Today, we’re going to share our thoughts about sugar; its uses, its effects on your health, and how you might be consuming too much without realizing it.
It’s the season of pumpkin pie, candy bars, eggnog, hot chocolate, peppermint patties, and gingerbread. There are a lot of reasons why we LOVE the holiday season. However, this onslaught of treats tends to bring on waves of sickness. There is a string of holidays during fall and winter where buckets of treats and massive feasts with desserts galore serve as the main events. With holiday festivities passing by more quickly than you can say “Trick-or-Treat,” we believe that now is the best time to talk about the dangers of sugar and what you can do about it.
By spending just a few moments interacting with us, you might notice very quickly that we do not like sugar. More specifically, we hate the amount of sugar added to American goods. It has a rightful place in your diet, just not in the exorbitant amounts added to practically every store-bought food. Our dislike for excessive sugar has led us to practically abandon the idea of using sugar in any baked goods.
How sugar dominates the American diet
We avoid sugar for a few reasons. Primarily though, we avoid using sugar because the human body can’t handle that much. With a balanced diet that includes the proper amounts of fruit, vegetables, dairy, and everything else on the food pyramid, you should already be getting the natural amount of sugar your body needs.
But sugar is everywhere. As far as we can find, The United States has set few limits on added sugars in most foods. This has led to companies adding dozens of grams of extra sugar to their products. Many cookie-type snacks have at least 15 grams of added sugar per serving. Soft drinks have over 40 grams per serving (A few even have over 70.) Even flavored yogurt has anywhere from 10 to 30 grams a serving.
At first, this doesn’t sound like a bad thing. It’s just making for sweeter treats. However, the FDA suggests that a person not have more than 10-20% of their daily caloric intake be from added sugars. This is generally around 36 grams for males and 25 grams for females. This means that one singular soda covers your entire daily sugar intake and then some. Products like milk, cheese, bread, and even meats are being filled with excess sugar. So you could be having well over 100 grams of added sugar in just one day—that’s around four times the recommended amount.
Added vs. natural sugars
Another important distinction to note is added sugar versus natural sugars. Almost any natural food you eat will contain natural sugars—yes, even vegetables. Natural sugars are healthier for you because your body is adapted to absorb them. However, you still don’t want to overdo it when it comes to naturally occurring sugars. It’s also important to note that companies do not have to list natural sugars into their nutrition labels.
Added sugars are what they sound like; any sugar added on top of something’s natural sugars. This is where you can get in trouble. For example, a peach has around 45 grams of sugar, so if you got a peach turnover, you would have 45 grams of sugar from the peach PLUS whatever added sugar is on the nutrition label. In America, all added sugar is required to be on the nutrition label unless it’s an artificial sweetener since those are technically not sugars.
Why is sugar important?
Sugar is a baking staple. It’s in nearly every baking recipe you could think of. It adds structural benefits to cooking and baking. It helps bread brown correctly and cookies spread out properly because of the chemical reactions that happen with the sugar while baking. Sugar also helps certain dishes maintain the correct consistency and helps make food taste better.
On top of all of the baking and cooking benefits sugar can provide, it is also essential for your body to function. Sugar provides your body with energy for it to function and helps metabolize fats. That being said, one of the dangers of sugar is it only provides these benefits if you consume the recommended amount—overindulging in sugar consumption causes more harm than good.
What are the dangers of sugar?
Excess sugar can cause and/or accelerate a litany of problems. Metabolic issues, gastrointestinal inflammation, unfavorable weight gain, diabetes, you name it. Due to all of the issues associated with excess sugar, many countries have set regulations on companies, forcing them to limit the amount of added sugar, retract false claims regarding the health of their products, and in extreme cases, ban the sale of certain products outright because of the health risks they pose. However, The United States have not set such restrictions on food. So to manage our sugar intake, we have to get creative with our food choices.
Multiple organizations report that excessive added sugar increases risk factors for multiple disorders. The obvious dangers associated with excess sugar intake are diabetes and obesity. The body processes sugar rather slowly in order to have a constant, reliable stream of energy. But that also means you can quickly overload your body’s metabolism. Your body, doing its job and trying to store as much energy as possible, turns that excess sugar into fat. When you constantly have more sugar than your body can process, the excess will build up quickly.
Sugar’s danger also stems from how multiple organs are involved in food processing, such as the stomach, pancreas, and liver. According to the University of Utah’s Health site, the fats that store the excess sugar can cause fatty liver disease. Fatty liver disease occurs when the liver holds more sugar than it can process. The excess sugar becomes fats that stay in the liver. The acids in the stored fat can break down the liver tissue and cause more complications the longer it stays in there. These fatty acids also cause inflammation wherever they are stored. In turn, that inflammation promotes other disorders, which work comorbidly with other diseases.
That was a long string of things that could possibly go wrong. Fret not though. Many issues surrounding excess sugar can be minimized by simply reducing the amount of excess sugar in your daily diet. We’ve dedicated the rest of our article to minimizing sugar and replacing added sugar in your own cooking with healthy alternatives.
The dangers of artificial sweeteners
At first, you may think that the best way to get rid of sugar from your diet is to turn to an artificial sweetener. Pretty quickly, though, you may notice other problems surfacing after using these alternatives. We felt worse eating the sugar-free products than we did eating the sugared products. Sure, these no-sugar products don’t use sugar, but our bodies still react to artificial sweeteners similarly to how they react to natural sugar.
The major difference? Many artificial sweeteners are linked to gut disruption, stroke, heart attack and are potentially carcinogenic on top of having the same dangers of consuming too much sugar. So it’s best to limit both your artificial sugar intake and your refined sugar intake.
How to cut back on sugar
I have chosen to cut back on sugar three times now in my life. The first time, I cut back on all sugars by going completely cold turkey. I wouldn’t even eat fruit. Speaking from experience, I would not recommend cutting all sugars out entirely since, as we mentioned, sugar is essential for your body to function. After two relapses after this, I’m proud to say that I haven’t eaten over 15 grams of added sugar in a day in almost 3 years. So, how did I do it?
I’ll be honest with you—cutting out sugar is tough. Sugar is a highly addictive substance (it’s said to be more addictive than cocaine!), and you have to become very aware of every single nutrition label you touch. Because I’m allergic to wheat and peanuts, checking nutrition labels is second nature to me, but it may not be for you. It may be helpful to work with a friend, partner, family member, or even a small group to limit your sugar intake together so you can help each other out!
The body doesn’t know how to properly ask for things. When you are low on something it needs, a vitamin, protein, fat, etc., it will start asking for random things until you get what it really wants. Sugar is often tied to low protein, meaning that you will often crave sugar like nobody’s business when you actually need more protein.
Thanks to sugar’s addictive nature, the first month of cutting back on it is going to shock your system. These feelings of withdrawal are why it so hard to quit. But trust us. Once you get past your first month, your taste buds might change drastically. I turned my super picky husband into someone who will eat basically anything. An additional pro (and eventual support to continue cutting sugar) is that once you get used to a low-sugar diet, sugary items become unpalatable. Neither my husband nor I can eat a candy bar without feeling like we just ate a bar of chalk.
Week 1
Purge
During this week, you’ll want to purge your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Discard anything with a lot of added sugar. Trust me, if it’s in the house, you’re going to eat it. So remove everything with added sugars, including items with artificial sweeteners. I’m talking about anything with Acesulfame-K, Aspartame, Saccharin, or Sucralose. While natural sugar isn’t healthy in large amounts, artificial sugar is even worse. If you’re unsure about a product, a good rule of thumb is that if a sweet food says “no sugar,” it is probably using artificial sweeteners to compensate.
Replace
Then, go to the grocery store (or shop online) and find alternatives to the common foods you already eat. For example, if you always have flavored yogurt, grab some plain whole-fat yogurt (Check out my article on healthy fats here!). I tend to only grab items that have less than 8 grams of added sugar. Next, grab some 70% or more dark chocolate and a fun, unsweetened herbal tea. My favorites for busting sugar cravings are Fireside Vanilla and Apple Cinnamon by Celestial Seasonings®. Eating extra berries and fruits may also help you out during this first month of cravings.
Tracking
Once you’ve purged and replaced everything in your pantry, it’s time to start your diet change. Before eating anything, take a look at its nutrition label and write down how many grams of sugar are in it. Continue doing this throughout the day. Once you hit your maximum amount of sugar a day (36 grams for men and 25 grams for women), cut yourself off from any more added sugars for that day.
Week 2
Detoxing
As you move into week two, you might become more irritable, fatigued, and be more headache-prone. You might also just feel “strange.” As the week goes on, you may or may not start craving sugary products. All of these are side effects of your body detoxing from sugar.
Week 3
Cravings
Week three has always been the hardest for me. This is when the sugar cravings spike like crazy—candy, chocolate, ice cream, you name it. It will all sound fantastic. But stay strong during this week. This is the most critical time not to have a sugar rebound in order to avoid getting wrapped right back into sugar’s sweetness. Whenever you have a craving, eat some protein, drink some fun tea and maybe have a small piece of dark chocolate. Generally, the sugar craving will subside after doing one, or all, of these things. Just remember, if you can get through this week, you’ll be home free.
Week 4
Adjustment
At week four, you might start to notice your body settling down. Your headaches will lessen and you’ll have more energy than before. You might also notice some weight starting to fall off. My husband lost 15 pounds in the first month of cutting sugar out of his diet. This is also around when your cravings should start dying down–you’ll rarely even think about sugar. Congratulations! You’re over the hump. Now, it’s just up to you to stick with it. It is okay to have an occasional day where you have more than the recommended amount of added sugar. Just be careful about going so overboard that you get back on the sugar addiction bandwagon!
It’s important to remember that life gets in the way sometimes, and you may rebound and consume a lot more sugar than your body can handle. This is perfectly fine. In fact, it has happened to me more than once. Just be cognizant of your consumption and reduce your sugar intake where possible until you can get back into your rhythm!
Have you tried cutting back on sugar? Or do you want to reduce your sugar consumption but don’t know how? Tell us your story below!
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