We all know that sugar is bad for our health. Not only is it adding pounds to your waistline, but it can also damage your teeth, liver, heart, and brain. An average person eats around 2 pounds of sugar a week. Incredible isn’t it? Especially if you know that individuals who eat lots of sugar have a 10 percent higher risk of dying.
And our body isn’t helping us to stay away from it. Our sweet taste buds are located at the front of our tongue and when the sweet stuff hits those morphine-like chemicals are released into our brain to create a natural high, making it highly addictive and hard to resist.
Sugars are hiding everywhere these days. Even foods we think are healthy are adding too much of the sweet stuff to your diet. Click here to discover 10 foods we think are healthy, but aren’t.
Eating less sugar is one of the best things you can possibly do for your health, and I quickly tell you why.
Reasons Why You Should Ditch Sugar
- Large amounts of fructose: our body is not designed to handle massive amounts of fructose. Our liver metabolizes fructose. When we eat a lot of this your liver goes into overdrive and can’t keep up. Fructose is turned into fat and causes obesity and chronic diseases like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or heart issues.
- Empty calories: sugar does not contain any vitamins or minerals.
- Insulin resistance: excess sugar or fructose consumption can lead to insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes.
- Higher calorie intake: fructose or added sugars don’t induce satiety and will make you eat more.
- Addictive: when we eat sugar, dopamine is released, giving us a feeling of pleasure and actually works the same as hard drugs and people become physically addicted to sugar.
- Leptin-resistance: our fat cells secrete leptin to give our brain a signal that we’ve had enough and need to stop eating. Sugar creates leptin resistance and makes our body think that our fat cells are empty and we need to keep eating.
FYI: although some fruits are also high in sugar or fructose, those are real foods with vitamins, fiber, water, and minerals that are actually healthy for your body and will be converted to energy instead of being stored as fat.
If you are serious about living a healthy, sugar-free lifestyle and losing or maintaining weight, CLICK HERE here to access my ThinForever program.
Scroll down to discover 5 easy ways to avoid sugar and add years to your life. ways to
5 Easy Ways To Avoid Sugar
1. Cut Back On Added Sugars
There is no need to add sugar to your coffee, tea, oats, cereals, or fruit. And with sugar, I mean all sugars like honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, refined white sugar, raw (coconut) sugar, and artificial sweeteners. If you are a sweet tooth try cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, cardamom, or stevia leaves instead. You’ll see there is actually no need to add sugar to create a sweet and delicious flavor.
2. Choose Fruit Over Candy
Most fruits are as sweet as sugar-laden snacks. So instead of grabbing your next muffin, cake, or candy bar have a banana, mango, berries, apples, or any other sweet fruit instead to provide you with the energy you need.
3. Remove Easy Sugars From Your Diet
Ditch soda, chocolate, cereals, sweet spreads, fruit juices, and dried fruits from your diet. At first, you will have some withdrawal symptoms if you are used to those, but you’ll see after a while you’ll stop craving those sugar-laden foods.
ALSO READ: Secrets To Smart And Healthy Snacking
4. Watch Out For Hidden Sugars
Some foods are not sweet to the taste but are hiding lots of added sugars. Go through your cupboards and look at every label. Especially foods labeled low-fat or fat-free and other processed foods will have a lot of hidden sugars.
Those foods include:
- Ketchup
- Breakfast cereals
- Protein bars
- Sports drinks
- Instant oatmeal
- Granola
- Salad dressing
- Yogurt
- Spaghetti sauce
- Bread and baked products
- Fast and processed foods
- Canned products
- Bottled teas
- Store-bought nut butter or nut milk
Ditch those foods and try these instead:
- Make your own nut butter and nut milk or buy natural, unsweetened variants. (click here to learn how to make your own nut milk)
- Try plain yogurt and add fresh fruits to sweeten things up
- Make your own salad dressing with lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, avocados, etc.
- Instead of using ketchup, try homemade pesto, mustard or vinegar
- Use real tomatoes for your sauce instead of canned
- Make your own unsweetened iced tea and say no to sodas. Drink more water or add lime, mint, lemon, etc. to your water for a soda-like beverage. (Try my homemade fizzy ginger soda recipe here or click here for my favorite infused water recipes)
5. Change To Fresh Whole Foods
Instead of buying processed foods and ready-made meals opt for fresh, whole foods. I know this is the hardest part as we all are living at 90 miles per hour. But you don’t have to cook fancy, complicated dishes. There are so much healthy and delicious dishes out there that will take you less than 20 to 30 minutes to prepare.
Preparing your own fresh foods and reading labels to look for hidden sugars is definitely more work, but so worth it! Just as eating sugar, healthy foods become an addiction over time and you develop a lifelong foundation for healthy eating. You’ll see once you’re body gets over its sugar or processed food addiction it will crave healthy foods.
What are your tips and tricks to avoid sugar in our fast-paced modern lifestyle? Please share them with us in the comment box below.
Thanks for reading. I hope this information was helpful. Until next time!
Amy Goodrich
Crazy cat lady, life and food lover, certified biologist, and holistic health coach.
