This is huge and really demands that we go engage in completely de sugaring our food chain. It has finally become a rare addition to my personal diet. Yet is is only the past year in which i can walk past an ice cream store and not be tempted.
The problem remains with the whole processed food chain.
The good news is that you can use a couple heaping teaspoons a day as is useful. however you have to learn how to get to zero first and that is the real monkey for most. .
How Giving Up Refined Sugar Changed My Brain
Consuming refined sugar can impact mood, decision-making, and memory. Here’s how good it can be to give it up.
Michael Grothaus
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-giving-up-refined-sugar-changed-my-brain?utm_source=pocket-newtab
I have a love-hate relationship with food. I love it; it
generally hates me. Matter of fact, I love food so much that until a few
years ago, I was extremely overweight. So overweight that I invented a piece of health tech to help me lose 80 pounds.
It worked, and since then I’ve remained a healthy weight primarily by
making sure I count my calories, don’t overeat, and get regular
exercise.
And for the most part, it’s been smooth sailing, and I even
eat whatever I want most of the time: fish, chicken, pasta, diet soda,
fruity yogurts, and a sweet snack once a day like a bag of M&M’s or a
brownie. I also love my daily coffee with a few packets of sugar. A
calorie is a calorie, right? As long as I don’t go above 2,000 calories a
day, I know I won’t gain weight and I’ll remain a generally healthy
person.
When I recently mentioned my weight loss and current daily
dietary intake to a doctor friend of mine, I expected her to
congratulate me on my success. And though she did, she also cautioned me
that while my daily calorie levels were something to continue, she was
worried I was getting too much refined sugar in my diet. As she knows I
have an interest in not only maintaining a healthy weight but in mental fitness as well, she pointed out that study after study shows how bad refined sugar is for both our waistlines and our brains.
She explained that eating too much refined sugar–which is
found in most sweets, sodas, white breads, and pastas, virtually all
“fat free” and “low fat” snacks, fruit juices, yogurts, energy drinks,
most Starbucks drinks (including many coffees), sauces (ketchup, BBQ
sauces, mayo, pasta sauces), and countless other packaged foods–has now
been shown to make us cranky, make us make rash decisions, and make us stupid.
My friend’s point was clear: Just because I’m thin and my blood tests
show no sign of diabetes, it doesn’t meant the amount of refined sugar
I’m eating isn’t negatively effecting my health.
How Much Sugar Should You Eat in a Day?
The American Heart Association says men should eat no more than 37.5 grams of sugar a day and women should eat no more than 25 grams. But the World Health Organization now says even those allowances are too high, suggesting both men and women should eat 25 grams or fewer each day. The average American currently eats 126 grams of sugar a day–though most don’t realize it. Much of that amount comes from the refined sugars added to our foods during manufacturing.
[ this is over ten heaping teaspoons of sugar and exactly why i quit my coffee habit decades ago. arclein ]
Still, I found it hard to believe the refined sugar I was
eating at every meal could really effect my cognitive abilities so much,
so my friend said there was only one way to find out for sure: give up
all refined sugar for two weeks to see if I noticed any changes.
And that’s exactly what I did. The day I began my two-week
refined-sugar-free diet, I thought it was mostly a pointless exercise,
and that I would notice little, if any, differences. How wrong I was. By
the time I finished, it was nothing short of a revelation.
Giving up refined sugar isn’t easy from a practical standpoint. It’s found in virtually all packaged foods and drinks and most food at fast food restaurants (a large Big Mac meal deal has 85 grams of sugar–236%
of your daily allowance). That means if I were to escape refined sugar,
I was going to have to spend more time at home cooking fresh foods than
I was used to. Further, not only would I have to cut out my once-a-day
sweet treat, but also all canned drinks (soda, energy drinks, and fruit
juices), white breads and pastas, and those deceptively “healthy”
yogurts with fake fruity sauces added for taste. I also gave up sugar
and milk in my coffee.
Instead of all of the above, my refined-sugar-free diet for
two weeks consisted of only fresh foods: fruits and vegetables, fish,
chicken, and meat, and whole-grain pasta and rice. Most of these I
already ate regularly–only side by side with foods containing refined
sugar.
It’s also important to note that for these two weeks I did
not give up sugar entirely, only refined sugar. I ate plenty of natural
sugar–those found primarily in fruits, and the ones that the body turns
into glucose
from the meats, fats, and carbohydrates we eat, which are a very
important source of fuel for the body and, more importantly, the brain.
Without the consumption of natural sugars, the body would not have
enough fuel to survive for long.
One last critical point: I didn’t change my daily calorie
intake during my two-week journey. I stuck to eating between 1,900 and
2,100 calories a day, just as I do when I eat a diet with refined-sugar
foods. I also kept to my normal exercise regimen. With everything set, I
began a refined-sugar-free diet. Here’s what I experienced.
The first day I eliminated refined sugars from my diet, I
thought it was going to be a cakewalk. I ate plenty of fruits, had fish
for lunch, and a steak with a side of vegetables for dinner. I missed
the sugar and milk in my coffee and I did miss my daily sugary treat–but
it wasn’t such a challenge giving them up.
Things changed radically on the second day. Even though I
had had a filling breakfast and lunch (two oranges, eggs, and
whole-grain rice with vegetables), around 2 p.m. I suddenly felt like I
had been hit by a truck. I felt foggy and had a headache, which never
happens on my normal diet. This fogginess and the headaches continued
intermittently for the next two to three days. During that time, I had
intense cravings for both soda and sugary treats. On the third day, I
actually got the shakes for a period of time. It was very, very hard not
to have something sweet. [ WOW that is one hell of a withdrawal signal and i would not have thought it possible. arclein ]
“As you were not feeding your addiction, your brain was shouting out to have sugar to satisfy its cravings,” says Rebecca Boulton,
a nutritional therapist who specializes in hormonal health and sugar
cravings, whom I contacted to help me make sense of what was happening
in my body. “This is a period of adjustment, and starts with the
cravings being more intense before they start to get better.”
Intense? By the end of Day 4, I would have sold my dog for a
brownie. The fogginess and lack of focus at one point got so bad, I was
worried I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the stories I needed to
file that week. I seriously considered having an energy drink “for the
good of my health” (I resisted). Needless to say, the continuing brain
fog and resulting lack of focus made me very irritable and even
depressed. I became cranky and impatient, and was unable to concentrate
on things for significant lengths of time.
“Your body was still having a hard time adjusting to the new
foods and reduction in sugar,” explains Boulton. “It is programmed to
get energy from sugar, and it takes time to get used to getting it from a
different source. It almost feels like a hangover as your body is
getting used to the withdrawal of sugar.”
[ talk about having a real reason to get of this crap. who thought that it was that addictive - arclein ]
[ talk about having a real reason to get of this crap. who thought that it was that addictive - arclein ]
But then on Day 6, something happened. The fogginess began
to disappear along with the lingering headaches. The fruits I were now
eating on a daily basis began tasting sweeter. By Day 8 or 9, I felt
more focused and clear-headed than I had at any time in recent memory.
This translated into greater productivity–for example, I was more
engaged when interviewing sources for stories. I was better able to
focus on what they were saying and could rapidly respond to their
answers with new queries and reformulated ideas with a speed and clarity
I’ve never possessed before. While reading a book or article, I felt
like I absorbed more detail and information. In short, I felt smarter.
Boulton says that the increased sweetness I began to taste
in fruits was a sign my body was adjusting to being freed from nonstop
refined-sugar intake. My tastebuds were adjusting to the newly
recognizable natural sweetness of fruits. In turn, my headaches stopped
because my body was no longer fighting the sugar cravings. “Your blood
sugars are balanced without the constant roller coaster of sugar highs
and lows,” says Boulton, “which reduces your brain fog and increases
mental clarity.”
And talk about clarity: By the final days of my diet
journey, I felt so focused, it was as if I were a different person. This
translated to a change in mood that not only I noticed, but my friends
as well. As dumb as this sounds, I just felt happier than I had been two
weeks earlier.
But mood and mental clarity weren’t the only benefits I
noticed by the final days of my refined-sugar-free diet. Sleep is a
critical part of mental health. Not only does it give the conscious mind
respite from the day’s activities, it helps flush out toxins from the brain. A good night’s sleep also helps make us smarter.
“Your insulin levels are regulated when your blood sugars
are balanced,” explains Boulton. “[This] promotes good sleep patterns
and gives you consistent energy, which also reduces fatigue and means
you can focus more. This has a knock-on effect on the rest of your
hormones as they work synergistically, which also improves energy,
sleep, and brain function.”
I had no expectation that giving up refined sugar would help
me sleep better, but it did. On average, by Day 6 or 7, I fell to sleep
within 10 minutes of lying down. Before I cut refined sugars from my
diet, it usually took me about 30 minutes to fall to sleep. I also
discovered I began waking earlier and more naturally, and that it wasn’t
as hard to get out of bed in the morning.
The final thing I want to mention about my
refined-sugar-free diet was its effect on my weight. I did not undertake
this experiment to shed pounds, and since this wasn’t a weight-loss
diet, I kept to eating the same number of calories as before. I also ate
plenty of fats (red meat, avocados) and plenty of carbs and natural
sugars (from fruit, veg, and whole grains). The only thing that I
changed about my diet is I eliminated any calories from refined sugars.
And I lost 12 pounds in two weeks.
The reason is though my calorie intake remained the same, my
body was no longer fighting a constant deluge of refined-sugar intake
it needed to process nonstop, says Boulton.
“Sugar spikes your blood sugar and insulin levels, as well
as disrupting your neurotransmitters in the brain, which increases fat
storage,” explains Boulton. “Eating more protein, fiber, fruit, and
vegetables increases your metabolism, and your body burns it off more
efficiently. It really isn’t just about the calories but about the
quality of foods you eat and the way your body processes them.”
After two weeks of eating a refined-sugar-free diet, I can
say my simple assumptions about the effects of my previous diet on my
body and cognitive function were wrong. After giving up refined sugars
for only two weeks, I feel as if a veil has been lifted and I can see clearly for the first time.
Mentally, I feel better than I have in years. I’m happier,
more aware, and more focused. I sleep better without any disruptions and
wake more refreshed than ever–I haven’t felt this energetic since I was
a teenager. My relationship with hunger has also changed. Sure, I still
get hungry–just nowhere near as often. Eating a diet free from refined
sugars fills me up and keeps me full for seven or eight hours. This has
changed my concept of what my previous bouts of “hunger” actually were. I
now realize that prior to this diet, most of the times I had felt
“hungry”–every three hours or so–it was my body reaching out for another
sugar hit. It wasn’t true hunger.
As for those previous daily sweet cravings I assumed were
perfectly natural: sugar in my coffee? Don’t even miss it. Those shelves
full of candy bars at the check out? When I now see those sticks of
chocolate-coated refined sugar, they might as well be pulped
cardboard–that’s how much I now desire to eat them. Weaning myself off
refined sugars has also allowed my body to reset what it perceives as
sweet. For the first time in my life, the richness and nuance of the
flavors of fruits and vegetables pop when I eat them. Now I understand
why a century ago, oranges were given to children on Christmas Day–they
were an incredibly sweet treat. Who needed chocolates?
As positive as my experience has been–and as great as I
feel–I’m worried that I won’t be able to keep saying no to refined
sugar. The odds are stacked against me. Refined sugar is hidden in tens
of thousands of foods and its addictive effect on the brain is more powerful than that of cocaine.
Its presence and its marketing power are everywhere, which makes it
nearly unavoidable unless you are willing to do what I did and prepare
all of your meals using only fresh foods–something time and work
commitments don’t always make possible.
Still, the benefits I’ve experienced from cutting refined
sugar from my diet for only two weeks are too powerful to ignore. And
that, I hope, will be enough.
Michael Grothaus is a novelist, journalist, and former screenwriter represented worldwide by Marjacq Scripts Ltd
. His debut novel EPIPHANY JONES is out now from Orenda Books.
Contact his agent at Marjacq Scripts Ltd.
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