Have you ever paid attention to just how positively delicious foods and drinks free from refined sugar can really be? Flavorful, replenishing, restorative, natural. Mouthwatering foods and beverages that replenish rather than deplete your body. And that’s a very good thing, considering the list of negatives around added refined sugar just keeps growing (and it’s not just about our growing waistlines); it's linked to everything from diabetes to heart disease to the appearance of your skin. For these reasons, many of us (more than 75 percent) are trying to cut back.
The problem is not with the naturally occurring sugars you find in whole foods,” says Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, author of Beat Sugar Addiction Now! (Fair Winds, 2010); it’s the 150 pounds of added sugar the average American adult gets every year from processed foods and drinks—more than triple the intake 100 years ago.
It’s no surprise, considering sugar is everywhere—hiding out in 73 percent of packaged foods. A little-known secret? Sugary foods and drinks are designed that way to get you hooked and keep you coming back for more.
The good news: High-sugar foods and drinks are truly discretionary (we don’t need ‘em!) and they have minimal nutritional value. Make a clean break starting now with our 30 Days, 30 Ways Sugar Check Challenge. The task at hand? Simple: Follow these tips for keeping sugar in check, or reducing refined sugars entirely for 30 days; then track your progress and let us know how you feel by using the hashtag #sugarcheck in your posts and tagging both Zevia and Delicious Living (@zevia and either @deliciouslivingmag on Instagram or @deliciousliving on Twitter).
Five winners will receive a prize pack of Zevia products. It's a lot easier than you think because you'll love how you look and feel – and that is a very sweet thing!
