Oh, the lovely topic of SUGAR. We all know sugar is bad for you, but Why? What sugar is "bad"? How does is affect our bodies?
Im a skeptic [ always ] when it comes to the latest health-nut craze diet. Im going to ask questions, research case studies, and most importantly, I wanna know how it affects the body. When it comes to eliminating sugar or doing a Sugar Detox, there are some pretty remarkable responses from the body. Im going to break this post down into 3 parts : What is Sugar and How does it Affect the body, Good Sugar vs Bad Sugar, and Tips & Tricks to Cut sugar. ( And, I'll make this short and precise, yall, so you'll actually read the whole post ).
What is Sugar?
Sugar my friends, is cane sugar, sucrose, glucose, brown sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, honey....the list is pretty big yall. This is the thing. Our human body's need to have a little sugar (24g daily Women, 36g daily for Men). Our body's use sugar for energy and our BRAINS & Red Blood Cells need the glucose to process. This does not mean, you get to go take a spoonful of honey every day. Adding in foods like complex carbs, low glycemic fruits, or even starches are all broken down in the body as sugar, then our bodies utilize those sugars for fuel or energy. If youre an athlete, you'll have to intake more of these forms of fuel to power your work outs or that 10 mile run. Shoot, even if you are stay at home mom, running after a kiddo all day, your needs ENERGY to do that.
To bring this all into prospective..because you're probably already asking yourself, "Well, then what kind of sugar can I eat?" We're going to get to that in next part in just a moment, hang on!
How does Sugar Affect our Body?
We already reviewed how certain foods like complex carbs are broken down into sugars, which our body absolutely NEEDS, but what about the table sugar, how does that affect our body? Why is sugar so freaking addicting? Well, I'll tell ya. When your body eats a frick ton of sugar, your body creates this "feel good" hormone called Dopamine. This makes us feel really good and high on life ( temporarily). When we eat a lot of sugar at once, like left over donuts from your kids sleep over ( Frick, but they are so good, damn it!) is spikes our glucose levels off the chart. You know what else spikes Dopamine? Freaking Cocaine, folks! SUGAR IS ADDICTING.
SUGAR is also a food source for bacteria and even cancer cells. Oh boy, Im getting serious on yall, now. If your body already has inflammation ( you're sick a lot, you get bloated, overweight, acne, etc) eating sugar helps keep that bacteria alive and inflammation. When your body is inflamed, your body creates a MUCUS wall, this helps protect your gut, small, and large intestine from anything serious absorbing into your body. Mucus is a home for bacteria. Sugar is the food source for that bacteria. Gross, right? This is not good, yall.
Good Sugar vs Bad Sugar?
Bad Sugar: Table Sugar, Corn Syrup, Wine,( yup, I wrote wine), etc...
Good Sugar: Fruit, Complex Carbs, Starches
You have to learn WHEN to eat sugar and manipulate it so our body can process & absorb it correctly. When we eat any fruit , it should be in the mornings on an empty stomach. Your body can break it down quickly when there's no other food in stomach to digest and then you have the whole morning to use the sugar for energy. So, drink a green juice or a smoothie or eat a cup of blueberries. Eat your complex carbs at lunch or before fueling a workout, you'll utilize and process the sugar correctly. Yall, dont eat carbs and sugar at NIGHT, its the absolute worst time. You're just going to go to bed and not move your body, you are not using the energy, and you wont be able to sleep. Bacteria is going to go to town on this. Starve the bacteria. ( this eliminates Candida and Yeast overgrowth).
Tips & Tricks to Detoxing Sugar.
Cold turkey is hard. In fact the moment you tell yourself Im not going to eat any sugar for 10 days, all of a sudden, your body wants sugar, you crave sugar, all you can think about is that damn dark chocolate and glass of wine.
Here's some tricks....
Start by eliminating the sugar in your coffee, use a high fat creamer. Cut out the wine and maybe supplement with.... TEQUILA?! Check the labels on your snacks and protein bars, NO sugar, yall. Drink Cinnamon Tea, this will help the cravings. Add Cinnamon to your smoothies or oatmeals. Eat a Banana! I swear it works. IF you are about to reach for that donut or candy bar, grab a banana and eat that, it slaps the craving hard in the face.
Follow this equation:
- Lemon Water
- Coffee with Nut Pod Vegan Creamer
- Green Juice : Celery, Green apple, Spinach, Cucumber, Lemon
- Smoothie: 1/2 Banana, 1 cup Blueberries, Spinach, Unsweetened Coconut Milk, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Sea Salt.
- Lunch: Protein & Greens or Complex Carbs & Greens
- Afternoon: Cinnamon Tea
- Snack: Celery and Nut Butter
- Dinner: Protein, Fat & Greens.
- Alcoholic Beverage - Tequila, Topo Chico, Lime
- Evening Tea: Ginger & Lemon Tea.
So, there you have it folks. Sugar is confusing so hope this clears up a few questions for ya. Im going to be offering a 30 Day Detox group program in Jan. Write me if your interested. We absolutely cut the "bad" sugar and balance our bodies! And of course, I am not a doctor, so this post is not medical advice but a belief that I have tested on 100's of bodies over 10 years with my clients.