13 rapid fire reasons to break up with sugar
Sugar has a reputation for ‘being bad for you.’ And it is well deserved.
However, do you truly understand the extent to which sugar can impact both mental and physical health?
Too often, sugar is simply associated with the culprit that causes weight gain — and while this is true — we need to also consider the other ways that sugar promotes dysfunction and inflammation within the body. By examining how sugar plays a role in your life, you can harness the significant opportunity to improve your wellness and cultivate better health in mind and body.
Sugar is an unsustainable source of energy.
Sugar is an unsustainable source of energy — meaning, it will offer you a burst of energy with an inevitable crash. This is because of the dramatic impact it has on our blood sugar levels — sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream quickly, causing a dramatic spike in blood glucose, which ends in an inevitable crash. We’ve all been there — coming down off a ‘sugar high,’ or the ‘sugar crash’ that takes place when we’ve had one too many cookies. When we have these spikes and crashes, we are more susceptible to unstable mood, cravings, difficulty focusing and concentrating, poor sleep, low energy, and more. Prioritizing a stabilized blood sugar is one of the best strategies we can invest in daily for the sake of both short term and long term health. To learn more, consider checking out Emily’s free training where she highlights “Five Pillars to Optimize your Daily Wellness,” and discusses blood sugar balance and what that means.
Sugar is devoid of nutrients, minerals, vitamins, and essential fatty acids.
Plain and simple — sugar offers the body no nutritional value. Prioritizing a diet filled with real whole foods means offering the body what it needs to optimally function. By choosing sugary rich foods, we’re not giving the body and the brain the fuel it needs to thrive. Choose foods that are rich in nutrition, that offer the body protein, fiber, fat, and complex carbohydrates, that contain essential vitamins and minerals, and help to reduce dysfunction and promote balance within the body.
Sugar is linked to decrease in intake of essential nutrients.
Through consumption of sugar-dense foods, we are passing up an opportunity to choose foods that are nutrient rich and packed with the nutrition the body needs to flourish. Similarly, sugar drives up inflammation, is stressful on the body, and promotes imbalance and a condition called “leaky gut.” This condition, as well as stress and inflammation, have been known to compromise the body’s ability to utilize nutrition consumed. That said, your body is unable to take advantage of the nutrients from real, whole foods, making it much more challenging to nourish properly.
Cane sugar is high in fructose, which is metabolized fully in the liver and does not turn off the hunger signal, ghrelin
Sugar is metabolized fully in the liver, which places extra burden on the liver and compromises its ability to do its daily tasks — like metabolizing medication, alcohol, hormones, and other endotoxins. Furthermore, sugar does not turn off the hunger hormone — grehlin — responsible for letting the body know when we’re hungry. That said, this communication is compromised, making it much easier to eat far beyond what is necessary and never truly feeling full — especially considering sugar lacks fiber and protein, essential for feelings of satiety.
Too much sugar can lead to a fatty liver (Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease)
Unfortunately, rates of NAFLD have skyrocketed over the past several years, especially in children, due to the increasing influx of sugar, both in its obvious and nonobvious forms. Sugar is hidden in many places — and the average consumer can’t always detect it. Did you know that there are over 200 different names for sugar? Check out my guide, “Becoming a Critical Consumer Guide: Uplevel Your Grocery Shop” to sharpen your skills in identifying sugar, and all of its pseudonyms, while you navigate your shop!
Sugar causes insulin resistance.
Diets high in refined sugar contribute to high blood sugar and eventually can cause insulin resistance. The body, more specifically the pancreas, can’t keep up with this high demand of insulin, in order to shuttle the glucose into cells. However, when there is too much sugar, the body is unable to do its job, and glucose remains in the blood — resulting in high blood sugar.
Sugar causes inflammation.
Sugar is an inflammatory food — it promotes widespread inflammation within the body and the brain. Inflammation is the root of all disease — reducing it and modulating our inflammatory response is essential for whole body health.
Sugar is linked to an increase in body weight and contributes to the rising rates of obesity across all age groups.
Sugar is connected to weight gain and progressively becomes a contributor to obesity in those of all ages! Obesity is a condition, in and of itself, that is linked to a number of chronic diseases and poorer health outcomes. Eliminating sugar, or at the very least, significantly reducing your consumption of refined sugar, can reduce your likelihood of obesity and excess weight gain.
Sugar is highly addictive because it triggers release of dopamine, the pleasure hormone, in the brain.
Did you know that sugar has been likened to cocaine? Sugar acts on the reward center in the brain and has been found to be comparable to the influence that drugs like cocaine have on the body. The more we consume it, the greater the dose is needed to experience the same effect! Conversely, the less we consume sugar, the easier it is for us to avoid it. It can be challenging at first to break up with sugar, especially if it played a big role in your diet. But fear not, sticking to the course, navigating any potential withdrawal, and committing to a low-sugar life, will only become easier over time!
Sugar feeds cancer, as well as raises cholesterol
According to Dr. Peter Attia, metabolic dysfunction creates the environment suitable for cancer to grow. He explains that sugar is a driver of metabolic dysfunction, an issue faced by many Americans and even individuals worldwide. Cancer cells consume more glucose, otherwise known as sugar, than healthy cells do, and these cells utilize insulin, produced by the pancreas, in order to utilize the available glucose. Due to the high influx of insulin that is produced during a phenomenon like insulin resistance, as the body is trying to keep up with high levels of blood glucose. This provides the cells more fuel in order to grow. Furthermore, sugar raises cholesterol — it’s not the food that contains cholesterol that is driving up your cholesterol levels — it’s sugar. Research shows that consumption of sugar, such as sucrose or high fructose corn syrup, increases biomarkers, like VLDL and HDL, across the board involving cholesterol. Details in the research linked here!
Sugar fuels the bad bacteria in our gut
Did you know that prebiotic fiber feeds the probiotic bacteria that makes up our microbiome? The microbiome is the community of bacteria that exists within the gastrointestinal tract that play a massive role in immune function, brain health, hormone health, digestion, and more. Alongside our ‘good’ bacteria, exists the bad bacteria. It is a symbiotic relationship that exists between these two populations in order for the gut to optimally thrive. Unfortunately, however, when one consumes a high sugar diet, the ‘bad’ bacteria takes the wheel and results in a phenomenon known as dysbiosis
Sugar promotes neuroinflammation, inflammation of the brain
Sugar has been found to be a neurotoxin — otherwise known as toxic to the brain. Neuroinflammation has been found to contribute to mental health concerns, cognitive issues, and beyond. The bidirectional relationship that exists between the gut and the brain is also impacted bidirectionally by sugar consumption — what happens in the gut, doesn’t stay in the gut!
Sugar contributes to metabolic dysfunction which can lead to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia, and more.
Alzheimer’s has now been referred to a Type 3 Diabetes because of its reminiscent relationship with metabolic dysfunction that is similar to that of Type 2 Diabetes. To read more about this concept of Type 3 Diabetes, click here!
Take time to reexamine your relationship with sugar and take note of how frequently you’re consuming it. Reducing your sugar intake is foundational to improving your mental and physical — start by bringing awareness to its role in your life, begin to reduce it gradually, and notice the transformation it brings you in mind and body.
If you need support, feel free to schedule a call below!
