Symptoms Of Cutting Added Sugar From Your Diet
Cutting added sugar from your diet may lead to physical and mental symptoms.
How the body reacts to giving up sugar is different for everyone. The symptoms and their severity will depend on how much added sugar you were taking in through sweetened foods and beverages.
Some people find that their symptoms last from a few days to a couple of weeks.
As your body adapts to a low added sugar diet over time and your added sugar intake becomes less frequent , the less intense your symptoms and cravings for sugar are likely to be.
You may find that your symptoms are worse at certain times of the day, such as between meals. Stress may trigger for sugar, so you may find that your symptoms feel worse during times of stress.
Appetite And Hunger Will Decrease
Leptin is a key hormone that regulates appetite. It tells the brain when to eat, when to stop eating and when to speed up or slow down metabolism. But when obesity and insulin resistance are present, research suggests the body produces less leptin and doesnt use it as effectively. Improving glucose management slowly restores leptin activity in the body, and cutting out added sugars is a key component for making this happen.
Aids In Weight Management
As long as you stay below the recommended daily amounts for added sugar, consuming it is unlikely to cause weight gain. However, several studies show that diets high in added sugar are associated with obesity and being overweight.6
In particular, diets high in added sugar are linked to belly fat.Also known as visceral fat, belly fat wraps around your abdominal organs. It is linked to chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.7
For your long-term health, limit sugar-sweetened foods and beverages. Go for things that are low in added sugar, such as sparkling water, fruits, and vegetables. This can help you manage your weight and reduce belly fat.3
Read Also: How To Get Rid Of Sugar Ants Without Chemicals
You’ll Decrease Your Diabetes Risk
Studies have shown that high sugar consumption especially of sweetened beveragescan increase the odds of developing the disease. Scientists explain this in large part by the weight that people gain when they consume lots of calories in the form of nutritionally empty sugar. Being overweight or obese is often accompanied by problems with blood sugar control and reduced sensitivity to insulin that leads to type 2 diabetes.
Cutting added sugars makes it easier to manage weight and to keep blood glucose levels within healthy parameters, both of which lower your diabetes risk. This stems from the fact that added sugars help to fuel a cyclical cascade of effects that cause metabolic and hormonal changes to increase risk of diabetes. Added sugars contribute excess calories excess calorie intake leads to weight gain weight gain, along with higher blood glucose levels from consuming added sugars, leads to insulin resistance insulin resistance leads to more weight gain.
But the reverse is also true. In three large prospective observational studies of almost 200,000 American men and women published in the journal Diabetes Care, researchers found that people who replaced one daily sugary beverage or fruit juice with water or another type of unsweetened drink had up to a 10% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. So, cutting added sugars is a key factor in stopping this cycle and slashing your risk.
I Uncovered A Different Kind Of Willpower
Related Story
I dont feel like I lack in the willpower departmentIve run seven , and Ive prepared for all of them. Im not scared of putting in hard work, whether its 90 degrees out or in the single digits. But when it comes to my sweet tooth, all bets are off. During Passover, for instance, I wont touch a crumb of chametz because its not allowed. But in general, I just cant say no to a few scoops of ice cream.
This experiment helped me see that I could turn down that 2 p.m. bite of dark chocolate or the nightly bowl of frozen awesomeness, and that did feel good.
You May Like: Is Fruit Sugar Bad For You
Swap Marinara Sauce For Fresh Tomatoes
There’s really no need to add sugar to tomato sauce because, well, the fruit is naturally sweet. But that doesn’t stop food manufacturers from loading their cans to the brim with the stuff. Since store-bought tomato sauce is often made with things like dehydrated tomatoes and cheap oils, they rely on the sweet stuff to amp up the flavor. Your best bet? Switch to a no-sugar-added option like Ragu’s No Sugar Added Tomato Basil or combine chopped fresh tomatoes with olive oil and spices in a frypan to create a quick pasta topper right on your stovetop.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e
How To Cut Down On Sugar
Action on Sugar’s Registered Nutritionist Kawther Hashem provides some tips on eating less sugar:
Eating out
- Sugar isnt just hidden in products you buy at the supermarket, many restaurant and take-away meals often also contain a lot of hidden sugars.
- Words such as glaze or sweet pickles on a menu usually indicate the dish contains a big dose of sugar, even though they are part of a savoury meal. Ask for a sugar-free alternative on the menu, or for any sauces to be served on the side.
- Although the traditional versions are healthy, most Asian take-away foods have been significantly sweetened up for British palates. Thai, Chinese, Japanese teriyaki and even your favourite Indian curries such as butter chicken are almost guaranteed to contain added sugar. When ordering, ask your waiter if it is possible to prepare the dish without sugar. It will be just as tasty!
- Instead of eating a whole desert, try splitting it with someone. Alternatively, choose fruit instead.
SnacksWhen youre in the early stages of cutting down on sugar, youll probably notice that it is seemingly everywhere! Every cafe, take-away or snack food aisle is packed with products containing sugar. None of this is helpful if you find yourself ravenous while commuting home or out and about, or when a colleague brings out biscuits or cake in the office. Heres where a bit of planning makes it much easier to stick to your goals:
Recommended Reading: Do Apples Raise Blood Sugar
Have A Savory Breakfast
Get this: Having a sweet breakfast will set you up for all day long sugar cravings, says Brown. Yes, that means saying sayonara to your sugar-sweetened coffee and sugary cereal. Sorry! Though that may sound plain awful, it doesn’t have to be. Sprinkle cinnamon into your coffee or sweeten a low-sugar cereal with slices of fruit. Better yet, opt for a savory morning meal: Whip up a veggie omelet or top your oats with ground pepper, cheddar, scallions and a fried egg instead of fruit and honey. These filling, satisfying meals will help you stay on the road toward low-sugar success!
Satisfy Your Cravings With Naturally Sweet ‘whole’ Foods
Thankfully, there are plenty of foods that taste sweet naturally and provide you with a ton of nutrition compared with food with added, processed sugar. When you’re cutting back on sugar, don’t be afraid to add in more naturally sweet foods like fruit or sweet potatoes. That way you won’t feel as deprived since you still have sweeter foods in your diet.
You may still miss your candy, dessert or other sweet treats, but over time you’ll find that you enjoy the naturally sweet foods more. When I gave up all added sugar on the Whole30 program, I remember over the course of the 30 days that fruit and other naturally sweet foods tasted like candy. But I wouldn’t have said the same thing if I was still eating sugar or candy. Your taste buds can change over time depending on what you eat regularly.
Also Check: What Is The Range For Blood Sugar Levels
What Is Added Sugar
Sugar is naturally in lots of foods like fruit, vegetables, milk, cheese, and even grains. But manufacturers also add different forms of sugar and syrup to processed and prepackaged foods like ice cream, cookies, candy, and soda, as well as to less obvious products like ketchup, spaghetti sauce, yogurt, bread, and salad dressing.
Simple Ways To Stop Eating Lots Of Sugar
Eating too much sugar may be devastating for your health.
Added sugar, which is the sugar found in sodas, sweets, and other processed foods, has been shown to contribute to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and tooth decay .
Research suggests that most Americans eat anywhere from 5592 grams of added sugar daily, which is equivalent to 1322 teaspoons of table sugar each day representing about 1216% of daily calorie intake .
This is significantly more than the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendation of getting less than 10% of your daily calories from added sugars .
The World Health Organization goes a step further, recommending less than 5% of calories from added sugar for optimal health .
However, it can be challenging to slash added sugars from your diet. This article lists 13 simple ways to stop eating so much sugar.
Also Check: Is 116 Sugar Level High
Why You Should Avoid Sugar
There are many reasons why you should avoid the sweet stuff:
- It makes the body produce less leptin
- It disrupts how amino acids transfer to muscles
- It spurs insulin resistance, which can lead to Type II diabetes
- It induces oxidative stress
Not all sugar is terrible for you. Natural sources like that from fruit, honey, and maple syrup arent as bad as from processed sugars and HFCS but its still possible to overdo it. Theres no reason to cut all fruit out of your diet in an attempt to remove all sugar youd be giving up all those antioxidants, phytochemicals, fiber, minerals, and vitamins at the same time.
So now you know WHY you should avoid sugar and which types are worse how about some tips on how to do it?
From The Bottle And Can
Beverages are one of the biggest sources of added sugars in our diets.
Eliminate soda from your regular diet. Just get rid of it. If you must, drink diet soda. Ideally, though, you should get rid of diet soda, too.
That may sound extreme, but sweetened beverages are by far the biggest source of added sugar in the American diet 47 percent, according to the federal government. Soda along with sweetened sports drinks, energy drinks and iced teas is essentially flavored, liquefied sugar that pumps calories into your body without filling you up. Among all foods and beverages, says Kelly Brownell, an obesity expert and dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke, the science is most robust and most convincing on the link between soft drinks and negative health outcomes.
Get this: A single 16-ounce bottle of Coke has 52 grams of sugar. Thats more added sugar than most adults should consume in an entire day.
As for diet soda, researchers arent yet sure whether theyre damaging or harmless. Some scientists think diet soda is perfectly fine. Others, like the Yale cardiologist Dr. Harlan Krumholz, think it may be damaging. Dr. Krumholz recently announced that after years of pounding diet sodas, he was giving them up. There is reason to believe, he wrote, that the artificial sweeteners they contain lead to weight gain and metabolic abnormalities.
Don’t Miss: Does Sugar Cause Stomach Bloating
Get To Know Your Labels
The nutrition label lists all ingredients in order of quantity. The higher up on the list, the more of the ingredient a recipe has. So if sugars in the top three ingredients, its best to avoid that product.
FYI: 4 grams of sugar equals 1 teaspoon of sugar. This is helpful to know when youre scanning nutrition labels.
How Much Is Too Much
Added sugars should make up less than 10% of a healthy daily diet. Thats about 11 teaspoons if you eat 1,800 calories a day. Some experts recommend even less than that: 9 teaspoons per day for men, and 6 teaspoons for women. A single 12-ounce can of soda has 39 grams of sugar, close to a days worth by any measure.
Read Also: Diet For Hyperglycemia Without Diabetes
You May Like: When’s The Best Time To Check Blood Sugar
Your Current Level Of Activity
Working a sedentary job is a common culprit for weight gain. Add to this factors such as a long commute, or a busy, irregular lifestyle and you may be at the lowest level of physical activity.
A sedentary lifestyle can cause many other health problems besides weight gain. It can be a leading risk factor for diabetes, heart disease, anxiety, and depression.
Lower Odds Of Disease
People who have more added sugar in their diets are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, liver disease, and other serious illnesses. You may be able to cut your risk for those conditions if you eat less of it. But itâs not yet clear whether the problem is added sugar itself or just the extra calories. Scientists are still trying to answer that question.
Recommended Reading: How To Make Sugar Scrub Body Wash
How To Cut Sugar Out Of Your Diet
1. Stop Buying Processed Foods
This is probably the hugest change you can make in your diet when it comes to cutting out sugar. Practically everything you buy that comes in a box, bag, or can has added sugars. Sometimes one food item has four or five different types of sugar added!
2. Make Your Own Spaghetti/Tomato Sauce
If you cant quite take the step to cut out all processed or ready-made foods, at least cut out store-bought tomato sauce. These often have really high amount of sugar and you just dont need it. Its easy to make your own: simmer some canned or fresh tomatoes in a pot with some fresh herbs. Even if you add a bit of sugar to taste, it will still be way less than what is in the store-bought stuff.
3. Choose Whole, Fresh Fruit Over Juice, Dehydrated, or Other Fruit Products
Juice, fruit roll-ups, and dehydrated fruit taste great, of course: theyre almost pure sugar! Added to this is the fact that all or most of the fiber is gone. Treat your body to the natural benefits of fruit and eat it fresh and whole. Choose berries, cherries, grapefruit, lemon, and limes over apples, bananas, and other fruit the former are higher in glucose and lower in fructose and tend to have a lower overall content.
Heres a recipe for a great Paleo Fruit Salad.
4. Avoid Flavored Yogurt
5. Make Your Own Salad Dressing
6. Give Yourself A Quota
7. Give Yourself Rules About Dessert
8. Dont Keep Treats In The House
9. Try Xylitol or Stevia
10. Try Dark Chocolate
12. Cut Out Soda
Get Rid Of Sugary Cereals
Even healthy-sounding cereals are packed with sugar. Kellogg’s Cracklin Oat Bran, for example, has 19 grams in a cup! That’s more than what you’d find in a bag of Pretzel M& M’s! Next time you hit the supermarket, look for a box with less than 6 grams of sugar per serving that provides a hefty dose of fiber. Some of our go-to healthy cereals include Fiber One Original Bran Cereal and Shredded Wheat Spoon Size Wheat ‘n Bran . Add natural sweetness and flavor to your bowl by pouring in some fresh berries or shredded, unsweetened coconut for a healthy breakfast!
Recommended Reading: What Is An Acceptable Blood Sugar Level
Ways To Cut Sugar Out Of Your Diet
Have you been trying to lose weight and, despite regular exercise, failing? Or, maybe youve heard all the stories of those who have managed to cut sugar out of their diet completely and wish to join them. Whatever your reason, the removal of sugar from your diet is not only healthy, but beneficial to your lifestyle. People report feeling happier, healthier, and cleaner after reducing their sugar intake. Your cognitive functioning improves, as well as your feelings of well-being.
Below is a list of the six ways that I have found most effective for cutting down or completely stopping your sugar intake. They are easy to practice and are very effective. In the end, they will make your life a whole lot easier.
Main Meals And Desserts
Remember, high sugar = 15g or more per 100g food, low sugar = 5g or less per 100g food. Write it down and pop it in your wallet to retrieve when you’re grocery shopping, or bookmark this page on your cell phone.
- Sugar on your pasta?! You bet 150g of pasta sauce can contain 3 tsp of sugar. Sugar is often added for flavour to ready-made sauces, soups and meals.
- Condiments and sauces such as tomato or chilli sauce can have as much as 23g of sugar in 100g. This can add up over the course of a day.
- Do you need to have dessert every day? Try reducing the amount of dessert you have, or how often you have it. Desserts low in added sugar include fruit , rice pudding and plain unsweetened yoghurt. Try a few squares of dark chocolate for a satisfying post-dinner treat.
Read Also: What Should Blood Sugar Run
Improves Your Oral Health
A sweet tooth can get you into trouble if you’re not careful about removing the sugar that sticks to your teeth. Over time, bacteria in your mouth can break down the sugar to produce an acid. This acid gradually destroys the surface of your teeth, causing dental cavities. Too much bacteria can also lead to infected or inflamed gums, resulting in gum disease.8
Reducing the amount of added sugar in your diet to less than 10% of your total calories each day can reduce your risk of developing cavities, as recommended by the WHO.9
Regardless of your sugar intake, you should practice good oral hygiene by flossing daily, brushing your teeth twice daily with a fluoride toothpaste, and visiting a dentist at least once a year.10