I remember my parents always telling me that sugar would rot my teeth. While that may have been extreme, it wasn’t until much later that I learned the negative impacts sugar has on the rest of the body.
Not only does it cause weight gain, but sugar can cause a host of other problems. Fatigue, sluggish metabolism, digestive upset, and even hormones can be negatively affected by sugar.
Knowing all of this now, why do we still eat sugar?
A tasty treat is one thing, but sugar is addictive and is overloading our bodies with toxins. Read on as I dig a little deeper into overcoming sugar addiction. Reclaim your health and honor your body today.
Overcoming Sugar Addiction For A Long & Healthy Life
You probably already know that sugar isn’t good for you. But did you know sugar can negatively impact your ability to live a long and healthy life?
Obesity and diabetes have reached an all-time high due to this addictive substance. Color it a drug. Sugar is public enemy number one. It’s degrading the health and quality of life for so many people.
Are you or a loved one battling disease or illness? Learn how diving deeper into wholeness can relieve, or fix, your symptoms for good.
Rising Blood Sugar Levels
Steady blood sugar levels is one thing every person who lives to be over 100 has in common. That’s because the biggest problem with eating sugar-laden foods is they cause a sharp rise in blood sugar levels.
So if you have problems with your weight and mood (or feel like you need midday caffeine pick-me-ups), you may have a problem with your blood sugar.
I know firsthand the negative impact sugar can have on a person’s life. When I was a child, I had a sugar imbalance. If you talk to my parents, they would tell you that I was just a very picky eater. As long as it was sweet, I was okay. But I didn’t have an appetite for anything else.
This sugar habit continued throughout my adult life. By the time I was in my twenties, I had an uncontrollable appetite for sugar. Every week, I would buy a 4-pound brownie, a big icing-filled cookie cake, and 2-3 containers of ice cream. Cakes, cookies, and pastries would often become breakfast and/or dinner.
Looking back, there’s no question as to why I was sick at one point in my life.
Sugar ruled me!
It was my drug of choice.
All this to say, if I can quit sugar, so can you!
Balancing Our Sugar Intake
Honestly, I still enjoy the sweeter things in life. But we have to be smart about our sugar intake if we want to live a long, healthy, and energized life.
If you’re struggling or consumed by sugar, there are a few things you need to know.
Glycemic Index
To start, let’s look at the glycemic index. A lot of people are taught to go by the glycemic index to determine whether a food is highly impacting the body in a negative way.
The problem with the glycemic index is it only looks at glucose. It doesn’t even look at fructose, which is actually worse. It also doesn’t take into account nutrient density, fiber, or natural sugar.
Artificial Sweeteners
Second, we are also training our bodies to enjoy these fake sugars. A lot of these alternative sugars are 300 times sweeter than natural sugars. This causes us to crave more of their sweetness. Consequently, we lose our taste for natural foods.
It’s the impact of sugar that’s the problem. Sugar is the number one drug of choice, even with children. And older people are losing their minds to dementia and Alzeheimers, which we’re finding has a connection with sugar.
Hidden Sugars
Sugar lights up the reward center in the brain the same way as morphine, but it’s more rewarding.
Sugar is sneaking into our foods in salad dressings, green drinks, yogurts, granola, and more. Some of these healthy seeming foods have as much sugar as an ice cream sundae.
To combat this, start with determining how much of the foods you’re eating have added sugars. Check your dressings and packaged foods. We think we’re making good choices when we eat the salad. But if we’re eating our cranberries and glazed nuts with a raspberry vinaigrette, then there’s an issue. We pass up the burger for the salad, but the salad is much worse for us in this scenario.
See Past The Low-Sugar Marketing Ploys
While checking labels is good practice, you also have to be mindful of deceptive marketing. These food manufacturers often add fruit juice concentrate in a drink and state on the label there are “no added sugars”. This usually indicates that it’s pure fructose, which causes fatty liver. We have children with fatty liver now because of the little fruit juices they’re regularly drinking. Unfortunately, many moms still think they’re healthy.
With so much misinformation out there, it’s important for you to have a plan to stop eating these foods and remove the hidden sources.
If you have low mood and energy coupled with weight gain, this could be the reason. Is there more to your sugar addiction than just choosing the wrong foods? Reach out to me to get to the emotional root of your sugar craving triggers.
Snacking Causes Sugar Dependency
Another big problem is snacking. Insulin stays up when you snack throughout the day, and your body learns to depend on steady amounts of sugar to operate. And when the sugar isn’t there, the body crashes.
This is exactly what happened to me as a child when I was passing out from low blood sugar.
The sugar also feeds bad bacteria and yeast in the gut. This causes you to crave more and it becomes a vicious cycle.
Also, snacking causes us to hold on to fat. This is because you’re teaching your body to run off sugar, not fat. Then you feel the need to eat every couple of hours. But if you teach your body to run off fat, it will allow you to go 3-4 hours after a meal without even thinking about food.
So this is why it’s important to balance your plate with the right amount of carbs, fats, and proteins to balance your blood sugar so you can heal your metabolism. Learn more about how your ideal plate should look in my free guide.
When your body runs on its own fat and energy, it’s a sign of health.
Ready To Overcome Your Sugar Addiction?
This is more than willpower. You may have been duped by misinformation from the food industry. But you can turn this around in a matter of weeks. I have clients who clean out their cravings within the first 10 days of working with me. Even those clients who have been craving sugar for a lifetime, like me.
It comes down to giving your body what it needs. In return, it will give you what you want. You can start today by simply lowering your sugar intake.
And if you’ve got your sugar under control, you likely have a friend or family member that might be struggling. Share a little love by sending them this blog. They will thank you later.If you’re ready to take authority over your health and start overcoming sugar addiction, make an appointment to find the happy, healthy, and whole you today!