Food has strayed far from its core purpose: to provide nourishment. The purpose of your meal is not to meet your need for food, but to satisfy your cravings. And speaking of food and cravings, we all have certain weaknesses. For most of us, anything high in sugar content can comfort us when we need it the most. Just go into a supermarket and you will notice that any packaged food contains sugar in some form, and typically in large quantities.
Avoiding this toxic ingredient is quite challenging, given that it is found at any restaurant or corner store. However, at leasing cutting back on sugar can go a long way in preventing disease like diabetes, obesity, strokes, cardiovascular disease, heart disease, and cancer. Recently, food companies have started replacing added fats with sugar in order to follow health trends, but this led to a bigger issue: the decline of people`s health.
The good news is that even If you have been consuming sugar all your life, you can reverse its detrimental effects by cutting back on your sugar intake. As a matter of fact, quitting sugar can bring positive results in as little as ten days!
Here Is What Happens To Your Body When You Quit Sugar For 10 Days
Dr. Robert Lustig and his colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco, noticed a significant decrease in triglyceride levels by 33 points on average. As for the LDL (bad) cholesterol, its levels dropped 5 points, as well as diastolic blood pressure. In within ten days, all of the children who took part in the study significantly reduced their risk of developing type II diabetes.
It is important to note that not all sugars cause negative effects, as some forms of it are required for the body to function properly. The key is to opt for the right kind of sugars from plant-based foods. These sugars occur in an all-natural way, and our body is capable of digesting them easily. The problem occurs when these sugars are extracted from plants and put into processed foods. Added sugar doesn’t only provide no nutritional value whatsoever, but it increases the risk of “modern diseases” like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Another thing that is worth mentioning here I that not all calories work the same way in the body. Added sugar causes a spike in insulin levels, which leads to eventual damage to the insulin response after consuming added sugars, and cause inflammation. On the flip side, consuming the same number of calories in the form of cauliflower, for instance, the body will process its energy and utilize its nutrients.
How much sugar should we consume, then? Well, for an average 2,000 calorie diet, the Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends about 12 grams of sugar, or 10 percent of the calories we eat. Most products these days, such as sauces, packaged foods, baked goods, and more, exceed that amount with only one serving. Therefore, when you go shopping, read the labels well and opt for whole foods as much as possible.