Sweet Thing! Practice Sugar Distancing

2020 has shaken us in a way we never experienced before, with a contagious Pandemic affecting humankind physically, economically, sociologically, and psychologically. To save lives we are learning new ways to work, learn, move, socialize, among many other things. As we maneuver this crisis, it is taking an immeasurable toll on our emotions. Some of us are using food to cope with the uncertainty.

Using food as fulfillment, not as fuel, impacts our wellbeing. Today I am going to concentrate on sugar, and will share what Sugar Distancing is, why it’s important, and how to add strategies to implement to your day-to-day life while protecting your health.

“ Here are some reasons why considering Sugar Distancing is important/critical/makes sense:”

-  Sugar is addictive: It fuels your brain’s cells and lights up your brain’s reward system. When sugar levels run low, your brain sends a signal - in the form of a craving - encouraging you to keep the steady supply of pleasure coming. By constantly rewarding those cravings, you get stuck on the sugar roller coaster.

-  Sugar increases belly fat: When you eat sugar, your body breaks it down into glucose and fructose. Your pancreas produces insulin to move glucose from your bloodstream into the cells where it will be burned for energy or stored as fat. Fructose gets metabolized in the liver, to use for energy or convert it into glycogen. When glycogen stores are full, fructose gets converted to fat.

-  Sugar hurts your gut microbiome: Unhealthy bacteria thrive on sugar and simple carbohydrates. They are believed to contribute to increased inflammation in the body, which can result in obesity, hypertension, or blood sugar instability. If not treated properly, sugar levels could remain consistently elevated, increasing your risk for type 2 diabetes. It could also increase the chances to develop Alzheimer’s by 60%.

-  Sugar weakens the immune system: Sugar can have an impact on how white blood cells perform and can increase inflammatory markers. It can lead to high triglycerides, blood sugar and high blood pressure levels, as well as obesity. Sugars exponentially raises the risk for autoimmune diseases.

These are strong reasons to reexamine your relationship with sugar. But I know It’s so much easier said than done; honestly, it’s so hard to make the right choices when sugar is hidden in so many products. Sugar enhances flavor, shelter life, and increases dependency of the product. That combined with misleading labeling and marketing information lead us to make misinformed purchases and overconsumption that could harm our system.

“Now, let’s examine what sugar does to our body:”

Sugar, a simple type of carbohydrate, will be broken down in the body to the simplest form of sugar, fructose and glucose, and then used by the body for energy metabolism or stored as fat.  

Sugar is found naturally in plants, including fruits (fructose), vegetables, dairy (lactose) and can also be added to food during preparation process (such as baked goods, ketchup, yogurt). The confusion begins with the types of sugars and syrup available in the market which are considered added sugars. Added sugar can sneak into foods that don’t event taste sweet. Even worse, there are at least 52 different names making it extremely confusing to consumers.  Here are some of the many names of sugar:

To learn more about some of the above sugars, click here:

https://www.sugar.org/wp-content/uploads/Sweeteners-you-might-find-in-your-food-2019.pdf

“Practicing Sugar Distancing”

I hope the information provokes you to self-reflect and re-examine your current relationship with sugar. On a day-to-day basis, there are ways to cut back, adding better options, and tactics to train your brain to depend less on sugar so you can become healthier all around. Among the beautiful consequences of this practice: feeling energized, clear minded, fresh and healthy. 

Here is how to take control:

1.      Eat more fruit and vegetables by adding them to every meal: Adding a green smoothie for breakfast, a fresh salad to your lunch, a salad and cooked vegetables to your dinner, and for snack add raw veggies or fruits.

Here my signature Sunshine Green Smoothie

2.       Make Sugar Invisible at home:

Be the architect of the environment you can control: your home. Refresh your fridge and pantry with wholefoods. It will help you create better choices when willpower dissolves (and we all have those moments).

Here are some ideas for snacks

3.     Food labeling: Make an informed decision about the food you eat. Read the labels and understand the products you are about to consume. By cooking and preparing most of your meals with wholefood products, you will save yourself all the trouble of checking every food label you purchase. However, that is not always realistic in our busy life. So, take some time to study the ingredients:

• Scan for whole foods listed as first 3 ingredients. Ingredients are listed by quantity – from highest to lowest

•   Avoid products that include refined grains, a type of sugar, or hydrogenated oils               

•   Highly processed products have 2 to 3 lines of ingredients

• Check the Servings Size: To identify the nutritional value of what you are eating, you need to multiply the serving giving x servings you consumed

•   Keep in mind the recommendations from The World Health Organization: Consume fewer than 25 grams/day of added sugar women, 35 grams for men

4.      Drink Plenty of water: In your brain, hunger and thirst is a similar sensation that is often confused. So, drink plenty of water throughout the day! You might just be thirsty. Always have a bottle with you and create a goal. For example, Drink 2 bottles through the day, 1 extra bottle when working out.

5..      Sweet Potatoes, Beets, and berries: These sweet whole foods will help you feel satisfied and dissipate cravings.

6.      When certain hormones are out of balance, your body might send signals to crave fast-acting sugar.

For example: Magnesium Glycinate could help you with that. While Spinach has the highest percentage of magnesium, it is not nearly enough to fulfill daily recommendations (400-850 mg/day):

·        6 cups of raw spinach = 157 mg magnesium

Start with a low dose- 250mg and increase it slowly (this supplement might give you diarrhea).

Other Magnesium-rich food are nuts, avocado, salmon, tofu, dark chocolate, and legumes.

Now is your turn to take the above practice into action, to finally distance yourself from sugar, and enjoy the benefits of it! Your body and brain will thank you.