What Happens When You Slash Your Sugar Consumption In Half? Even Worse — What Happens When You Don’t?
On my journey to healing my relationship with food, (with a past of disordered eating), I now allow myself whatever I want. I am not allowed to judge myself or feel bad about it. I’ve noticed that a couple different times as I consumed more sugar, I only craved more sugar. No longer was I interested in “normal” foods. Since this has been occurring, I’ve decided to cut back a little on my sugar intake.
Self-Care
Even though I am learning to not judge myself and not to restrict food deliberately, there is still an aspect of self-care that needs to be taken seriously. And I am making sure I am doing this with love. Doing it for myself, not against myself (like I did in the past). Self-care does not mean letting yourself have everything you want, letting yourself back out of plans that you know would benefit your life, or allowing yourself to have no discipline whatsoever because you don’t feel like it.
I digress…
My main goal in doing this was to have more stable energy levels. My energy is extremely low most of the time. I know that sugar is a HUGE contributor to this. Here’s how it’s going:
My Sugar Reduction “Experiment”
Starting August 23rd
Day one: I craved sugar in the morning, but after Intermittent Fasting and walking the dog, I then craved a healthy protein filled breakfast.
As my energy decreased throughout the day, I felt the desire to eat more sweets, but I resisted…mostly.
My goal was to be around 40 grams (which is still pretty high) and my total is…..70! Okay, it may look bad, but compared to how much I have been eating…and how much I resisted today. This is definitely an improvement.
Day Two: I craved sugar in the morning but not as bad as yesterday. I put pb & j on bread and it was 14 grams of sugar!!! Lately I’ve been in a habit of eating sweets in my car. I spent a lot of time in my car yesterday for work and I had no desire to eat the sweets. Okay well, a little desire. I thought about it a couple times but then I thought of how high the sugar content is and I was no longer interested.
Day Three: Day three went sort of well, I had a high protein breakfast and out of habit I had some sugary snacks I had leftover. Later in the day I had a little bit more so I had 60 grams of sugar today. And honestly I know this is significantly less than what I have been eating.
My energy levels have been about the same, maybe slightly better but my depression is pretty bad today.
Day Four: I had sort of a lot of sugar in the morning, I had an emotionally rough night and didn’t sleep well. That made me want the comfort of sugar. I had 3 cookies which put me at 69 grams. Daily total is about 70 give or take a few. This might seem high to some but for me I know it’s an improvement! Something that I knew I really needed is that other food is becoming slightly more appealing to me. When I was consuming a lot of sugar I didn’t want “real food”. I only craved sweets and junk. I knew that was a problem and not good for my health.
Day Five: Too busy to update
Day Six: I had sugary cookies at like 5 in the morning and then I went back to sleep and then woke up with a headache for the rest of the day and pretty low energy. Is sugar the culprit???
Day Seven: This day I hiked up the Manitou Incline and then another 4 miles. Didn’t track my sugar but it wasn’t a whole lot.
Day Eight: Today….let’s just say doughnuts. I just calculated and I had 66 grams of sugar. And yes I know it’s a lot but hey I’m actually kind of happy about that. (because I know it’s an improvement!)
On a positive note, my energy levels have been way higher and more consistent than they have been in a long time!
Day Nine: Today I ate zero sugary things!!! I just realized this in the evening and it’s pretty cool. I was kind of busy today and wasn’t trying to resist or anything.
Results and Observations Of Sugar Reduction
Now it’s September 14th and eating less sugar has been very easy. I’ve had way less headaches and overall more energy. I also feel happier lately.
It seems as though my fullness signals have become more sensitive, I can no longer eat 4 cream filled donuts in one setting…😅
At first it was daily but now I count grams of sugar every once in a while. Most days I know I am consuming a low amount that it isn’t worth it to count. Also, I am less bloated! I didn’t think that sugar contributed to my bloating problem, but it makes sense that it would!
After doing this “experiment”/ new lifestyle choice, and researching, here are 6 wonderful benefits you’ll get from reducing your sugar consumption! ( by sugar consumption I am referring to added sugars, not natural sugars from fruit or veggies)
Benefits of Reducing Your Sugar Intake
- Younger, Healthier Looking Skin
Collagen is the protein that keeps your skin plump and elastic. When you consume sugar your body goes through glycation. This slows down the repairing of your skin’s collagen! High sugar intake can reduce skin’s elasticity and cause premature wrinkles. Reducing your sugar intake can combat these visible signs of aging, yay!
- Long Lasting Energy
When our blood sugar spikes drastically aka any time you consume a high sugary food (look out, it can be hiding in bbq sauce and ketchup…), your blood sugar spikes so high up, higher than it normally would, and then in a couple hours it comes crashing down (along with your energy level). It goes down even lower than it normally would, leaving you incredibly fatigued and sometimes with brain fog.
Replacing more sugary treats with high protein and healthy fats, gives you a more stable blood sugar level, thus leveling out your energy to get you through the day feeling better than ever.
- Abdominal Fat Disappears
When consuming sugary treats, your body becomes flooded with insulin. Over time, this flood of insulin tells your body to store fat in your stomach area. Fat in your middle section is called visceral fat. This type of fat is unhealthy as it generates unhealthy hormones that then travel to blood vessels and organs, causing inflammation, heart disease, and cancer!
Luckily, by reducing your intake of these sugary treats you will lose your belly fat and the cascade of unhealthy hormones.
- Become Slimmer
Frequently flooding your system with insulin-spiking treats causes an increase in calorie storage in fat cells all over your body.
“endocrinologist David Ludwig, MD, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and coauthor of Always Delicious. “I call insulin the Miracle-Gro for your fat cells. It’s just not the sort of miracle you want happening in your body.””
Replace sugary foods and refined carbs with healthy fats to stabilize insulin levels and you still store less fat. In doing this you will also reduce your hunger/cravings, have a faster metabolism and will lose weight.
- Lower Diabetes Risk
Losing excess pounds helps protect you from getting type 2 diabetes. This increased insulin from a high sugar diet, overtaxes the cells that produce insulin and causes them to malfunction. This eventually leads to diabetes.
- Increase Your Heart Health
“A 2014 study revealed that people who consumed 17% to 21% of their daily calories from the sweet stuff had a 38% higher risk of dying from heart disease compared with those who kept their added sugar intake to 8% of their daily calories.”
The New York Times published an article explaining that reducing your sugar intake improved heart disease dramatically. It improves levels of fat, protein, and cholesterol that are linked to heart disease.
“ It also supports the findings of a major study published in JAMA Internal Medicine that found that a sugar-laden diet increases the risk of death due to heart disease even if you aren’t obese.”
Sugar Addiction
I’m not planning on giving up added sugar completely, but I am so happy I did this experiment. I will indulge a little here and there but continue having some level of restraint. If you’d like to learn more about sugar addiction here is a helpful slideshow from WebMD:
https://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-sugar-addiction
https://www.health.com/nutrition/health-benefits-quitting-sugar