A sweet breakfast:

Many say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but most of us make poor meal choices during the morning rush.

From cereal to porridge, we add loads of sugar or layers of sweet sugary toppings.

If you have cornflakes sprinkled with a teaspoon of sugar every day for breakfast each week, over the course of the year you would be consuming 1,460g of extra sugar every year.

This doesn’t even take into consideration the sugar which is already in many popular breakfast options.

That said, you don’t have to forgo your favourite sweet cereal, just swap your sugar for a low or no calorie sweetener – if you do you could save over 1,400h of sugar a year.

3. Baked treats:

There is nothing better than the smell of a freshly baked cake and we’re baking more than ever before due to shows like The Great British Bake Off.

However, baked cakes and treats are full of “free sugars”. Your average serving of a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting contains around 55g of sugar.

If you consume one slice of cake a week, that is total of 2,860g of sugar over the course of the year, resulting in 11,440 calories.

However, a simple swap to your baking habits can help you save on calories, whilst also enjoying a sweet treat.

Just simply find a suitable sweetener-friendly recipe which uses low or no calorie sweetener instead of sugar to help you reduce your sugar consumption, without sacrificing taste in your favourite baked goods.

What are the symptoms of type-2 diabetes?

1. Increased thirst

2. Increased hunger

3. Dry mouth

4. Frequent urination

5. Unexplained weight loss

6. Fatigue

7. Blurred vision

8. Headaches

What to do if you’re worried about type-2 diabetes?

Monitor your symptoms and if they get any worse, visit your local GP.

• Type-2 diabetes

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