The Best Reasons To Ditch Your Drug ... Sugar

We're in the middle of the August Shred and as a group we're doing great. For me... as hot as it is, I am only thinking about one thing... sugar! My new favorite treat is to take organic clementines, peel them and freeze them. They are so good and refreshing!

There’s been a lot of talk in the media about the evils of sugar consumption. Sugar is hidden in all sorts of foods including bread and salad dressing. Add to that our love for things like cookies and ice cream and it’s no wonder our sugar consumption is skyrocketing. Unfortunately, all this added sugar is doing a lot of damage to our health and it’s making us gain weight in record numbers.

It’s time to cut added sugar from our diet. Here are five reasons why you should do a sugar detox and do what you can to avoid consuming sugar as much as possible.

Consuming Sugar Spikes Your Insulin

As soon as your body starts to digest sugar, your insulin spikes up. Insulin is the hormone that is in charge of keeping blood sugar levels from rising too high and converting extra sugar into fat for storage.

It’s a delicate process and consuming sugar in large quantities will cause your insulin to spike and deal with more than it is designed to handle. Over time it becomes less and less effective this is when things start to negatively affect your health.

Consuming Sugar Makes You Gain Weight

Because of the insulin and because sugar adds a lot of calories to food, it can make you gain weight and you don’t have to be eating a lot of candy and cakes for that to happen.

Since the late seventies, when health authorities advised consumers to watch and lower their fat intake, the food industry has provided us with all sorts of low fat and fat free food options. To make these low fat foods taste okay, they had to add a lot of sugar. Even your organic milk has been pasteurized and homogenized and then had vitamins and sugar added back in. If you take a look at regular and low fat or fat free salad dressing. The lower fat options have a lot more carbs and in particular, sugar. You may not taste it, but it’s there. Since sugar is much more quickly digested than fat, you’re hungry sooner after consuming a low fat meal and you eat again. The end result is weight gain.

Consuming Sugar Increases Your Risk For Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome

With all that increased sugar and weight gain comes a higher risk for diabetes and a condition called metabolic syndrome. Metabolic Syndrome is a group of symptoms and behaviors that put you at a much higher risk of developing heart disease and Type II diabetes.

Thankfully both conditions are reversible and the first step toward better health is to cut out the sugar.

Sugar Doesn’t Have A Lot of Nutritional Value And It Makes You Hungrier

Last but not least, it's important to remember that aside from a little boost of energy, sugar doesn’t provide a lot of nutritional value to your body. If you want something sweet, you’re much better off grabbing a piece of fruit than a cookie. At least with a piece of fruit you’re getting some vitamins and fiber with your sugar fix.

If you want or need to lose weight, the first thing you should cut out is sugar. It causes spikes in your blood sugar, that then make your body produce a large amount of insulin to pull the sugar out of your system (and convert it to body fat). The sad little side effect of that process is that your blood sugar goes on a roller coaster ride that will leave you hungry and craving more sugary treats.