3 reasons why you should stop eating sugar
Editor’s note: Please welcome Sara Best of If Your Body Could Talk. We all know to some degree that too much sugar is bad for you and it’d be good to stop eating sugar, but Sara succinctly spells out why, in her guest post below. If you’re looking for a more in-depth plan of action to busting your sugar and carb cravings, I highly recommend the book “The 21-Day Sugar Detox” by Diane Sanfilippo, that walks you through the process of weaning yourself off sugar in just three weeks.
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Arguably, refined sugar is the single worst food on the planet.
It offers zero nutritional value and contributes to a whole host of health hazards from diabetes to heart disease, obesity to depression.
Unfortunately, sugar is also one of most addictive foods on the planet and, as a result, is intentionally used by almost every major food producer to make their products more attractive and irresistible to consumers.
It’s added to ketchup, salad dressing, pasta sauce, sandwich bread and canned vegetables. Heck, it’s even added to table salt!
Avoiding sugar is no small feat, but it’s a battle worth waging.
Here are three reasons to stop eating sugar today:
1. Eating Sugar is a Blood Sugar Roller Coaster Ride
We all know how this one works. You feel tired and a little sad. You need to wake up —Â there’s work to do! You grab a donut or a cookie or even an “it-looks-really-healthy-on-the-box” granola bar. You eat it and up the rollercoaster track you go.
It feels great! It’s a rush! Look how tiny everyone looks from here!
But what goes up, must come down and an hour later you’re plummeting down that coaster track, the ground hurtling towards you. You feel grumpy, tired, and a little sad again.
Up and down, up and down. This condition, also known as “dysglycemia,” not only plays havoc on your energy levels and mood, it can make you anxious, shaky and nervous. It can cause headaches and make it seem impossible to lose that 10lbs you’ve been trying to shed.
Even worse, over time it can lead to diabetes, heart disease and stroke. It’s no joke.
2. Eating Sugar Causes Inflammation
When you eat large amounts of sugar your body needs to pump out a large amount of insulin to try to move all that extra sugar in your blood into your cells where it can convert it into a usable form of energy.
Your body can quickly become overwhelmed by these large amounts of sugar, and unable to produce enough insulin to move all that sugar into the cells.
This means that the sugar sits in your blood for much longer than it should and actually causes damage to the blood vessels and other tissues. As with any other damage it finds, the body responds with an inflammatory reaction to try to heal itself.
And, as we are now learning more and more, where we have inflammation, we have all kinds of chronic disease and illness such as arthritis, eczema, psoriasis, allergies and even heart disease.
3. Eating Sugar Throws Your Hormones Out of Whack
If you’re struggling with PMS, infertility, low libido, acne or any other condition commonly linked to hormonal imbalance, the best thing you can do is ditch the sugar.
Chronically unstable blood sugar (i.e., years of riding the roller coaster described above) takes a heavy toll on your adrenal glands, thyroid and liver; all important players in your hormonal (endocrine) system.
These guys already have enough work to do. If you want them to keep your body luscious and humming, don’t make their jobs any harder!
So there you go, three solid reasons to break up with sugar…today (it’s not me, it’s you).
While quitting the white stuff might be one of the toughest things you ever do (check out my own sugar detox story), in the long run you’re going to feel great, look amazing and get back the energy you had when you were a kid. I promise you, it’s worth it.
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Photo credit: Sugar cubes by David Pacey
Sara Best is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and an award-winning writer and the creator of the popular blog If Your Body Could Talk.
You can follow Sara on Twitter or on Facebook.
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April 28 | Sara Best
3 thoughts on “3 reasons why you should stop eating sugar”
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April 30 at 4:31 pm
What a great post! So straightforward, but so effective in communicating why sugar doesn’t benefit our health.
April 30 at 5:45 pm
I agree! Sara did a great job 🙂
April 30 at 5:52 pm
Very clear and helpful info for all of us struggling to wean ourselves off our sugar addiction. Thanks for having Sara as your guest!