You would have to be a Martian living on the Red Planet not to know that there are a plethora of health reasons to cut your sugar intake.

Diabetics must, for example, keep track of their sugar and low-carb diets, such as the Atkins Diet and other ketogenic diets, insist that dieters keep their sugar intake low. Also, if you are looking to trim a few pounds you too would do well to eat less sugar.

However, sugars seem impossible to escape in many processed foods. Ketchup, for example, has 4 grams of sugar per serving (about a teaspoon), and "corn syrup" and "high fructose corn syrup" are the main ingredients after tomatoes.
You need to identify where sugar is lurking in your current diet, and find recommendations for sugar substitutes and non-sugar alternatives.

There are just a few primary sugar substitutes, such as

• aspartame (aka Nutrasweet),
  
• saccharine, and
  
• stevia.
  

 If you add sugar to your food (cereal, for example) or drinks (coffee or tea), use a sugar substitute instead.

At every opportunity that  you consider having a sugar-added food or drink, stop and replace it with an unsugared substitute.

Juice (which has fructose - a kind of sugar - but also vitamins) or cold, refreshing water instead of soda. Sugar-free gum. Fruit or vegetables instead of candy. Carob and/or honey instead of chocolate.

If you work at it you will find that there  are sugar-free substitutes for virtually everything that has sugar in it.  

Sugar is so hard to avert in prepackaged foods, you may have to prepare your own foods to diminish your carbohydrate intake.

Check out recipe books like 'Low Carb Recipes Fast & Easy' or 'Everyday Low Carb Cookery ' or look for recipes online at the Low Carb Café.

So what is wrong with sugar, exactly?

The calories from sugar are often called "empty calories" and that isn't good. 

Why? 

Because the body metabolizes simple carbs so rapidly, and sugary foods often lack the fiber, protein, and other nutrients required to maintain good health. You can suffer blood sugar spikes and dips as your body gets flushed with too much sugar and then is left with nothing except insulin in the blood stream.  The body is put through a wringer, so to speak.

Processed carbs, like  those found in white bread and pasta, metabolize into glucose almost as fast as pure sugar whereas  complex carbohydrates, such as whole wheat, take  longer to digest and keep the body fed with sugars over a longer period of time.

Ideas  for increasing your complex carb intake include: eating fruits, vegetables, whole wheat pasta, and start your day with porridge (oatmeal). 

When shopping for groceries, shop for color - the more colorful your food is, the better.  Avoid low-fat or fat-free foods  because these are almost always loaded with sugar.

Above all, be good to yourself: don't tempt your weaker nature by having snacky junk food around the house.

Have kiddies? Dump their sugary cereals, ice cream, candy, cookies and snacks. They're not healthy for you or the tots. Exchange them with lower-sugar foods and snacks. You are likely to eat sugary foods if you don't by them at the store.

As an option, buy a variety of fruits, carrots and celery sticks, healthy crackers, low-fat popcorn...after all you and the gang need something to munch on during those family movie nights. Just make sure it's a healthy munch.

Another idea is to keep a food journal--yes it sounds silly, but if you jot down everything you put in your mouth: every meal, snack, glass of water, stick of gum, cough drop as well as how your emotions were at the time (use a sliding scale of 1 for crappy and 10 for orgasmic, say) and you will be able to see what moods trigger what binges.

The goal is to discover not just what you're eating, but your eating patterns in general.

Become a Sherlock of nutrition.

Pay special attention to the 'carbohydrates' on your food labels when you buy: stay away from anything in the ingredient list that ends in 'ose', such as fructose, glucose, lactose, and sucrose. 'Ose' is out, vegetables are IN.

Above all, don't give up. If you slide away from your plan to take on the monster of meals, keep at it, and expect days when, as they say, 'they never told me there would be days like this!'...because there will be. Just ride them out and you will find yourself better for it.