Sugar Detox
If you made it through Christmas unscathed, then move on ahead to the happy new year with pride. If you consumed too many pies, cakes, candies and sweet drinks, then you may have overdosed on sugar and now find yourself feeling less than perfect because of its effects — weight gain, energy swings, and sudden addiction to sweets.
According to the sugar experts, sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine, believe it or not. There’s very little (if any) upside to eating sugar and plenty of reasons to avoid it. For those who are still facing kitchen counters and refrigerators full of sweet desserts from the holidays, the recommended action is to get rid of it. I was actually thinking of freezing all the sweet goodies but decided to read up on what those who study the subject had to say and here are some of the things there seems to be a consensus on:
1. Being addicted to sugar and flour is not an emotional eating disorder. It’s a biological disorder, driven by hormones and neurotransmitters that fuel sugar and carb cravings leading to uncontrolled overeating.
2. Your body needs to move glucose out of the bloodstream and into your cells for energy. To do this, your pancreas makes insulin, a hormone. As a result, your blood sugar level may have a sudden drop. This rapid change in blood sugar leaves you feeling wiped out and shaky and searching for more sweets to regain that sugar “high.”
DETOX METHODS
1. Make a commitment to detoxing from sugar.
2. Get rid of the sugary desserts that surround you. Throw them away.
3. Get more sleep. Studies show that getting less sleep drives sugar and carb cravings by affecting your appetite hormones.
4. Fight sugar with fat. Fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar does. Fat makes you full, balances your blood sugar and is necessary for fueling your cells. Along with protein, have good fats at every meal and snack including nuts and seeds, extra virgin olive oil, coconut butter, avocados, and omega 3 fats from fish.
5. Keep an emergency kit. Never be in a food emergency when your blood sugar is dropping. Almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, salmon jerky or turkey jerky, a can of wild salmon, unsweetened wild blueberries and packets of Artisana nut butters and coconut butter are great ingredients for your kit.
6. Power up the day with protein especially at breakfast. It balances blood sugar and insulin and cutting cravings. Start the day with whole farm eggs or a protein shake. Use nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, chicken or grass-fed meat for protein at every meal.
7. Eliminate inflammation which triggers blood sugar imbalances, insulin resistance, pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. The most common source of inflammatory foods other than sugar, flour and trans fats are gluten and dairy.
