Sugar Addiction and Finding Balance
Today we're going to talk about sugar. We're going to talk about excess sugar and how it harms you, just touch on physical health a little bit, and then we're gonna go on to talking about how to decrease the amount of sugar in your diet if you are in excess. Sugar’s okay, excess isn't.
Remember to always give yourself grace. Don't obsess over your body and don't neglect your body. We want to find that balance right in between of true whole Wellness.
You might say, “Sam, isn't sugar natural?” Well, it seems like that because it's usually part of it's an ingredient that we cook with. These things are processed so we can use them in a way that allows for baking and whatever. But actually sugar is from sugar cane and sugar beets. Two simple sugars, fructose and glucose are combined together and they make sucrose and sucrose is what is listed in a lot of ingredients as the sugar component.
Sugar is a carb and we need carbs. So I'm not saying that sugar is bad and we shouldn't have sugar at all. But there are healthier types of sugars and there are unhealthy types of sugars.
If you eat a lot of carbs and your body turns them into sugar but it doesn't need all of that sugar, then you have extra sugar in your body and that turns into being stored as fat.
Sugar affects a lot of parts of your body, a lot of organs. It affects your heart, and it affects your liver. That's why it's really dangerous when you have too much sugar in your diet for several years, because it can cause inflammation and heart disease. Inflammation can lead to other things like arthritis or even Alzheimer's disease.
If you're already sold and thinking, “Yeah, I'll cut out more sugar, Sam. I'll eat less sugar.“ Well, you want to be careful about doing it too fast because you'll cause yourself to boomerang. When we decrease our sugar too quickly, we end up boomeranging, meaning your body responds because it has an addiction to sugar. Your body starts craving a lot of foods that will feed the addiction and you have all these intense cravings. And so you gradually introduce more vegetables and less sugars into your diet. You'll cause less of a shock to your body.
Here are some ways to start having less sugar in a really gentle, slow process:
You could stop eating candy or stop drinking soda. If you're one of those people who loves candy and soda
Replace added sugars with natural ones, like eating a handful of grapes
Cut out juices, iced tea, and alcohol. They have sugar in them and you're not thinking about how much sugar is in a drink
Find other ways to sweeten your coffee. Some people like honey, agave, maple syrup, erythritol, stevia, or monkfruit
You can also take a sugar challenge just to see what it would be like. So this is a temporary challenge that can help you menu build grocery shop in ways where you're not buying what you typically buy to decrease the amount of your sugar intake just to be healthier. And you can decide basically between two types of sugar fast. One is where you cut out processed sugars or you can take unrefined sugar out of your diet too. That means that you wouldn't have fruit for awhile either. Why would you do this? Because you can reset your body and reset your gut health through sort of a sugar cleanse. You're still having healthy foods. This is not a diet. This is 21 days only. It's to reset the microbiome in your stomach.
When you reintroduce sugar into your diet, you’ll be in a clear place to actually taste how sweet things are and notice if it makes your body feel bad.
If you want to learn more, I’m leading a group through the Christian fitness organization, Revelation Wellness. www.revelationwellness.org/sugarfast
Or check out my Instagram or Facebook page www.facebook.com/smartveghead.
