Do You Need to Detox From Sugar?

“I feel like absolute garbage,” my personal training client exclaimed during a recent training session. “I thought I would feel better giving up sugar. She had mentioned she stopped adding sugar to her coffee, said to no sweets or candy, and threw out her fruit juice. This client was most likely going through the early stages of sugar withdrawals. Let’s do a deeper dive into sugar and talk about the sugar, the withdrawal symptoms, and how to cope.

The average American consumes 22–30 teaspoons (about 88–120 grams) of sugar each day. This is considerably more than the recommended maximum, which is 6 teaspoons (about 24 grams) for females and 9 teaspoons (about 36 grams) for males.

Therefore, if your diet is high in added sugar, reducing your added sugar intake may come with some unpleasant symptoms.

To better prepare you for a detox in sugar, it is important to know some possible side effects of detoxing from sugar. These symptoms include mental and physical:

Mental:

• Depressed mood. Some people may feel down when they cut added sugar from their diet. This is partly due to a decrease in dopamine release.

• Anxiety. Feelings of anxiousness may be accompanied by nervousness, restlessness, and irritability. You may feel like you have less patience than usual and are on edge.

• Changes in sleep patterns. Some people experience changes in their sleep when detoxing from sugar. You might find it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep through the night.

• Cognitive issues. You may find it difficult to concentrate when you quit sugar. This can cause you to forget things and make it hard to focus on tasks, such as work or school.

• Cravings. Along with craving sugar, you may find yourself craving other foods, such as carbs like bread, pasta, and potato chips.

Physical:

• Feeling Run Down

• Headaches

• light-headedness or dizziness

• nausea

• fatigue

One thing to keep in mind is that when you are coming off sugar, your caloric intake is going to drop as well. And depending on how much sugar you were eating, this may make up a significant amount of daily calories. Because of the large variance from person to person, I recommend working with a knowledgeable coach or professional to not only help mitigate withdrawal symptoms, but keep the client from spinning their wheels. In my time as a nutrition coach, I have seen many people get off sugar and not replace it with healthier options, leading them to under eat markedly. Could this be you?

Are you looking to kick the sugar train? I’m here to help! Click the link below to get started today!

Are All Sweeteners The Same?

I commonly receive the question, “(insert sweetener) bad for me?”  My response, “It depends.”

First off, why are you using the sweetener, and how much are you using?  Secondly, what are your fitness and health goals?  After answering these questions (honestly), I can give recommendations on what an individual should do about adding sweeteners to their diet.

Let’s take a dive into some common sweeteners before I give my commendations:

1. Sucrose-Table sugar, honey, white sugar, confectioners sugar, sugar in the raw, are all made up molecularly of a glucose and fructose molecule (equally). 

2. Fructose-These include agave, maple syrup.  Though fructose has a lower glycemic index than table sugar or glucose, the gut cannot absorb fructose.  Fructose must be processed by the liver into glucose so it can be used by the body.  This reaction is called fructolysis.  If 30g or more of fructose are ingested, the excess sugar conversion causes an increase in triglycerides, a precursor for cardiovascular disease.  Moreover, fructose is also the sweetest tasting sweetener, we’ll learn why this is important later on.

3. Dextrose- Corn Syrup/Cassava Syrup-Though this is a high glycemic sugar that will affect blood sugar, it bypasses the liver. 

4. High Fructose Corn Syrup-Found in sports drinks and soft drinks.  Think of HFCS as sucrose on overdrive.  Up until the 1970s, soft drinks used cheap sugar: corn syrup.  Corn syrup is made up of glucose, which doesn’t taste as sweet as fructose on the pallet.  Rather than using sugar, Scientists combined the sweetness of fructose with the cheap cost of corn syrup to produce a super cheap and addictive substance that runs havoc on your liver and blood sugar.  HFCS-55 contains 55% fructose and 45% glucose.

If your goal is improving body composition and long term health, then you should RARELY be consuming sweeteners. RARELY.  Notice I did not say sugar.  Sugar occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables, however it is VERY hard to over consume sugar when you eat whole foods, but EASY to over consume sugar when you are drinking juices or eating dried fruit.  For instance, to get the sugar in one 8 ounce glass of orange juice, you would have to eat 3 oranges.  Add in the fact that you are consuming a lot of fiber which slows down digestion and negates the spike in blood sugar, and you are working with two completely different scenarios.  My recommendation is to keep sugar consumption below 30g each day and consume your sugar as fibrous foods.

There is so much more to unpack about sugar, but hopefully you can look behind the BS when the next sugar company says, “Sugar is sugar,” or your buddy tries to feed you muffins and says they are healthy because she used, “Agave Syrup.”

Looking for more advice with your diet?  I’m here to help.  Click the link in my bio to set up a free assessment today!