Cake, cookies, ice cream, and soda all have one major thing in common: sugar.
Cutting sugar out of your life is never an easy decision–at first–but once you begin to see the benefits, you’ll wonder why it was there in the first place.
Unfortunately, sugar isn’t just found in obvious culprits. It can be found in even the most seemingly healthy snacks, foods, and drinks. Because of this, it can wreak havoc on your new healthy lifestyle.
If you pay close attention, you’ll be able to completely eliminate sugar from your diet and look forward to the following ten benefits!
Keep reading for more information!
Weight Loss
This benefit may seem obvious, but when cutting sugar, you will shed pounds. This is because sugar is a simple carbohydrate, which is exactly the type of carbohydrate that your body burns for energy.
Removing sugar from your diet means removing the first fuel source your body goes to burn. This means that your body will begin burning fat instead of those simple carbohydrates.
Typically, sugary foods are calorie-dense and they are also the foods we gorge ourselves on. Imagine this comparison: 100 grams of carrots have about 28 calories while 100 grams of a cupcake has about 305!
Better Moods
Everyone wants to be happier, but those that suffer from depression may feel far better once removing all sugar from their diet. However, you don’t have to suffer from depression to feel the uptick in your mood.
Sugar has been linked to mood swings because of the rise and fall of insulin that occurs after food consumption containing sugar.
Low or no sugar diets have also been linked to the body’s increased ability to handle stress and cope with anxiety. Sugar “crashes” can cause shaking of the hands and tension which add to existing anxiety and stress. Removing the majority of sugar from the diet will significantly decrease these symptoms.
Reduce Chance of Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is an inherent risk of consuming too much sugar. The onset of this disease is multifaceted but the risk is increased through high weight and high sugar intake.
Luckily, when you cut sugar from your diet, you will find yourself losing weight. Between these two factors, you will cut the risk of type 2 diabetes substantially.
Less Pain
The consumption of sugar has been linked to chronic inflammation. Inflammation is a natural process that occurs when your body recognizes irritants, pathogens, and damaged cells and tries to remove them.
When you make it a habit to consume too much sugar, your body creates excess advanced glycation end products (AGEs.) These are a natural part of your metabolism but too many will bind to cells and proteins, which interferes with their functions.
Basically, your body creates more of something it already makes and that something binds to your cells causing pain and inflammation.
Better Dentist Visits
The majority of people don’t enjoy going to visit their dentist. It is a source of anxiety because of the tools used and the potential news of tooth decay.
Cavities are the first sign of tooth decay but can usually be drilled out and filled. However, sometimes further measures are needed including root canals or complete extraction.
Removing sugar won’t replace the need to brush and floss, but eating fewer sweets and starchy foods can lessen your chance of tooth decay.
Recalibrated Palate
When your taste buds become used to a high-sugar diet, naturally sweet foods taste almost bland or maybe bitter. This is because your palate has become accustomed to high levels of sugar in your diet.
A few days after removing sugar from your diet, you may find that an apple tastes like candy. You will also find that many other foods taste far sweeter than you remember.
Your new tastes can benefit you in multiple ways. This may include increasing the enjoyability of meals and choosing healthier foods, making it easier to maintain weight.
Lowered Risk of Liver Disease
Cutting sugar can also eliminate your risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Fatty liver disease can progress over time to cirrhosis and eventually liver failure.
Even if you don’t consume a lot of alcohol or if you’re not overweight, refined sugars can leave a fatty build-up on your liver. This fatty build-up can be deadly but it can be managed and reversed by the elimination of sugar.
Better Skin
Mothers all over probably told their teenagers not to eat too much chocolate because it would cause breakouts. This isn’t too far from the truth!
Although sugar is not directly to blame for your skin woes, there is a link between skin problems and high sugar diets. When you consume sugar, your body produces insulin which is technically considered a hormone.
Insulin is partially responsible for inflammation, remember? That inflammation can be apparent in the face. Insulin can also push oil glands to produce more oils, clogging pores.
Sleep Tight
It has been debunked that too much sugar causes hyperactivity in children. However, the inclusion of refined sugar and simple carbohydrates have been shown to disrupt your sleep patterns.
This isn’t because of the amount of ‘energy’ that you get from these foods but from the changes in blood glucose and insulin. Eating these sweet foods also delay your body’s release of melatonin, which will change your sleep patterns for the worse.
Cutting Sugar: Final Thoughts
Cutting sugar from your diet is much easier said than done. There is sugar everywhere, in bread and pasta, certain fruits, and of course, your favorite cake.
Each one of these benefits can be linked in some way to another, and most can be linked back to the production of insulin. It isn’t bad to indulge in your favorite dessert once in a while, but having a bowl of ice cream every night could lead to problems.
One last thought for you: many scientists consider sugar as addictive as cocaine because of the way it affects your brain. This means that ditching sugar won’t be easy, but it is doable!
If you’d like to read more about healthy eating, check out our blog!
