Sugar is like the Boyfriend-You-Know-Is-Bad-for-You-But-You-Just-Can’t Quit
Just think that when you reach for that cookie, ice cream, piece of cake or candy…it just might help.
If you want to know all the ways sugar is killing us, check out the recent NY Times Magazine feature, “Is Sugar Toxic?” that makes the case that sweeteners are directly linked obesity, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and is the most evil ingredient in the food supply. I stopped counting the number of times toxic and poison were used to describe sweeteners.
It’s not like we haven’t tried to tell people that they need to cut back on the amount of added sugars—natural or not—in their diets. It’s just really hard because people are literally “hooked” on sweets.
“Sugar lights up the pleasure centers of the brain just like a drug like heroin. When you eat sugar, (especially on an empty stomach) you’ll fee the high from the rise in blood sugar levels and then you’ll come down and want more of the “fix” to feel good again,” explains Erin Macdonald, RD., a nutrition, fitness and wellness coach in Aliso Viejo, CA.
We are eating more sugars and sweeteners than ever before. In fact, statistics vary, but we’re getting about 79 grams a day (22 or so teaspoons) which comes to 300- 350 calories from just simple carbohydrates with no nutritional value other than calories. Half of all the added sugars in the US diet come from liquid sources like sodas and other sweetened beverages. For reference, a 12-oz can of cola has 33 grams of added sweeteners or about 8 teaspoons. (4 grams of carbohydrate=1 tsp=16 calories)
[sws_pullquote_small align=”sws_pq_left”] Distractions over whether high fructose corn syrup is worse than sugar has taken the focus off the main fact that Americans eat at least three times as much added sugars as they should and none are healthy. [/sws_pullquote_small]
The American Heart Association recommends no more than 100 calories a day for women and 150 calories for men. That’s equal to 6 or 9 tsp of sugars. (This is only for added sweeteners so 100% fruit juice, dried fruit and other natural sugars found naturally in real (read: unprocessed) foods don’t need to be limited.)
How to Get Off The Sweet Stuff
There are two general approaches to un-sweetening your diet: cold turkey and a gradual approach. I’m an advocate of the cold turkey method as I feel it’s more successful in the short-term but critics argue that it’s harder to live with. I agree which is why I have to do it every six months or so.
Going Cold Turkey
Eliminate all sugar substitutes and obvious sources of sweeteners (table sugar, honey, agave, molasses, etc) from your diet. This should re-calibrate your taste buds in a matter of about 3 to 6 weeks so that you’ll find naturally sweet foods (dried fruit, fresh fruit, roasted veggies) well, um, sweet again.
For more inspiration on how to go cold turkey and lose your attachment (read: addiction) to sugars, check out the great post from our colleague, Ryan Andrews, MS, MA, RD, of Precision Nutrition, who chronicled his sugarless diet in “Sugar Daddy: A Year Without Desserts.” He discusses how it makes a healthier diet easier and resulted in natural weight loss—without trying to lose weight.
Smaller Steps to Slash Sugar
Another good approach that can be more lifelong pattern forming is to start by finding out where you’re getting sugar in your diet and then tackling one source at a time. “Track what you eat so you can note the sugar content and sources of sugar in your diet. Then, decide where you can make changes to replace high-sugar foods with those lower in sugar,” says Lynn Grieger, RD, CDE a dietitian, personal trainer and writer based in Manchester, VT.
And when you do enjoy sweets, try to always eat them with other foods that contain protein, fiber or unsaturated fats as that will help diminish their metabolic impact. A dessert at the end of the meal isn’t nearly as bad as the same dessert eaten as a snack on its own. It’s what experts say explain as a food being isocaloric (meaning the same calories) but not isometabolic (meaning it has a different way of being metabolized).
Either approach you want to take (cold turkey vs gradual) are good but both have high failure rates so there’s no way to slack off when it comes to sugars in your diet. Remember…bad boyfriend.
…and a Word About Sugar Substitutes
Sugar substitutes (including natural options like stevia-based sweeteners) should be eliminated on the cold turkey approach when recalibrating your taste buds. There may also be other metabolic consequences with appetite control that make sugar subs problematic. If you absolutely cannot give them up, try to cut back how much you’re using.
I presented a seminar for dietitians re: insulin resistance (IR) over 14 years ago. I discussed “being in the sugar”–that place where someone continually craves sugar. It is triggered by the first taste and tends to escalate as one increases dose/frequency. One dietitian noted, “I eat some sugar every day and I don’t ever feel addicted.” She wanted to dismiss the phenomena since it wasn’t her experience.
The relative “addictive” quality of sugar has much to do with someone’s overall metabolic status. I find that the more insulin resistant a person is, the more likely they are triggered eating sugar and feel “addicted”. Very insulin sensitive folks don’t typically have this experience.
IR is a relative and fluid state. The medical community likes to align IR with the metabolic syndrome with arbitrary cut points of who is or isn’t IR. That’s not my understanding. Whenever someone is relatively more insulin resistant, they are more vulnerable to sugar cravings.
Particularly intense IR states include puberty, luteal phase of menses, pregnancy, menopause, times of high stress, when increasing body fat, use of many medications, especially psychoactive meds, and more.
I forgot to add the most relevant information.
When someone is vulnerable, the first bite often cues them for the entire day. They want more. If they have sweet the second day, they find they shift and now look for an opportunity everywhere. It’s as if they now have radar for all things refined and carbohydrate.
If they continue and eat sweet a third day, they feel like they shift into hunt mode. They are preoccupied by the thought of when and how they are going to get their next hit.
It can take weeks and months to quiet down systemic insulin resistance (probably exacerbated with disturbances in ghrelin and other gut and neuropeptide regulatoin). At the same time, in an acute state of being “in the sugar”, a three day abstinence can quiet symptoms dramatically. Many of my clients note than there is a tangible lessening of the desire for and preoccupation with sweets by the end of the second day. By the third day they feel like they can readily choose not to have the sweet. Is feels like liberation to not be “in the sugar”, but they stay exquisitely vulnerable.
Bonnie, as always, you provide the BEST commentary on our posts
Love it!
J
This weekend I had a discussion with a friend of mine about added sugars. She is an RN with two boys at home and tries to avoid added sugars. However, she was unware that the sugar content on the nutrition fact label includes both naturally occuring sugars and added sugars. I explained to her that to identify the added sugar content, you needed to compare the sweetened version to the non-sweetened and subtract the value of the non-sweetened from the sweetened (for example, when comparing sweetened vs. unsweeted applesauce, yogurts, or milks).
Sugar is evil, toxic and very addictive to me personally. Even the sugars in fruits can be a catalyst for me to want something “stronger”.
I did a team presentation to athletes on this very same topic. Priceless when I see their facial expressions on the avg amounts of added sugar consumed daily and what it equates to (bagel and jam anyone?).
Bonnie- excellent and interesting points. Thanks for sharing! Chrissy