How to Stop Eating Sugar: Advice from Psychologists and Dieticians

Many people believe that the consumption of sugar necessarily leads to the accumulation of excess weight and health problems. It is even called the "white death". Sugar can be quite addictive as a drug. We see it every day and it is in almost all foods. The bad thing is that we don't even know exactly how much of it we are consuming. Let's find out how sugar actually affects the body, and how to get rid of its addiction. And also whether it is worth giving it up completely.

How Sugar Affects the Body

Sugar in its usual form is a white powder, which is a molecule of sucrose. When sugar enters the body, it immediately begins to affect the body. It is barely processed in the stomach and immediately passes on and is digested in the intestines, after which it enters the bloodstream. Sugar is quickly transported through the circulatory system, throughout the body. The sucrose in sugar stores energy. When it enters the body, it is quickly broken down and energy is released.

Nutritionists distinguish between two kinds of sugar: unhealthy and healthy. Bad is the usual refined sugar that everyone is familiar with, which contains sucrose. The products that contain it are also harmful, such as lemonades, pastries, cakes, pastries, nut pastes, and chocolate. And healthy sugar consists of glucose and fructose molecules. They have a positive effect on human health. Such sugar is found in cereals, vegetables, fruits and other natural products.

How sugar is made

Refined sugar is made from all-natural components: sugar cane and sugar beet, but this does not make it useful. After several stages of processing, the output is pure sugar, which we eat. Such a product can hardly be considered a food, it is a chemical substance, which in large doses is very harmful to humans.

The harm of sugar

The emergence of excess weight.

As mentioned earlier, sugar is a good source of energy. But what happens when the body has enough energy? That's right, that energy goes into storage, which is fat. The fat layer in the body has an accumulating function, from which energy will be taken when it is needed, and if it is not needed, it will be stored indefinitely, causing health problems.

Health Problems

Eating too much sugar can cause diabetes. A sedentary lifestyle coupled with a strong sugar addiction contributes to the deposition of fat reserves. If this continues for a long time, there will be problems with the proper functioning of the hormone responsible for sugar processing - insulin. Diabetes can lead to blindness, negatively affects the cardiovascular system, this disease contributes to poor kidney function. The main and most influential factor in the occurrence of diabetes is genetics, but from frequent eating of sweets the disease can also develop. All people with diabetes should adjust their diet so that it contains as few sweets as possible. It is simply necessary for them to avoid sugar.

Another disease that sugar addiction can lead to is fatty liver dystrophy. This is caused by the storage of excess sugar in the liver. Excess glucose processed into fatty blobs is stored in the cells of the liver. After a while, if the excess fat is not processed, the cells begin to die. This leads to dystrophy of the organ.

Eating sweets too often can lead to high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Frequent consumption of this product leads to its overabundance, excess glucose is stored in the blood and impedes the work of metabolic processes in the blood.

Sugar negatively affects dental health by stimulating a destructive effect. The oral cavity is full of bacteria for which sugar is a great food. When food enters your mouth, bacteria begin to multiply and process sugar into acid, which destroys tooth enamel. To keep your teeth as long as possible, you should brush or rinse your mouth after eating (especially sugary foods). There will be less food for the bacteria and they won't ruin your teeth.

Sleep Problems

Eating sweets at bedtime can cause sleep problems. It uses up magnesium to process sugar, which is needed to produce melatonin, the sleep hormone. With a lack of melatonin, it will be harder to fall asleep, and sleep will be restless and intermittent. A person needs a night's rest to repair damage that occurred during the day, to stabilize the work of internal organs. During sleep, the brain analyzes everything that happened during the day, improving some neural connections and destroying others. It's like the brain cleanses the memory of unnecessary debris. Because of lack of sleep a person will have more stress, low productivity, which only increase the desire to eat something sweet.

Why do people often want sweets: the opinion of doctors

In nature, humans do not have such products, which would be dangerous to health and at the same time have a sweet taste. Sweetness as if signaling to us that the fruit is ripe, it can be eaten. Sweet taste has been associated with safety, tranquility and security. This is why we like to eat sweets. There is no pure sugar in nature; man has learned to isolate it from other ingredients. And this product is really very quickly addictive. This can be seen even on MRI scans. You can see on them that after consuming sugar, the same parts of the brain are activated that are activated after drinking alcohol and drugs. Sugar, just like drugs and alcohol, triggers the production of the "happiness hormone.

When trying to give up sweets, just as when trying to give up drugs, the brain stops producing its "happiness hormone", this causes dopamine starvation, which is comparable to the feeling of withdrawal in addicts.

How much sugar can you eat without harming your health

Many people wonder how much sugar you can eat without harming your health? It is not possible to completely get rid of sugar in your diet. Ideally, you need to reduce its consumption so that it accounts for 10 percent of the calories eaten in a day. By the way, the caloric value of sugar is 400 kcal per 100 grams. For example, if a person needs 2,000 kcal per day, he should eat no more than 50 grams of sugar per day. Depending on body weight, this amount may vary. We should not forget that sugar comes into the body with other foods, and especially: buns, cakes and other desserts, they must be taken into account. But the sugar that we get from fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods can be ignored.

Important: 25-50 grams is the norm for an adult. This is the WHO recommendation. For a child, it is half as much.

What happens if you stop eating sweets completely?

1. Body weight decreases. If you eliminate from your diet foods rich in sugar, the body will better control your appetite and will not allow you to eat more than necessary. Stopping glucose intake, combined with a proper diet, will result in a caloric deficit, which will begin to be made up by breaking down the fats stored in the body.
2. Motivation and energy levels in work will increase, and fatigue will disappear. Sugar is a source of energy, but the problem is that it gives too quick an energy rush that disappears after a few minutes. After that there will be a decline of strength and loss of motivation. If you don't use sugar, there will be no surges of glucose in the body, which means that there will be less stress.
3. The work of the organs and the circulatory system improves. As mentioned earlier, sugar is bad for the kidneys, liver and heart. After giving up sweets, there will be nothing else to harm the organs, and they will begin to recover. Giving it up, you can avoid the emergence of many serious diseases.
4. Teeth will stop deteriorating. There will be less food for bacteria in the mouth and therefore they will not be able to destroy teeth quickly in the process of life. There will be noticeably less oral problems.
5. The work of the immune system will improve. Various diseases will go much easier, without complications. This is especially true nowadays. The immune system will begin to fight better against viruses that are trying to harm the body.
6. The quality of sleep will improve. During sleep, the body recovers and the brain "puts everything in its place. After a good night's sleep we feel alert and energized, we remember information better and use it better. Just increase mood and self-confidence.
7. The taste of food opens up. At first, when giving up sweets, the taste of food seems awful. But, if you get used to it, you will start to feel the real taste of food, not spoiled by sugar. For example, you will taste the tea better, you will not like it as much as before, but even more.
8. Your skin problems will disappear. If you give up sugar, you will soon notice that there will be much less acne, which will certainly improve your appearance and self-esteem.

How to overcome the addiction to sweets: psychologists' tips

Reduce your sugar intake gradually

Giving up sweets is a difficult task, which cannot be accomplished in a short time. Gradually reducing your sugar intake can help you kick the habit without serious consequences. If you give up sugar abruptly, it can cause a strong desire to eat any confectionery. Sugar addiction can be equated to drug or alcohol addiction. A withdrawal feeling will occur from abrupt refusal of sugar. In such cases, people give up and eat a lot of sweets, and then regret it.

Stop rewarding yourself with sweets.

In order to work effectively, many people set themselves tasks, after completing which they allow themselves to eat some sweets. This is a very bad way. Not only is the effect of such a method weak, and you are constantly distracted, thinking about the candy, but also harmful sugar is consumed. So you can eat a lot of sweets and not even notice it.

Take all sweets out of sight

It's hard not to think about sweets when they are waiting for us on every corner. In order not to disturb them, it is necessary to get rid of stocks of sweets. And it is better not just to hide them in a safe place, but to get rid of them. Knowing that the last box of chocolates is hidden in the closet, we will not be able to forget about them.

Exercise

In order to achieve noticeable results in sports, you just need to adjust your diet. Sport builds character, which, by the way, will help cope with sugar addiction. Exercise will not only help to get rid of the effects of long-term consumption of sugar in large quantities, but also give additional motivation to get rid of addiction.

How to stop eating sweets: tips from nutritionists

Replace sugar with complex carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates are the best source of energy. They give it much more, unlike sugar. However, it takes time to produce energy. If sugar begins to act immediately, then complex carbohydrates will begin to be converted gradually into energy, within a few hours, but it will be enough for a long time. Slow carbohydrates are found in cereals, grain bread.

Eat right

Eating right means eating healthy foods in the amounts your body needs. A person is unlikely to want to think about sugar if there is no need for new energy. In addition, if you provide your body with natural carbohydrates, which are healthy sugars, you will be able to get over giving up concentrated refined sugar more easily.

Divide sweets into small portions

If you decide not to eliminate sweets from your life, but only to reduce their consumption, it will help you to divide the food into small pieces. Usually we eat, for example, a chocolate bar so that we break off a slice, which consists of 3-4 pieces. In this case, our brain tricks us into thinking that we have eaten only one serving, and we want more. If, on the other hand, you divide the entire chocolate bar into smaller pieces, each piece will be evaluated as one serving. The method is very simple, but it may help someone.

Reduce your caffeine intake

Caffeine in the body provokes an increase in insulin levels in the blood. This makes you crave sweets even more. The problem is that we don't drink coffee alone, but with something sweet, and this only makes it worse. You can replace it with tea, which, of course, is better to drink without sugar.

Take B vitamins.

These vitamins are necessary for a person to fight stress. Many people eat sweets after work, study. If there are no problems with B vitamins, the body will more easily tolerate stress, and then there will be no need to eat sweets for it.

Eat on time

Try to adjust your meals so that you don't have huge intervals during which you never eat. Get used to your schedule. Feeling hungry can make you want to eat something sweet.

Eat fruit in the first half of the day

The main disadvantage of fresh fruit is that it is very low in calories. Eating an apple, for example, will not make you less hungry. The feeling of hunger, on the contrary, will intensify. Fruit should be eaten in the first half of the day. They give the body many useful elements for the whole day. If you still want to eat in the evening, it is better to snack on yogurt or cottage cheese.

Start consuming lemon juice

Nutritionists claim that even a small dose of lemon juice will help lower blood sugar levels. Not only is it a good way to combat excess sugar, but it's also a great way to make your meals much tastier. In addition, lemon juice can help you lose weight.

How to replace sweets when losing weight

There is sugar in almost all foods. But in order to choose products that contain healthy carbohydrates, you need to look at the packaging. If it says that the product does not contain carbohydrates, it means that it does not contain refined sugar, but it may contain natural or artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes, which are harmless.

As mentioned earlier, you can replenish energy with complex carbohydrates, which are contained in cereals. But, what to do if you want a sweet dessert or a small snack. In such cases, sugar can be replaced by:

Fruit and dried fruit.

This is a great snack option. They contain a lot of vitamins, which are very useful for the body. Fruits and dried fruits have a pleasant taste and a minimum of calories. Dried fruits are the same fruit, only without water. They have as many beneficial components as in fresh fruit.

Honey

Honey is the sweetest natural product that can replace sugar. It has many useful components. Honey can be added to tea, baked goods, etc. But some people may be allergic to this product, so it may not be suitable for everyone.

Syrup from topinambur.

This product, like honey, is very useful, only it has a different taste. The syrup can be added to drinks, porridges, pastries instead of sugar.

Stevia

Another natural sugar substitute. It is sold in powder form. Can be added to foods to sweeten them.

Maltose syrup

This product is made from corn flour. It is a component for the production of beer, wine, children's and dietary foods.

Q&A

Is it necessary to give up sweets completely

Excessive consumption of sugary foods is detrimental to everyone's health. At the same time, the body can suffer from a lack of sugar. Experts say that you should not completely deny yourself sugar. It is better to consume sweets in small doses. A safe standard for health is considered to be 25-50 grams for an adult. This is the recommendation of the WHO.

Is it possible to eat fruit when giving up sweets?

Yes, fruit is an ideal product to replace sugar. But it is better to eat them after breakfast, not on an empty stomach.

Is it possible to lose weight by giving up sweets?

Of course. Sugar is a source of energy, if you get rid of it, the body will lack energy, the lack of which it will take from fat reserves. Sugar is part of many desserts that we eat every day. Especially dangerous for the figure are nut pastes, cakes, pastries. It is necessary to realize that in order to lose weight, it is necessary not only to give up sweets. It is also necessary to eliminate fatty foods. In addition, you need to normalize your sleep and exercise.

Will acne disappear if you don't eat sweets?

People who eat too much sweets are at higher risk for acne. Sugar causes the accumulation of insulin, which subsequently increases the level of androgens, which increase the production of sebum, which clogs the pores and causes inflammation and acne. Of course, sugar is not the only cause of acne, others are: genetics, improper care, hormones. But in some cases, it is the product that causes skin problems.

Sugar is not only harmful to the body. Glucose is necessary for the human brain to function properly. If it happens that the brain lacks the energy it takes from carbohydrates, it can impair its function. A person will be less focused, inattentive, irritable, and less productive. We consume sugar not only in its purely refined form, but also in other foods. It is even found in vegetables, fruits, and berries. You can't give it up completely, and you don't need to.

We can stop abusing refined sugar, and it will only make us feel better. It was invented several centuries ago, before that time there were people who did not have problems with the lack of glucose. So, nothing bad will happen if you completely limit the consumption of only refined sugar.

Getting rid of sugar addiction is a very good idea. But it's worth understanding that this is a very difficult task, which cannot be accomplished in one day. It takes months to notice changes. During this time, it is possible to snap many times. You have to learn to be patient and keep yourself in check. What else you need to understand is that this is a habit you have to put away for life. If you snap once and go back to addiction again, all the gains will disappear and you will have to start all over again.