Top 10 Reasons To Quit Sugar (Even If You’d Rather Not!) by Joan Kent, PhD
Top 10 Reasons To Quit Sugar (Even If You’d Rather Not!)
by Joan Kent, PhD
Well, Halloween candy has been on display since August, and we know what that portends for the rest of the year.
But why wait to get your health in order? Here are 10 reasons to quit sugar now –even if you think you’d rather not do it.
1. Quitting sugar can help you prevent/reverse insulin resistance & diabetes.
Many people think insulin resistance is caused by overweight. True, it can be – but that’s a limited view. What we eat can greatly influence whether or not we develop insulin resistance – or type-2 diabetes, which often follows it.
2. Quitting sugar can help you reduce your cholesterol.
Cholesterol synthesis isn’t necessarily the result of a high-fat diet. The rate-limiter in cholesterol formation is an enzyme (HMG-coA reductase) that’s triggered by insulin. Sugar can stimulate big insulin, so it’s a major factor in serum cholesterol production.
People now say that cholesterol doesn’t really matter – but Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of conditions. If you have one, you probably have more. Keeping cholesterol down by avoiding sugar can benefit your health in general – especially if you combine that with reason #1 above, preventing or reversing insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is an underlying condition in several metabolic disorders.
3. Quitting sugar can prevent premature hunger signals.
When sugar promotes high insulin production, glucose can drop pretty low and pretty fast. The speed it drops is the main factor in triggering premature hunger signals – making you hungry for food you don’t need, simply because you ate sugary junk.
4. Quitting sugar can reduce “secondary fat consumption.”
Okay, I made up that name. But eating extra fat is something that happens all the time when we eat sugar – think of ice cream, chocolate, rich cakes, cookies. For one thing, fat makes sugar taste sweeter. And when you get a craving for sugar, you might reach for something with lots of fat in it, too.
5. Quitting sugar can make healthful foods taste better to you.
Eating sugar triggers endorphins (beta-endorphin). That changes food preferences so healthy foods seem less appealing. When you quit sugar, eating good foods – like vegetables – will probably be more appetizing.
6. Quitting sugar reduces cravings.
Eating sugar can cause cravings. Yes, cravings for more sugary foods, definitely. But also for other kinds of junk food that may have sneaky sugars in them.
7. Quitting sugar can reduce calorie intake.
If you’re no longer responding addictively to sugar – and eating more sugar and more food in general because of that – it’s easier to control your calories.
8. Quitting sugar can improve your health.
Sugar can impact your health directly by increasing inflammation in the body through several mechanisms. Inflammation is now considered the root cause of virtually all disease. Reducing inflammation by quitting sugar can improve your health and decrease pain. For example, quitting sugar may reduce “ordinary” pain, like backaches.
9. Quitting sugar can improve your mood and your energy.
People who are carbohydrate sensitive secrete more insulin than normal when they eat sugar. That can set up a peak-and-valley pattern in their glucose levels. When you’re at a peak, your energy and mood may feel optimal, but when you’re in a valley, you may feel down and/or have serious energy “lows.”
10. Quitting sugar can improve the overall nutritional value of your diet.
If you’re not killing your appetite with sugary junk, you’ll have room for healthful foods. If you’re not steered in a junky direction by endorphins, you’ll probably eat more healthful foods. If you’re not eating the usual sugary treats, you may increase the fiber in your diet. If you’re eating wholesome foods, your B-vitamin intake may go up – and change your brain chemistry completely.
So it’s up to you and always will be. Will you quit now or wait? Will you quit at all? All I’m saying is quitting sugar can help in these ways. And several other ways that are not on this list of 10 can also help make you feel great.
Wishing you great health, great moods, great energy, great success in quitting sugar.
If the idea of quitting sugar seems overwhelming, please know it doesn’t have to be. I specialize in making it easy. Please visit www.FoodAddictionSolutions.com/Coaching and request a free Eating Empowerment consult. Find out how fantastic you can feel when you’ve transformed your health, your moods, and your energy.