Sugar is the most abused substance in the world.
Our bodies need sugar, but they weren’t built to handle the amount of sugar that we consume on a daily basis.
Artificial sweeteners are just as bad (probably worse) than sugar. They cause sugar cravings, weight gain, sugar addiction, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, obesity, abnormal cholesterol, unbalanced triglycerides, heart disease, stroke, insulin resistance and diabetes.
Sugar is everywhere
One of the reasons why it is so easy to become addicted to sugar is the fact that it is in almost every product that we buy from the shops.
The reason why sugar is so prevalent is because it is extremely cheap, increases the desirability of food and has an addictive element to it.
This increases product sales. Products that have more sugar in them are more likely to outsell their competitors. This creates a situation where products end up having more and more sugar over time.
Sugar is in almost everything
You might think that avoiding sweet things will help to reduce your daily sugar consumption, but this ingredient hides in products that we wouldn’t usually associate with high volumes of sugar.
Did you know, for example, that there is more sugar than actual tomatoes in the average ketchup or tomato sauce? A single serving of ketchup floods your bloodstream with 2-5 times its natural sugar content.
Condiments and sauces, peanut butters, dairy products, potato chips, processed meats and processed burger patties are examples are products that contain more sugar than what is good for you; although you wouldn’t think so.
Many cereals that claim to be healthier because of their high fiber content or because of the fact that they are fortified with vitamins and minerals contain more sugar than any other ingredient.
Even ‘100% natural’ fruit juices are reconstructed liquids that contain more sugar than what would naturally be found in the product if you made the fruit juice yourself at home.
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| Sugar is in almost all processed food. |
Sugar is addictive
Our brains are wired to consume as much sugar as possible.
In the hunter-gatherer era, this was beneficial because it helped us to discover which plant foods were edible.
It also encouraged us to eat plant-based foods that provided our bodies with much-needed micro nutrients like vitamins, minerals, fiber, trace elements, plant compounds and antioxidants.
If a caveman walked passed a berry tree and grabbed some to eat, his brain was wired to remind him of where he found those berries and encourage him to eat more of them while they were still available.
The brain does this by releasing the feel-good hormone dopamine when we ingest sugar.
Dopamine is responsible for learning and gearing the brain towards activities that should improve our chances of survival.
Sugar naturally indicates to the brain that a food is edible. Foods that contain more sugar indicate that the food is more edible.
This is why we don’t like to eat foods that have less sugar. It doesn't taste like actual food when we are used to consuming food with higher sugar content. Our taste buds adapt to the sugar content of the food that we eat the most often.
The good news is that your taste buds adapt every 2 weeks. If you avoid foods with lots of sugar for two weeks, your taste buds will normalize and healthy food will taste like actual food again.
Dopamine is the same hormone that is involved with additive behavior like smoking and drug abuse.
In the same way as any other addiction, you can expect to go through a period of withdrawal when you drastically cut sugar from your diet.
Sugar withdrawal symptoms include depression, fatigue and tiredness, trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating and, of course, sugar cravings.
Signs of sugar withdrawal
1. Depression
2. Fatigue
3. Trouble sleeping
4. Lack of concentration
5. Sugar cravings
Like with any drug, the more of the substance you use, the greater the withdrawal will be whenever you don't consume that substance.
Cigarette smokers, for example, enter into nicotine withdrawal within minutes after their last cigarette.
Since sugar is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream, the high uptake of sugar will lead to a quick crash that leaves your body feeling deprived of sugar.
How your body reacts to large amounts of sugar
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| Too much sugar kills you. |
Your body releases insulin to control sugar
When sugar is consumed on a natural level, this system works very well.
When more sugar is consumed than what we’d find in nature, this can lead to health issues.
Large amounts of sugar consumption will lead to large amounts on insulin release.
This creates the effect of a sharp increase in blood sugar followed by a sharp decrease shortly afterwards.
In an effort to counteract the sharp fall in blood sugar levels, your body will crave sugar to try to restore balance.
This is why you crave more sugar if you’ve had something that is high in sugar earlier in the day.
The negative health effects of the high sugar diet
Each time that we give into the craving for sugar, most of it is stored as fat to keep it from damaging your body.
You will then crave more sugar instead of burning through fat as the body attempts to restore its blood sugar balance.
As this goes on for a prolonged period of time, your body starts to learn to depend on sugar for energy instead of using up its own energy supplies.
This is a survival mechanism because our bodies are made to eat as much as possible when food is plentiful so that it has the energy stores needed for a potential famine.
Since food is always available and we never go through periods of famine, our bodies never burn through their stored nutrient supplies.
This is why intermittent fasting has so many benefits.
It allows the body to restore balance by inducing periods of nutrient deficiency that our bodies were meant to go through.
In the hunter-gatherer days, people would regularly go through very long periods without eating because food needed to be hunted or gathered.
In today’s world, food is almost always a few minutes away whenever we feel the need to eat.
We don't need to exercise to get it, either. Since physical exertion isn't necessary to get to food, we miss out on the benefits of daily exercise.
By reducing the amount of sugar that you consume, you can help the body to achieve a healthier balance.
Periods of low sugar consumption are good the body. It has been designed to cope with these times.
Remember to always consult with your medical practitioner before embarking on any new lifestyle changes. Stay Strong!
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