The Practical Way To Handle Sugar In Your Diet Without Giving It Up
Do Not Read If You Are Not Good At Implementing Simple Advices.
It is no new news: Sugar gets you hooked.
We have been hearing it, reading about it, attending seminars on it. Still, most of us are consuming the same amount of sugar maybe more. That includes me too.
Nothing’s changed.
What is going wrong here? I was curious.
To look more into the matter, I read British physiologist and nutritionist Dr. John Yudkin’s book Pure, White and Deadly. He discussed extensively about sugar (sucrose) and attempted to warn us against our lust for it.
Dr. Yudkin states a crucial point at the start of his book.
He says:
I can make two key statements that no one can refute.
1) There is no physiological requirement for processed sugar; all human nutritional needs can be met in full without having to take a single spoon of white or brown or raw sugar, on its own or in any food or drink.
2) If only a small fraction of what is already known about the effects of sugar were to be revealed in relation to any other material used as a food additive, that material would promptly be banned.
Quite a bold statement made by him back in 1972.
This led me to study more about the harms of my first love, Sugar.
Can We Live Without Sugar?
You must know that the main source of energy for the body is carbohydrates.
Sugar, a carbohydrate, is faster to break down into energy than protein and fat, is, therefore, the first energy source the body goes to.
Glucose is the main sugar found in our blood. It comes from the food we eat and is our body’s main source of energy. Our blood carries glucose to all of our body’s cells to use for energy.
Glucose is vital to life being the most naturally occurring sugar.
“Processed sugar contains Glucose and Fructose.”
Fructose is a basic sugar similar to glucose which is found naturally in fruits and honey.
There is no significant requirement of fructose by the body.
Take it from Dr. Wong of Normah Medical Specialist Centre,
The body has its own system to produce sugar after the carbohydrates are broken down. We don’t need any sugar intake for our body.
Table Sugar or sucrose has no nutritional value except that it has empty calories.
It will be made clear to you once I inform you of how glucose and fructose metabolization takes place in your body.
Let’s then dive straight into it.
Suppose you bought your favourite pastry or a pancake. As you eat it, it travels into your body getting separated in your gut.
The glucose derived from it circulates throughout your body feeding your muscles and brain, the fructose on the other hand goes straight to the liver for metabolization where all kinds of problems begin.
Excess fructose metabolization in the liver turns into liver fat leading to insulin resistance causing all sorts of metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes and fatty liver.
In short, Fructose is many times more harmful than glucose.
So, next time you grab a doughnut or soft drink, do remember that the glucose obtained by it is metabolized by your whole body of 75 kg (say) whereas fructose (comprising 50 per cent of the sugar) goes straight into your 1.5 kg liver for metabolization causing severe burden to the liver.
CONCLUSION: Anything that is man-made is not necessary for our diets.
Our body does NOT require glucose from any other man-made food (pasta, bread, soft drink, pizza — Processed foods and drinks).
What I am trying to say is that you can get your glucose intake from your average broccoli. Almost every natural food can provide you with the glucose needed for your body.
Our ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries, who ate organic fruits and vegetables consumed 15 grams of fructose a day. Now, adolescent consumes about 72.8 grams of fructose a day.
Why Is Excess Sugar Harmful And Addictive?
Why is this white powder so demonized?
It is important to understand that we are hard-wired to crave sweet foods.
Getting a bit sciency,
Dopamine is the chemical in the brain that is responsible for pleasure-seeking behaviour i.e. it stimulates us to seek out pleasurable things.
When we consume sugar, our brains produce huge surges of dopamine and over time our bodies get used to the high levels of dopamine as a result when we don’t get the dopamine rush from the sugary foods for a while, we start to crave them.
Too much fructose (raw sugar) consumption shuts down the part of your brain that tells you when you are full. It doesn’t get registered by your brain as having eaten.
Sugar Causes Brain Damage.
Brown university, Rhode Island conducted a study on rats (video linked below) on the effect of sugar on rats’ brains and found out a perfectly healthy rat when placed in a bath of water found its way ṭo safety every time.
On the other hand, another rat was fed with an average North American diet’s worth of fat and sugar, lost its way in the water.
Their brain has been damaged.
The healthy rats forgot their learning after consuming sugar and as the challenge got harder and harder they found it more and more difficult to find their way just like a human with Alzheimer’s disease.
Why Is It So Hard To Give Up Sugar? And How To Get Off It?
Sugar is a craving of the body. The more sugar you eat, the more sugar you crave.
So how to break the sugar addiction. Here are the practical, tried, and tested tips to get off sugar completely.
- Make a decision to break the sugar habit.
- Quit cold turkey by stopping all forms of processed sugar, artificial sweeteners, and flour. Trying to give up sugar, resisting the body’s craving consumes a lot of willpower and self-discipline which drains you out gradually and you end up where you started.
- Add protein to every single meal especially breakfast with whole eggs, nuts, fish, chicken, or grass-fed meats.
- Manage your stress. When you are stressed, your cortisol level goes up, which makes you hungry and crave sugar.
- Quit gluten and dairy. After 2–3 days you’ll have more energy, you’ll feel better, have fewer cravings.
- Get at least 8 hours of sleep.
A Practical Advice: Eating A Little Sugar Is Ok.
I know it is not possible for most of us to give up sugar immediately, and I am not compelling you to do it either.
We should understand that it is the excess sugar that harms our bodies. Taking sugar in a balanced amount does no harm, it is optimum though to avoid raw sugar, but I would advise you to go with honey instead as I did (later on this).
How much sugar should We eat?
The American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugars to no more than 6 per cent of calories each day.
For most American women, that’s no more than 100 calories per day or about 6 teaspoons (4 grams = 1tbs) of sugar. For men, it’s 150 calories per day or about 9 teaspoons.
My Experience: I Gave Up Processed Sugar For A Month. Here’s What I Found…
Being addicted to fast food and sugar, I decided to stay abstinent for a month to understand the effect that sugar had on me more precisely. To avoid facing the withdrawal symptoms, I replaced my processed sugar with honey.
Here is what I experienced.
- Within a month of abstinence, I lost my appetite and cravings for sugar.
- I felt less hungry. It was because my blood sugars were now stabilized and my cells can now actually be fed with nutrition. Otherwise, sugar being toxic to the body is rejected by the body which is called insulin resistance and insulin resistance blocks nutrients absorption to the body too.
- I felt less fatigued, highly energetic and healthier overall.
- My mood was better. I felt lighter and happier. My brain fog was gone, as a result, my focus increased.
- My sleeping hours reduced as I was less fatigued.
Yes, I am not ignorant of the difficulties and temptations that comes along in this journey for I travelled this road too. But I must tell you that this is the most important journey that you'll ever take and over time you'd realize that the sacrifice was worth taking.
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Disclaimer: The article is for educational and informational purposes and in no way stands as an authority in any case whatsoever.
About The Author
Moiz, the writer at Nobles, has written it for you. He loves seeking knowledge and sharing it with others; Reading books can help everyone engage in life-long learning. This is what Moiz believes.
His Prime hobbies are Reading, Writing, and Introspecting while Walking. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
