A Sugar by any other Name...

Let's talk sugar.

I think we can all agree that it's something that should be consumed in moderation. There's natural sugar, and then there's added sugar. Natural sugars are the ones found in things like milk (lactose) and fruit (fructose). While these foods may contain sugar, they also provide us with essential nutrients. Added sugars are simply added to foods to make them taste sweeter.  So why are added sugars so bad?  They pack on the calories and provide zero nutrients. These are the ones I am trying to avoid.

A major problem with 'junk food' is that it is loaded with added sugar and can become crazy addictive. Sugar releases dopamine in the 'reward' center of the brain, much like cocaine does. So the more you reward yourself with sugar, the more your brain is going to want to be rewarded

So how much is too much?  The American Heart Association recommends no more than 6 teaspoons (24 grams) of added sugar a day for women, and 9 teaspoons (36 grams) for men. Most of us don't even realize how much sugar we are actually take in each day because it is literally in EVERYTHING. Take a look the next time you go grocery shopping and try to find something that doesn't have some form of sugar in it. From the obvious cakes, cookies and candy bars, to items that most wouldn't even think about like bread, salad dressing, ketchup, peanut butter, and processed meat. And it's not as easy as reading the nutrition label and looking for the grams of sugar. I learned this myself last week at the grocery store.

Take mayonnaise for example:

Just looking at the nutrition facts, you can see there are zero grams of sugar. But what is that sixth ingredient? Sugar? Why are you lying to me, Hellmann's?!

Obviously the amount of sugar isn't significant enough to report, but it's still there, and that is why this whole process has been so difficult.

I am in no way an expert at this. I came into this 'experiment' knowing it was going to be tricky. And sugar isn't always easy to identify because it has a sneaky way of hiding under a slew of different names.  Needless to say, I did a lot of Googling on my phone in the aisles at Kroger. 

 

...and this was my cheat sheet.

I knew giving up sugar was something I wanted to do for quite a while. I had a giant box of Valentine's chocolates staring me down - and I can't lie, I ate that whole thing in the four days leading up to Lent. Talk about a glutton.

So here's to the first twelve days of no added sugar. How does it feel? Physically, it hasn't been nearly as hard as I expected it to be. The hardest part without a doubt, was the first four days.

• Day 1:  Wednesday comes and I am so not prepared. Being snowed in kept me from being able to go grocery shopping so I had to improvise with whatever I could find in the house. It was brutal. I was coming down from a Valentine sugar high and wanted nothing more than to eat everything in sight. I tried to fill up on fruit and salad, chicken, popcorn - whatever. The fact was without the sugar, I never felt satisfied.

• Day 2:  Thursday was the WORST. I am thankful that I didn't have to be at work early, because I don't think I could have made it. I woke up with a terrible headache and was convinced I had the flu. Let me just emphasize that... I had FLU-LIKE SYMPTOMS.  Unsweetened tea was my saving grace and got the headaches to subside. I was also finally able to go grocery shopping that night, so it made it much easier to meal prep.

• Day 3:  Friday, I was still waking up with headaches, so I kept the tea close. However, I noticed that my constant cravings for food had gone down dramatically.

• Day 4:  Saturday, I could definitely tell that I had been sleeping better. I wasn't tossing and turning the in the middle of the night. I was waking up feeling well rested and ready to start my day. And at night, I wasn't feeling sluggish and miserable by the time 10:00pm came.
  

As of today, all cravings have pretty much completely subsided. I don't crave junk food - it just doesn't appeal to me. If I feel like I need a snack, I grab a piece of fruit, cottage cheese, or some nuts. You don't realize how miserable you feel until you start to feel better. My skin looks so much clearer, and what's even more awesome is that I've managed to drop 8 pounds in the process so far!

I'll get more in depth with things later, but this has been what's been going on so far. If you haven't seen the movie Fed Up, I highly recommend it. It goes into detail the dangers of sugar far better than I ever could. Here's a video with Katie Couric, who helped produce Fed Up, doing the ten day sugar challenge. It's a little lengthy (7 mins), but worth a watch if you're thinking about cutting back on the sugar.