excess sugar

5 Things That Happen if You Quit Sugar for Life

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First, let’s set the record straight by saying that sugar in and of itself isn’t evil, per se. It occurs naturally in plenty of foods, including fruits and milk. With that being said, adding excess sugar to your dietary intake simply isn’t necessary. In fact, you’ll notice numerous positive things happen when you decide to quit sugar for life.

Although people living in the Western world have been trained to desire sugary treats, as well as foods that include copious amounts of sugar for flavoring, we certainly don’t need it. If you stop eating anything but naturally occurring sugars, you’ll notice that 5 very distinctive things will happen.

1. Your Energy Will Improve

Ironically, many of us have a tendency to reach for sugar-filled items, including so-called energy drinks and caffeinated beverages, when we’re tired. Yet without all the sugar, we’re guaranteed to have a higher energy level naturally. In other words, all that sugar is blocking our body’s ability to keep our energy stores at maximal levels. Plus, there will be no up-and-down with your blood sugar, so afternoon crashes will become an experience of the past.

2. Your Weight Will Stabilize

Sugar makes you crave more sugar, and we’re not just talking about sugar in its raw form. Let’s face it: most sugar comes in high-fat and/or high-carb foods that have been processed or at least contain tons of unwanted ingredients. There is, of course, the exception of fruit, which are nearly all sugar.

By going on a sugar detox, your body will not be subjected to the need to deal with all those additional calories. You won’t feel hungry, and you’ll end up losing weight – or at least not seeing the scale fluctuate as dramatically.

3. Your Intestines and Colon Will Perform More Efficiently

If your insides could tell you what they wanted on a daily basis, they would say lots of fiber and a minimum amount of tough-to-digest, impure foods. When you remove sugar, you’re enabling your tummy and bowels to reset their abilities to process what you’ve eaten. You may even find that you go to the bathroom more often … this is a good thing. It means everything is getting back to a normal routine.

4. You’ll Stop Wanting Sugar

It’s a fact: sugar begets sugar. After you rid it from your food regimen, you’ll slowly begin to lose the desire to eat anything with sugar in it. Fruits will taste plenty sweet, and if you do take a bite of a cake or pie, you’ll be shocked at how overpowering and overly sweet it seems.

5. Your Skin Will Look Healthier

Have you noticed that you can’t seem to crack the case on why your acne appears and disappears despite all the creams, potions, and ointments you’re using? It may be that sugar is hurting your skin from the inside out. Many people report that their skin feels and looks healthier after they stop giving in to sugar’s pull.

Ready to Start Your Sugar Detox and Quit Sugar for Life?

While a cold turkey approach to your sugar detox isn’t always recommended, especially if you’ve been a sugar-holic for most of your lifetime, it’s definitely a good idea to start cutting back now. The faster you begin, the faster you’ll start to reap the advantages of going sugar-free.

In fact, in light of the countless dangers of consuming too much sugar, the World Health Organization has changed its sugar recommendation—advising no more than 5% of your daily calories should come from the sweet stuff, down from the previously recommended 10 percent. Considering the average American consumes close to 5 grams each day, we have some work to do.

Start small by evaluating everything you’re eating and drinking. If you are addicted to sugar-laced coffee drinks sold at popular coffeehouses, scale back on how many times you drink them. Then, scale back some more. Soon, omit certain sugar-laden products. Over time, you will physiologically adjust to your new habits.

Remember that it takes about three weeks before a new way of doing something becomes a comfortable routine. If you have slight missteps, such as eating a candy bar after a stressful workday, just keep forging ahead.

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The results of your diligence will definitely be worth it.

Sugar is more addictive than cocaine and a serious epidemic

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Sugar damage: Consumption of excess and added sugar is an epidemic.

It’s difficult to stave off sugar cravings once you’ve gotten started. For some, a box of chocolates or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s means that the whole box or pint will be downed in one sitting. For others, two to three Starbucks runs per day probably won’t seem too strange, despite the loads of sugar that are pumped into most of the beverages on the menu.

We think that of course, in moderation, our sugar intake is for the most part harmless. Maybe we have one mocha a day instead of three. Maybe that box of chocolates lasts a week or more. But for many, sugar cravings are signifiers of a very serious and hard to reverse addiction that is similar to a drug and quite possibly just as destructive, reported Burlington County Times, Jan. 4.

According to Burlington, the average person consumes 285 calories worth (20 teaspoons) of sugar per day (one 12 oz. soda contains 8-10 teaspoons of sugar on its own. That’s just under half a cup of sugar and something like 14 teaspoons too many. For those who are addicted, sugar cravings can be so great that “you can’t stop eating it, you lose control eating it and you gain excessive weight from it,” said Dr. Fred Bonanni, director of Abington Health’s Institute for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in Pennsylvania. It’s an epidemic that sees Americans eating 156 pounds per year, often times without their knowledge. This is a scary and dangerous fact. According to the New York Daily News, sugar “is eight times more addictive than cocaine.”

Much of the sugar that is consumed in America comes from processed foods and sweetened drinks. Burlington notes that even things like ketchup and spaghetti sauce have sugar added. It’s not just the Coca Cola or cookies that you have to watch out for. Look at the labels of your trusted “healthy” cereal, or your teriyaki sauce, for instance.

Here’s the kicker. The body does need sugar in the form of glucose in order to function properly. In the case of added sugars, which offer no nutritional value aside from energy, caution should be heeded. According to the World Health Organization, added sugar should not exceed 10% of anyone’s daily intake of foods. The American Heart Association recommends sugar intake to take up 7% or less of our daily caloric intake. That means a cut back is in order of bagels and other breads, chips, canned and packaged fruits, yogurt, and many other grocery items high in added sugar content which may shock you.

One of the reasons sugar is so addictive is that when it is processed in the body, it literally “activates the brain’s reward center, where a neurotransmitter called dopamine, or DRD2, triggers sensations of pleasure.” And often, sugar consumption causes a “sugar high” that is also followed by a low. Even those who are really good at eating sugar in moderation have probably experienced this. Many try to get back to the high. “You get this rush, your blood sugar drops and you feel crappy and tired and worn out. You put more sugar in to get the same response, and it becomes this vicious cycle,” said Bonanni. In no time at all, you’re back up to three mochas a day and a box of chocolates. Beyond that, there could be more sugar added to your day, as the more sugar consumed causes a higher level of sugar intake needed in order to reach that sugar high.

It takes a lot of discipline to wean yourself from consuming excess sugar. It is, however, pertinent to wean yourself. Consumption of excess sugar causes things like diabetes, excess fat, depression, migraines, poor eyesight, arthritis (and other autoimmune diseases), gout and osteoporosis. The best bet would be to wean yourself completely from excess and added sugars. But don’t go cold-turkey. If you make changes over time, there will be less chance of relapse into the vicious cycle of sugar highs and lows.