Is there a sugar addiction?
According to the latest data, about 30% of the world’s population suffers from sugar addiction. Doctors consider a diet high in added sugar to be an addiction: the craving for sweets in a person who overeats (the conventional norm is 30 grams per day) is quite comparable to that caused by drugs.
Even those who are in good health do not benefit from the abuse of sweets. Alas, the rush of dopamine, the “reward hormone” that the sweet tooth’s brain hunts for, comes with extra pounds and a high risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And the main paradox of refined sugar is that despite its reputation as an “energizer”, it is able to literally “suck” energy from us.
One of the most high-calorie foods on the planet burns in our body in a maximum of half an hour and, in addition to glucose, does not saturate the body with any nutrients, but it causes a sharp deficiency of thiamine or vitamin B1, which is responsible for the production of energy in the metabolic process, and stores reserve energy, glycogen, in tissues. As a result, the higher the single dose of sugar, the weaker we feel afterwards. And people who regularly plunge into a “sugar coma” involuntarily fall into a vicious circle of chronic fatigue.
How to stop? 5 steps
But the good news is that everyone can become sugar-free. The hardest part is hold out without his overdose for three weeks in a row… And then you yourself will not notice how the attraction to sweets will fade away. One question remains – how not to break loose and endure such a “savory” life? Nutritionists and neuroscientists are recommending a few surefire ways.
1. The first step to quitting the “white poison” is to get into the habit of reading the labels on all the products you buy. You will have to make an unpleasant discovery: you will find sugar in a large number of products from the supermarket. And this is not about cakes and sweets, and not about soda and cereals. And about food, which, at first glance, has nothing to do with sweets: semi-finished meat products, yoghurts, ordinary bread, mayonnaise and other sauces – even soy! What can we say about fruit juices and nectars, in which the content of sugar syrup sometimes reaches 40%! At first, this reading will seem tedious to you, but after a week you will probably already know the sugar “potential” of most foods.
2. A sharp exclusion from the menu of the usual, albeit dubious food – almost always stress for the body. Therefore, do not go to extremes, completely forbidding yourself with sugary foods. This is a direct way to break loose sooner or later and return to a vicious circle. If, God forbid, after strict abstinence you immediately throw yourself, for example, on chocolates, then the body may even react with an allergic shock.
Just make sure not to exceed your legal 30 grams (this is if you need 2000 kcal per day, and the exact figure can be deduced by counting 5% of your personal calorie intake). And choose their source with care. Let it be a spoonful of honey, a small piece of dark chocolate or marshmallow with a natural composition.
Whichever you choose, try to savor the sweet taste, as if to dissolve the delicacy in your mouth: this way the signals of satiety will have time to reach your brain and you will not eat too much. Add unrefined cane or coconut sugar to tea and coffee – they do not cause such a strong surge in insulin as beet sugar. And the price tag of such sugar serves as an excellent incentive in order not to get carried away with tea drinking (do not forget that 30 grams is only 6 tablespoons of sugar, which means that no more than 3 cups a day is allowed, provided that all other products do not contain any grams of sugar).
3. Your goal during the marathon is to try to suppress sugar hunger. Fast carbohydrates – white bread, white flour pasta, French fries – invariably trigger it, so go for slow carbohydrates and pair them with protein: together they are more resistant to the glycemic hit. Whole grain bread sandwiches with tuna, chicken, or egg, whole grain pasta, or a serving of sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes with a lower glycemic index than regular) are good choices. Sugar-containing sauces can be successfully replaced with mustard. But again, read the packaging carefully.
4. Do not leave yourself even a chance to break loose. During the anti-sugar marathon, nutritionists advise eating your thirst for sweets with crispy vegetables. These can be cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots and celery.
5. Outsmart your brain with spices and herbs! Nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon added to porridge or sugar-free yogurt will not only make them more flavorful and tasty. Spices speed up metabolism.
Another life
Of course, after just three weeks, you still won’t feel a big change. But something, all the same, will change. Your skin will get better, and the numbers on the scales will probably go down a little. But most importantly, you will feel a surge of energy and will get better sleep and remember. Keep up the good work if you don’t want to carry extra weight with you all the time, age prematurely, experience heart failure, and be treated for a host of other illnesses.