WTF? I've given up sugar, here's why
I’ve given up sugar
What?
I still find it hard to believe. But it’s true. I’ve given up sugar. It has the ring of another fad, doesn’t it? After all, I’ve given up, at various points: calories, carbs, fat, wheat, and entire meals (SlimFast anyone?) I’ve given up sugar before, but I always knew the break-up wasn’t permanent. I’d sneak off for a sugar one-nighter. Like my on-again-off-again college boyfriend, I always knew that we – Me ‘n’ Sugar would be back together soon. MTB4EVR. But now, not so much.
Rebel with a sugar cause
Historically, anytime someone said to me “give up flour and sugar” I had a visceral reaction, “Nobody can tell me what to do.” I might have agreed that “sugar is the devil,” as my friend Alice used to say. But haven’t you ever wanted to “dance of the devil in the pale moonlight?” Right? Sugar is so bad it’s good. A cold Coke on a hot afternoon (I mean the real, old-fashioned Coke), a delicious cupcake, and since we’re near Easter—can we talk about mainlining sugar via some Peeps?
Yes. I’m a bit of a rebel. I don’t like to be told what to do! So anytime someone suggested as part of a weight loss program that I give up sugar, my inner Rebel showed up.
Giving up sugar has always felt limiting for someone like me who always wanted just be able to “eat like a normal person” (whoever that is) and lose weight, or at least not gain weight. (Right?) It felt like I was getting into a fad—one more fad to add to all those others that ended in misery and tears of frustration.
So I balked every time someone suggested it to me. Hell, I outright ignored them.
I wanted more! More! More!
I did not want to give up sugar. Why would I? Then recently, I decided to I look into what sugar was doing to me. I watched several videos on Amazon, and read Gary Taubes book “The Case Against Sugar.”
I don’t believe everything I read and watch, but it surely seems to me that sugar could be the root cause of so much disease.
Eat something loaded with sugar, say ice cream, or chocolate, and your taste buds, gut, and brain all sit up and take notice, activating your dopamine reward system. (2-min science video here). That hit of dopamine we get is not a bad thing – think of it like a carrot on a stick designed to give a reward to life-sustaining activities. The problem is how we stimulate the dopamine pathway. And sugar says Taubes, is processed not unlike how bodies process addictive substances such as alcohol or nicotine. Isn’t that some company to keep? An overload of sugar spikes your dopamine levels and leaves you craving more. Sugar makes our dopamine receptors do their version of Thelma Houston’s “Don’t leave me this way.” We just want more of it. More.
There is even research that suggests that if you addict a rat to cocaine and then offer the rat the choice of a sugar solution or cocaine the ranch will switch off cocaine to the sugar within two days. This knowledge helped me understand why it is that I can be hungry right after I’ve eaten. It’s ‘just’ my dopamine receptors wanting more.
via GIPHY
Gary Taubes extremely well-researched (and kind of long) book, The Case Against Sugar, says that sugar is the root cause of today’s diabetes and obesity epidemics (had these been infectious diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have long ago declared an emergency), and very likely related to heart disease, hypertension, many common cancers and Alzheimer’s.
Breaking up with sugar is hard to do
Well, there is ample evidence that sugar cravings are hardwired into our brains.
It might shock you to know that sugar is “uniquely toxic,” according to author Gary Taubes, “perhaps having prematurely killed more people than cigarettes or all wars combined.” WTF!? So the more I learned the more I started to reevaluate my relationship with sugar. Over the last month or so I’ve eliminated all well, nearly all, sugar from my diet. All obvious sugar plus sugar in salad dressings, ketchup, sauces, etc. Let’s say I’m consuming about 95% of my previous intake.
Some startling things have happened
I’m much less hungry between meals than I used to be. This is probably because sugar hasn’t hijacked my hunger system. The most difficult thing to give up so far was the additional sugar-like substances in my coffee or tea. It took about a week.
I’m losing weight fairly easily, which is something so strange for me to write. It’s the second time this year I busted my own story that it’s hard for me to lose weight. I lost 3lbs last week, and 5lbs in two weeks. In my world, that’s a lot. But I do not count calories ( Dear God, I can’t bear to count another calorie.) I eyeball my protein. And I have eliminated as much sugar from my diet as possible. I’m already deathly allergic to wheat—so I’m already limited in my grains.
I think what needed to happen for me to give up sugar is that I needed to educate myself. The more I read, the more I watched, the more I wanted to make sugar a very occasional treat and not a daily or thrice daily component of my diet. I’ve added some resources below to educate yourselves about what sugar is doing.
I’m not an anti-sugar evangelist by any stretch of the imagination but the evidence is clear, I think, that without limiting your sugar intake it is particularly difficult to lose weight without massive hunger pangs—false hunger. You end up in a battle of wills against your brain chemistry—which for sure thinks it will die without sugar—and desire to avoid sugary things and lose weight. That all sounds fancy, but haven’t we all sat fighting a craving with no idea why we’re giving in? Sugar may be one of those reasons.
So sugar is gone from my daily life, and reserved for very great once-in-a-while indulgence.
Kind of like my old college boyfriend, I don’t really miss it so much now. 🙂
Thinking about giving up sugar, and losing weight? Join me and 5 other women who’re ready to find out why they overeat and lose weight in my 42-Day Jump Start program. I keep the group small to make sure everyone gets the attention they need! Register here —Class starts April 10!
Resources
Damon Gameau’s “That Sugar Film.” (Video)
“The way we think about sugar is going to change” (Video)
“Is Sugar the New Fat?” (Video)
The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes
