Photo Courtesy Uwe Hermann, Flickr CC
Sugar can be found is 80% of all the food we eat morning, noon and night. (Really, take a look at your labels and start tracking.) No wonder it can be hard to successfully lose weight and steady blood pressure levels; there’s so much sugar added to so many foods.
Ah, but sugar makes us feel good; it gives us that “high” also known as dopamine. Sadly, scientists have compared our brain activity for sugar similar to cocaine and other addictive drugs. They’ve found that test subjects brains light up in the same areas when on sugar or when on cocaine.
The more sugar you eat, the more you need to satisfy your craving. This is obviously bad for our overall wellbeing and waistline. If you were to stop your sugar intake, you’d basically go through withdrawal, which will be difficult: you may experience symptoms of crankiness, lethargy, mood swings, lack of concentration and focus, and cravings, especially for sugar.
Sugar is lumped into one category: whether it’s natural sugar or if it’s chemically made sugar in a lab (there are 56 different sneaky names for sugar). It can be hard to determine exactly how much sugar is in any particular product, making us question how much sugar we’re ingesting a day.
“The World Health Organization is dropping its sugar intake recommendations from 10 percent of your daily calorie intake to 5 percent. For an adult of a normal body mass index (BMI), that works out to about 6 teaspoons or 25 grams of sugar per day.” CBS News
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However you want to look at, it’s time to go to rehab and kick the processed sugar habit.
Weaning yourself off sugar isn't going to be easy; however, you are NOT going to cut all sugar from your meal plan as not all sugars are bad. Naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables, and other whole food products are generally fine. It's the refined and artificial sugars/sweeteners that you need to avoid for your health and your weight loss success.
Refined sugar: made from raw sugar that has undergone a refining process to remove the molasses. Raw sugar is a sucrose, which is synthesized from sugar cane or sugar beet and cannot immediately be consumed before going through the refining process to produce refined sugar or white sugar.
Artificial sweeteners: acesulfame K, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, sucralose – are approved for use in the United States. All are chemically manufactured molecules – molecules that do not exist in nature.
Remove Bad Sugar From the House
By removing processed food with added sugar from your house, it will aid in your recovery for a better, healthier life.
Remove = donate, toss – do not eat.
Taper Off Forbidden Sugars
Start by cutting sodas and other sweetened beverages such as bottled teas, fruit juices and sports drinks in addition to foods that have ADDED sugars.
Eat real, fresh, whole foods.
Say Good-Bye to Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners slow your metabolism and make you crave and eat more food.
Be aware of foods that may have hidden sugars. Consult the list above in the ingredients of your food.
Try cutting out all flour products that turn to sugar in your body.
Read the Label
Read labels at the store, so you don’t bring home added sugar.
Pronounce It
Be able to pronounce what you’re going to eat. If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, don’t eat it.
Have a Plan for Sugar Cravings
Weaning yourself off sugar is going to take at least six weeks
Have regular, un-flavored water available
Do something to distract yourself from wanting to eat sugar, i.e., exercise
Eat a serving of fruit
Drink water
When you think you want something sweet, drink a glass of regular water
Aim to drink a gallon of water per day; it’s great for your body.
Education
Educate yourself. The more you know about the harmful things you’re putting into your body, the higher likelihood you will decrease that behavior.
“Fed Up”: A documentary I found interesting about sugar and the food industry. You can find on Netflix or Order on Amazon TV. Watch the Trailer here: http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/home
Sources: cbsnews.com, authoritynutrition.com, sugar.com, Fed Up
