Is It Possible to Have a Healthy Relationship With Sugar?

As with so many of life’s pleasures, moderation is your best bet.

It’s impractical to quit sugar cold turkey, says Emmons. “Unlike other addictions, you can’t avoid food. It’s better to find ways to moderate how much [sugar] you eat and soften the blow with other foods that slow digestion.”

Multiple studies suggest the body is better able to maintain insulin balance when encountering all three macronutrients together. This can be as straightforward as including protein, fat, and carbohydrates in every meal and snack.

This doesn’t mean you can never have a cookie or a piece of cake. Just eat them after meals to moderate their impact. “If you want to eat a comfort food, go ahead, but make sure you are also eating it with a decent amount of protein and healthy fats,” says Emmons.

Ramsey also recommends taking a cue from nature and pairing sugar with fiber — satisfying a sweet tooth with whole fruits or accompanying a sweet treat with a handful of nuts.

If you tend to eat emotionally, work with, instead of against, that urge, Ramsey suggests. He sees food as a useful tool for combating anxiety, especially if you use it to slow down. “You can chop vegetables, blend some homemade pesto, sit with a cup of tea, or make a little pasta that you then eat slowly and savor.”

Emmons suggests extending the window between your last meal and the first one the next day to help stabilize blood sugar. “It doesn’t have to be dramatic,” he says. “Just 11 or 12 hours, which is pretty easy for most of us, can help the system recalibrate and reset insulin levels.”

A healthy relationship to sugar might boil down to this simple advice from Emmons: “Have modest portions of sugar, not too many times a day, and not all by itself.”