With a healthier diet, you might have noticed that you’re not feeling as great as you thought you would. It’s not just in your head! Sugar withdrawal can cause symptoms like headaches, cravings, mood swings, anxiety, depression, lethargy, achy body, and fever-like symptoms. Not to mention the possible diarrhea. Ewww.
Why? It’s simple- sugar is addictive. In fact, it follows similar pathways to addictive drugs (hi heroin) in our brains. Sugar can release dopamine in the brain, causing positive reinforcement for eating it, and we crave that feedback. So we eat more sweets. Check out the graph below on the sugar cycle.
Here’s the tricky part: while it’s possible to walk away from some addictions by cutting the substance completely out (ex. alcohol, drugs, Facebook), we can’t completely cut out sugar. It’s pretty much impossible with all the extra hidden sugars lurking in our diet. Plus, it’s physically impossible as humans do need a certain amount of sugar (usually in the form of more complex carbohydrates) in our diet.
So let’s eat all the sugar! Well, that’s dangerous too. Too much of a good thing is definitely not a good thing. Most notably, abusing sugar for a very long time can lead to dangerous health conditions. I’m not just talking about Diabetes! Sugar overload can also lead to premature aging, osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, yeast infections, migraines, gallstones, increased risk of Alzheimer’s, hormonal imbalances, and more. Scared yet? I am!
What about refined sugar replacements like stevia, splenda, and aspartame? That’s a great question, and one that deserves a blog post all its own. Let’s focus on good old fashioned refined sugars for now with a promise to talk “fake” sugar at a later date.
Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Where can I find a balance? According to the USDA 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines, added refined sugar should make up less than 10% of our overall caloric intake. What the heck does that mean? Let’s do some math! If we figure the average person eats about a 2,000 calorie per day diet, that means that 200 calories or less per day should come from refined sugar. That includes refined sugars in our beverages, carbohydrates, and added sugars in things like yogurt and frozen fruit. There’s another catch: this 10% is supposed to come after eating foods from all food groups on the My Plate plan.
How do you get the sugar you need without going overboard? Here are a few tips to help decrease your sugar intake every day:
- Drink water, unsweetened tea, or coffee instead of soda, fruit juice, or other sugary drinks.
- Choose fruit instead of candy for a sweet treat (dried fruit usually has a lot of added sugar)
- Pay attention to the nutrition facts on the processed foods you buy. Get frozen fruit with no added sugar, try to find processed foods with less sugar, and try to use plain yogurt instead of the sweetened stuff whenever possible.
- There are a lot of refined sugars hiding in your white breads, pastas, etc. Be cognizant of how much of these you are consuming.
- We’re human, and not perfect. A treat every once in a while is okay! Just try to eat smaller portion sizes of sweet treats. And if you’re starting a diet, try going cold turkey for the first couple of weeks. Not because I’m a mean ogre, but because allowing a little extra sugar is a great way to extend the sugar withdrawal.
As for the sugar withdrawal you’re going through- you just have to go through it! Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way around it. But I promise, when you get to the other side it will be worth it! What can you look forward to? Besides reducing your risk for all the scary things mentioned above, you can look forward to weight loss, clearer skin (sugar feeds bacteria that causes acne), stronger immune system, reduced cancer risk, and more energy! As Dory says, “Just keep swimming!”
