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Sugar. It’s everywhere in our food supply, and we eat a lot of it. Kids crave it, and parents struggle to keep it in check. Did you know that the average U.S. child consumes almost 80 grams (20 teaspoons) of added sugar per day? That’s nearly half a cup! On this week’s podcast, dietitian and mom, Laura Chalela Hoover, MPH, RD joins me to talk about her new book, Mom’s Sugar Solution, share tips and tricks for taming your family’s sweet tooth, and serve up recipes for kids’ favorite foods made with less sugar. Wait till you hear about her Raspberry Chia Mini Muffins made with honey and her Ruby Red Soda made with no added sugar. You won’t believe how sweet and delicious food can be without the added sugar!
I personally have a sweet tooth, so I was super excited to have Laura on the show to share her best tips and tricks to slashing sugar. Unfortunately for all of us humans, fighting sugar cravings is a bit like fighting our biology. Humans are hard-wired to crave sugar from birth, so Laura says the best way to tackle it is to wean off slowly. But Laura’s book isn’t entirely sugar free. She provides lower-sugar alternatives to kid favorites … including dessert. Yes, we can all have our cake and eat a portion of it too!
Stick around for a chance to win a free copy of Mom’s Sugar Solution as well as freebies and discounts from Laura to the Liz’s Healthy Table community.
Are you hungry for new ways to tackle your sweet tooth? I am!
“All kinds of sugar are equal when it comes to calories.”
– Laura Hoover
I’m giving away a copy of Mom’s Sugar Solution!
Book giveaway: Leave a comment at the end of this post and tell me why you want to win the cookbook and/or your best tip for taming your family’s sweet tooth. (U.S. only, please).
- Laura tells me all about her sweet family and the foods they love to eat.
- The number-one challenge parents face when it comes to feeding their kids is sugar.
- Humans are hardwired to love sugar. Find out why!
- How much sugar is OK?
- Learn how to make Ruby Red Soda with no added sugar.
- Understanding the different sources of sugar.
- The AAP says that just little bit of sugar can boost the appeal of healthy foods like oatmeal. Do you agree? We do.
- Eating protein with sugar can help you control blood sugar spikes.
- What’s the deal with high fructose corn syrup. Thumbs up or down?
- Be on the lookout for added sugar and become a sugar detective.
- Watch out for organic and natural labels. Don’t get fooled by the buzzwords.
- Hear why I love Laura’s Raspberry Chia Mini Muffins. (See recipe below.)
- Stocking your pantry with kid-friendly, low-sugar items with Laura’s freebie: 100 Pantry Staples.
- 20% off Laura’s personal wellness counseling services. Tell them you’re an LHT listener / reader.
Links:
My email: [email protected]
Resources:
Laura’s website: Smart Eating for Kids
Get Laura’s Book – Mom’s Sugar Solution
Learn About Laura’s Personalized Wellness Counseling
Download my 7-Day Meal Planner
Connect with Laura:
Laura on Facebook
Laura on Twitter
Laura on Instagram
Have a question about the show or a suggestion for a future show? Ask away by posting a comment below or joining my Podcast Posse.
I keep my family’s sweet tooth under control by keeping healthy/low-sugar snacks readily available, allowing treats at certain times so as to avoid a stigma, and talking about the foods our bodies need to keep up our activity levels. Seems to be working so far!
I am desperate to find ways of decreasing my family’s sugar intake, while keeping the fun factor and great fellowship we share together enjoying yummy treats. This book seems to offer much needed help to do just that!
It sure does. And be sure to tune into the podcast. Laura has so many awesome ideas!
I have a voracious sweet tooth, so I would be excited to win it for ideas.
I need to cut back on the sugar in my house. My son not only has a major sweet tooth, but ADHD to go along with it. This cookbook will teach me how to make yummy recipes that will greatly help our health!
I am making sure we have lots of crunchy fruits and Vegas ready to eat. It seems to make us crave the sweets as much.
I’ve cut back on sugar but could definitely do more. I just want to be healthier and be able to not feel that sugar crash that goes along with it.
I try to keep fruits readily available in the fridge, but we are constantly fighting an uphill battle with other sweet treats. I would love to read Laura’s book to get some new ideas on what to prep and keep on hand to feed my kids the right way.
Thanks, Liz for having great podcasts that are both fun and interesting!!
I would love to win this book!!! My husband and I both have diabetes. Our kids both have a sweet tooth. We want to keep them healthy by teaching them healthy habits! Thx for the chance.
Wonderful podcast and practical thanks
Wonderful podcast and practical info
thanks
This type of cookbook would be a first for me. I practice ‘moderation’ and strive to do so with what I feed my family. I’ve not strayed much from the usual so I’m very intrigued in what this type of approach entails. 😊
I would love this book because my 5 year old lives on peanut butter and crackers and anything chocolate. I think this would help her to eat more variety, especially fruit.
I’d love to win because I’m worried my sweet tooth is being passed on to my boys and I don’t know how to stop it!
My husband and I are trying to get healthier this year and cutting sugar is a big start!
My family has a really bad sweet tooth. We need all the help we can get!
I would love some ideas for recipes that my kids would enjoy that will help them decrease the sugar they intake.
I keep reading how much sugar is bad for ones body. So learning recipes that taste indulgent but have less sugar would be perfect.
Right now I try to reduce the sugar amount in recipes by a quarter of what is called for.
I am a little overwhelmed about where to begin to be honest. I have always baked a lot, especially cookies. I would love to start to make healthier sweet treats. Food = Love, and that doesn’t mean it has to be loaded with sugar!!
This book would make it so much easier for me to provide healthier alternatives that will still appease my family’s yearning to be like everyone else. Nearly everyone in my husband’s family is diabetic or has died feom the complications of this disease, so I have always been vigilant about what my husband and boys eat, maybe even a bit Gestapo so they rebel and eat sweets elsewhere. Sounds like this book will be a win-win for all of us.
Would love to find ways to get sugar out of our family’s diet. It creeps in everywhere and I’m ready to make a change! This cookbook looks like it has the answers I need. One big switch for my teens was getting rid of juice and adding carbonated waters, like LaCroix, they love it. Bubbles but no sugar….win!!
I have a grandchild who is very sensitive to sugar, this looks like a great resource for our family!
I started a few years ago using pure maple syrup in things like pancakes, with adding fruit toppings only, my grandson is a huge pancake fan so I add spices like cinnamon and vanilla to add flavor, but I would love this book, I’m down 34.7 pounds and got 100 pounds to go and cutting sugar has been a big deal to me, my husband has a sweet tooth but since he’s on chemo pills for 3 years I’m trying to figure out how to give him what he like without harming his immune system and it bothers me to see him purchase little Debbie oatmeal pies and cakes and run through a box in a couple of days ..
Congrats on your weight-loss success. Keep it up! There are some recipes on my site that I think you’d really enjoy. Try the mango coconut soft serve to satisfy your sweet tooth!
I have two little boys and one of the things I’m most passionate about is making memories in the kitchen with them. We don’t buy candy or processed cookies, instead we get excited for making pancakes, protein bites, and homemade applesauce together!
This cookbook would be really helpful to my family. My oldest son has the biggest sweet tooth and I would love to find ways to reduce his overall sugar intake. Maybe finding a new breakfast or sweet that he enjoys but with half the sugar!
I am a first-time mom to a 21 month old and a dietitian. I strive to serve her balanced meals and toddler-approved snacks but always worry about too much sugar in even the “healthy” foods. She’d eat flavored yogurt all day if I let her! I’d love some recipes that are tried and true for more natural ways to include sweet in limited amounts in our family diet, to help teach her right from the start.
Sounds like you’ve set some great goals!!
I would love some new ideas about how to cut sugar, while still feeding my family tasty recipes.
I am trying to overhaul how my family and I eat. It’s tough letting go of sugar, so I would love to try out this cookbook to learn ways of filling the sugar void.
We have been mindful about the sugar in our diet for the last few years and now that we have a toddler, I would love this cookbook to have some recipes to offer that are delicious treats yet lower in sugar. The recipes look wonderful!
I’m always on the lookout for fresh, new, healthy recipes for my family. We try to limit sugary desserts in my family, but I wasn’t aware of how much sugar was in processed food too.
Myself and my two girls are completely addicted to sugar! My youngest says Moe’s is her favorite restaurant, but it’s not because of the food… she loves the soda there! Oh I wish we’d never given her any!! Help!!
I am very serious about decreasing my amount of sugar. I am “pre-diabetic” and am desperate to nip this in the bud so that I may have a better quality of life as I reach my senior years.
I would love to win this book. I’m always looking for ways to reduce sugar. For me, I have been making smoothies for my kids. I buy plain greek yogurt and freeze into ice cube trays. Then I put 2 of those in with a half banana, a handful of spinach and some different frozen fruits we have like mango, raspberry, blueberry or strawberry. Just add water and blend!
Fresh fruit is our family’s go-to for sweet tooth attacks. I make sure to have at least 3 different kinds on hand for variety. I would love more low sugar options for my crew. This book would be a great resource!
I drastically cut down on sugar in 2017 and want to keep that up. I lost 18 lbs and feel great!! I’m always looking for new ideas and the book sounds really great!
I would LOVE to win a copy of this book! I have a horrible, out-of-control sweet tooth (always have) and would love to keep my children from inheriting this trait. 🙂 I try to have better sweet options for them and/or at least have sweets that are homemade – thinking that I can control what I put in these items. Thanks for all of the info and for the 2 recipes included on this page!
I would love more recipes that are low/no sugar that also taste great! Thanks for the opportunity to win this book!
I so so need to get a handle on my family’s sugar intake. I’m also a dietitian and loved hearing these great tips and would love to get more of these recipes! My best solution to desert is fruit in an ice cream cone with a little chocolate syrup drizzled and frozen bananas as ice cream!
I need this book in my life! I am trying really hard not to buy packaged foods, especially frozen waffles/pancakes/French toast sticks and making more of my own. We also have fruit at breakfast, lunch and dinner for a healthy sweet treat.
I need this book in my life! I am trying really hard not to buy packaged foods, especially frozen waffles/pancakes/French toast sticks and making more of my own. We also have fruit at breakfast, lunch and dinner for a healthy sweet treat.
I have just been diagnosed with Hashimotos disease and had half my thyroid removed due to cancer as well . With the other side being watched for the spread of cancer and my thyroid slowly dying off on top of that, I have been advised to cut out as much sugar as possible as my body struggles to process it. I think this book would help massively teaching me to reduce my sugar intake!
Oh gosh. Good luck with everything. I hope I can be a resource for you 🙂
my son has Crohn’s disease and I’m always looking for healthy ideas.
My daughter has a nut allergy and some of our go too snacks has lots of sugar. My husband is made of sugar, it’s insane the amount of sugar he eats. I battle sugar cravings. I have recently lost 20lbs but have 30 more to go, but sugar is so hard for us to give up. Looking for ways to cook with out the bad sugars. This book sounds amazing!
Congrats on the weight loss. Keep it up!! And tell your husband to eat more veggies 😉
I want to find recipes to satisfy my children’s sweet tooth as well as my own. Would love to have recipes to help with this.
I need help taming my own sweet tooth 🙂
One daughter who is constantly sneaking ANYTHING sweet that I have in my pantry. I realize I need to change her tastes so she craves less sweets.
I have a terrible sweet tooth and I fear I passed it on to my 7 year old! We love to bake together and it would be nice to bake some treats that don’t have as much sugar in them as our tradition recipes.
I’d love to continue teaching my children how to love food without sugar. We tell them that we know sugar tastes good but our body doesn’t need it to be healthy and that too much isn’t good for our bodies. I’d love more recipes to be able to teach them (and my husband) how to make good-tasting healthier foods!
I have been trying desperately to cut back our sugar intake and the kids are resisting. New lower sugar recipes would be a huge help!
This is the first episode of this podcast that I have listened to. Great job! The part about kids having more of a sweet tooth than adults was really interesting. We defiantly struggle with to much sugar in our house. I think this cook book would be very handy to have.
Hi Melissa: SO happy you found me. Let me know which episode you check out next. And yes, I agree that the part about kids having a more intense sweet tooth was fascinating. And it sure explains a lot, especially at Halloween!
We love sweets. My best tip is to keep them out of sight/out of reach as much as possible. Best to not even have them in the house, but somehow they still manage to get in… I have cookies on a high shelf instead of eye level, my chocolate in a shoe box in the closet, and I just found a forgotten stash of mini candy bars that I had hidden behind the dry beans/rice in the pantry!
Hilarious! But were those mini candy bars still good enough to eat once you found them? 😉
I finally started to eat better. I fight every single day to not eat the sugar. The only thing I can do is not bring it into the house. I have been controlling myself but my husband and son do not have the turn off button!
I’m with you: Out of sight, out of mind!
I’m SOOOO excited about this topic and can’t wait to get started with some of her oh-so reasonable approaches!
I would like to try the dessert recipes that have less sugar than your typical ones
We implemented an every other day – small sweet routine so our kids knew what to expect.
Great tip. I’m all about (realistic) rules to help guide kids to better eating!
Would love to try the raspberry chia muffins. They sound delicious
Loved the show! My families sugar obsession is out of control and I know I am to blame for most of it…and know that I am the only one who can ultimately change that and this book would put me on the path to making that happen. Fingers crossed!!!
I love trying new recipes.