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A favorite cookbook of mine is from Mark Hyman MD. He is a big proponent of feeding your body with nutrients and unprocessed food.

You can check this one out on Amazon.

As a self-professed sugar fanatic, I know what it's like to be addicted to sugar and sugary foods.

Growing up there was always something sweet in the house, whether it was Entenmann's cake or donuts, cookies or ice cream, it was there.

Not sure if it's in my DNA but my grandmother LOVED her cake. My daughter, yep, she's got the sweet tooth also.

I noticed changes in my body when I ate a lot of sugar and when I reduced the amount of sugar; I had more energy and less brain fog when I ate less.

Then, when I went on my sugar binges I felt like crap. And while I'll still eat sweets, it is in moderation. No blood sugar spikes, and I have plenty of energy all day long.

Why to Avoid Refined Sugar

Refined sugars should be avoided because they may increase your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. It’s also linked to a higher likelihood of depression, dementia, liver disease and certain types of cancer.

Here are some more reasons you should avoid refined sugar:

1. Sugar is addictive.

2. Sugar damages your immune system

3. Sugar robs your body of essential minerals.

4. Sugar can lead to the development of cancer.

5. Consumption of sugar is detrimental to the liver.

6. Sugar causes insulin resistance, diabetes, and weight gain

7. Sugar causes premature aging

Good Sugar Substitutes

Natural sugars are safe to eat. Any sugar that is naturally occurring in a food gets the green light. That includes sugar in fruit and starchy vegetables, as well as whole or minimally processed carbohydrates like brown rice and whole grain pasta. Sugar in diary products such as milk and cheese is ok too.

How You Feel After Stopping Refined Sugar in the Diet

After stopping refined sugar in the diet, you may feel better overall. You may have more energy and less mood swings. You may also notice improvements in your skin and digestion.

Here are some tips on how to reduce your sugar intake:

1. Cut back on sugary drinks: Most added sugars in the American diet come from sugary drinks — sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened teas, and others.

2. Avoid sugary desserts: Most desserts don’t provide much in the way of nutritional value. They’re loaded with sugar, which causes blood sugar spikes that can leave you feeling tired and hungry and make you crave more sugar.

3. Read product labels: Reading product labels can be a helpful first step to lowering your added sugar intake. You can also limit added sugars by choosing whole foods and full-fat foods over processed and low-fat versions.

   This tip, by far, is the most fundamental and important of them all. Not all “no sugar” or “low sugar” means sugar is absent from the food. It usually means there is a substitute sugar in the ingredient list. Example, anything ending in -ose is a sugar.

4. Add fruit: Instead of adding sugar to cereal or oatmeal, try fresh fruit (bananas, cherries or strawberries) or dried fruit (raisins, cranberries or apricots) .

5. Cut the serving back: When baking cookies, brownies or cakes, cut the sugar called for in your recipe by one-third to one-half. Often you won’t notice the difference.

6. Replace it completely: Enhance foods with spices instead of sugar. Try ginger, allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg.

What should your daily sugar intake be?

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the maximum amount of added sugars you should eat in a day are:

• Men: 150 calories per day (37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons)

• Women: 100 calories per day (25 grams or 6 teaspoons)

It’s important to note that these recommendations are for added sugars, not naturally occurring sugars found in foods like fruits and vegetables.

Making these types of nutrition changes is best done over time and not all at once. First our taste buds have to adjust. Remember, we are bombarded with sugar but eventually when we taste certain high sugar foods we used to eat, they’ll be too sweet.

I recommend making changes over a period of 30 days. That’s the time frame I use for my Sugar Reduction Program. We break the habit in 4 weeks by identifying where the sugar is hiding and doing the food swaps.

It’s a great way to kick the sugar habit once and for all.

Want to learn more? Send me an email at mindandbodyinmotion@gmail.com.

I’d love to give you more details and talk about any food-related changes you would like to make.

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