Reducing Sugar and Fat Sugary foods such as cakes and biscuits often also contain a lot of fat and so have a lot of calories. By reducing the amount of sugar in your diet, you can often also reduce the amount of fat too. How can I reduce sugar in my diet? Switch from sweetened to unsweetened drinks and don’t drink too much fruit juice Choose cereals without added sugar and put a sliced banana or apple on top rather than sugar Try to reduce the amount of sugar you use in cooking. This works well except for jam and sugar-based cakes. Try dried fruit, cinnamon or cloves for a sweeter flavour rather than sugar Reduce the amount of cakes, biscuits and pastries that you eat or switch to teacakes or fruit loaf Switch your mid-morning snack to a piece of fresh or a handful of dried fruit Swap pudding for fruit or yoghurt How can I reduce the amount of fat in my diet? Switch from butter or margarine to low fat spreads Grill food rather than frying or roasting Choose large straight cut chips rather than crinkle cut or French fries which soak up more oil If roasting potatoes, cut the pieces larger to reduce the amount of fat they soak up Choose lower fat sausages and back bacon rather than streaky – look at the labels Avoid creamy takeaway curries and switch to drier types Choose low fat frozen yoghurt rather than ice cream Swap crisps for a small handful of unsalted nuts or buy smaller sized packets of crisps Adding flavours such as vanilla and nut flavourings can add a buttery flavour to cakes and allow the amount of butter to be reduced Grate cheese rather than slicing to make the cheese go further Choose sandwiches with lower fat mayonnaise Swap full-fat Greek yoghurt for lower fat varieties Try baked beans with jacket potato rather than butter
