6 smart ways to cut down on sweets

Our diets are increasingly filled with sugar, which is linked to health problems including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Decreasing the amount of sugar in your diet involves discipline as well as smart choices. Here are some tips.

• Forget going cold turkey. Therein lies failure.
• Instead, if you normally have two chocolate bars a day, cut down to one.
• Then, next week, have one every other day.
• The following week, have one every three days, until you're down to just one a week.
• If you normally take 10 grams (two teaspoons) of sugar in your coffee, use the same routine, cutting down gradually to two grams (half a teaspoon).
• Eventually, get to the point where you're using artificial sweetener if you still need the sweet taste.
• The more sugar you eat, the more you'll crave. So cutting down slowly is the best way to tame a sweet tooth gone wild.

• Mix half standard soft drink with half diet version; half sweetened yogurt with half plain yogurt; half a glass of juice with half a glass of soda water.
• Do this for two weeks, then cut back to a quarter sweetened to three-quarters unsweetened.
• Continue until you're taking only the unsweetened version.

• Set up a daily sugar quota and use it on the foods where it matters most.
• For the majority of us, that means desserts.
• Don't waste it on dressings, spreads, breakfast cereals and soft drinks.
• Not only will this reduce your sugar intake in a day, but it will help you to lose your sweet tooth.
• The more sugar you eat, the less sensitive your taste buds seem to become, so you want more.
• Train your taste buds to become accustomed to less and you'll be satisfied with less.

• For instance, have dessert only after dinner, never after lunch.
• Or eat dessert only on odd days of the month, or just at weekends or in restaurants.
• If you have a long tradition of daily desserts, then make it your rule to have raw fruit at least half of the time.
• A tub of ice cream in the freezer is temptation defined.
• A recommended rule: no ice cream kept at home. Ice cream should always be a treat worth travelling for.

Studies find that athletes' preference for sweetened foods declines after exercise. Instead, they then prefer salty foods.

If you're having a hard time cutting back on soft drinks or juices, try having a glass of iced water or soda water every other time you reach for a drink.