Last week we covered four ways in which sugar is wreaking havoc with your health.  This week we look at how you can curb your sugar cravings so you start to feel better.

Notice, I used the word simple, not easy.  Remember, sugar is 94 percent more addictive than cocaine.  For coke addicts, there are many rehab options.  If you are addicted to sugar, the American marketplace has decided you should be bombarded with it at every single moment.  While it may feel like the deck is stacked against you, small efforts can yield big rewards.  I encourage you start with one of these methods, try it for at least two weeks, and notice any changes that occur.  According to Dr. Daniel Amen, research shows that it will take two weeks of totally eliminating sugar to rid it completely from your system.  While that may not be a proposition that rings true for you right now, the following is a good starting point. 

1.  Drink water when you feel hungry.   Sugar can send us on a roller coaster of eating, feeling satisfied, hitting a sugar low which manifests as hunger, and binge eating to reach our sugar high again.  This is a system controlled by the brain.  Often when we are hungry, the body (not the brain) is actually thirsty.  If you are feeling hungry, try drinking 8-12 ounces of water first.  Wait 15-20 minutes.  Are you still hungry?  This has two effects.  One, it can change patterns in the brain which control hunger and teach the body to turn to water when you crave sugar, thereby changing a habit.  Two, if you still are hungry, drinking water prepares the digestive system to receive food and makes it more efficient.  Digestion is the most stressful function our bodies perform so aiding it with water is helpful.

2.  Replace soda, sports drinks, coffee beverages and juices with water or herbal teas.  Soft drinks are the number one source of added sugars in the American diet.  Sports drinks tout themselves as "healthy" and "natural" but neither one of those labels is monitored by the government so they are essentially meaningless when it comes to food labeling.  Eliminating caffeinated beverages can also help.  Many of our coffee beverages are sweetened so you are eliminating a source of sugar.  Beyond that, caffeine can also cause energy surges and slumps much like sugar, as well as dehydration and blood sugar swings.  Imagine getting off the cycle of energy surges and slumps and no longer medicating the slumps with sugar.  What would change for you?  How would you feel?

3.  Get more sleep.  I have a whole post about sleep I'll be posting soon.  In the meantime, know that a tired body will do anything to feel just a little bit better, especially if it is in a chronic state of stress and sleep deprivation.   Sugar is the most accessible way for a quick hit of energy.  The problem is that the hit doesn't last very long.  Further, each time you hit that energy slump you need more and more sugar to get to the original level of energy you desire.  It's a vicious cycle.  To end it, make sleep a priority.  Remove all electronics from the bedroom.  Develop a regular bedtime and wake time, and be consistent even on the weekends or days off.  

Be good to yourself as you explore removing sugar from your diet.  It's simple, but it may not be easy. 

Sources for this post can be found here and here and here and here. 

Sugar is everywhere.  It's highly addictive.  It's wreaking havoc with our health, and in surprising ways.  Here are four ways sugar isn't so sweet:

Sugar lowers your sex drive!  This isn't common knowledge but it should be.  If your libido is suffering, there could be many factors, but one we tend to overlook is diet.  When you ingest sugar, your body secretes insulin.  When you secrete insulin, your testosterone levels drop, by as much as 25%.  Consider reducing or eliminating sugar in your diet to bring your testosterone levels into balance.

Sugar increases inflammation in the body.  Inflammation, which is often silent and undetected, has been shown to lead to long-term health problems, including type 2 diabetes.  Studies are now being done to examine links between the rise of autoimmune diseases in our society and sugar consumption as part of a Western diet.  The short of it is, if you have general pain and discomfort in your body, explore eliminating sugar as a way to help your body heal. 

Sugar increases depression.  The cycle of consuming sugar and sugar crashing has a negative impact on our mental health, leading to an increase in depression (and, scarily, schizophrenia).  If you are prone to feeling sad (I am!), removing sugar from your diet is a cheap and easy way to improve your mental health.

Sugar hinders cognition.  When sugar is consumed in amounts we are unable to properly process and we create a cycle of too much insulin secretion, that insulin hinders communication between brain cells, especially in the areas of learning and memory.   If you find you have brain fog more often than not, sugar might be to blame.

If reading this is serving as a wake up call to changes you'd like to make in your diet, the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Mark Hyman have developed this handy infographic about how to kick your sugar habit.   If you need support to do this, contact me so I can help you.

For the month of February, I challenged myself to post one healthy tip per day on my Instagram account.   It was a lot of fun and there's so much more where that came from!  While I knew I had a lot of nutrition education to draw from as a patient and as a student, this community was so great about providing their own healthy tips and ideas.  Thanks so much for a great conversation.  And per your many requests I've provided a PDF file of #28healthytips that you can download, hang on your fridge, mail to a friend, or stick on your filing cabinet!


Get your 28 Healthy Tips Here

Now, 28 healthy tips is a lot.  It can feel overwhelming.  If you are looking to make changes that last, start with implementing just one or two tips.  Conventional wisdom and scientific studies show that it can take up to 40 times before a new habit sticks and is incorporated into your lifestyle.  It helps if you do it with a friend who can hold you accountable.  Once those one or two tips have stuck, try one or two more tips and before you know it a positive snowball effect of change is occurring in your life.  Also, setbacks are a good thing so stay away from the F word (failure).  Setbacks, mistakes, falling off the path, whatever you call it, you need to have them to keep moving forward.

I'd love to hear from you!  What tip resonated the most?  Which one would be the easiest to achieve?  Which one would be a stretch goal?  For me, breaking up with sugar is a constant process, a constant stretch goal.