After Christmas, everyone seems to be ‘feeling it’ and ‘It’ ain’t so good!
Often diet hits top of mind and we frown at the thought of all that ‘sweet stuff’ which hasn’t been so good for us!
There is so much out there on ‘quitting sugar’ but very little on the caution that cutting out sugar needs to be done slowly in order to avoid the debilitating side effect of fatigue and the sugar cravings that cause us to fall back into ‘sugar land’ all over again!
Before we talk about how to reduce it, let’s quickly see where some of our sugars comes from.
And by the way, I believe that we need some sugar… which we get naturally from our fruits and vegetables – not from our man made foods.
When people hear the word “sugar” they often think of the white sugar they add to their morning coffee.
But there are also sugars which occur naturally in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables.
Plus there are sugars in things like pasta, dairy and bread.
Finally there are hidden sugars in processed foods, but this is a whole other story.
In a nutshell: The sweeter the fruit or vegetable e.g. watermelon or sweet potato, the higher the sugar content. Whether it’s white sugar in your coffee or natural sugar from watermelon, your body will still ultimately treat it as ‘sugar’ (It’s just that there are extra nutrients in watermelon than the sugar in your coffee.)
Your body will treat the sugars in pasta, dairy and bread as sugars also.
One difference is that some of these foods are high GI (glycemic Index) e.g. white bread and will rapidly cause big fluctuations in blood sugar which isn’t a good thing.
Foods with a low GI, like whole oats, are digested more slowly, prompting a more gradual rise in blood sugar, so you will have a nice steady increase in energy without the low ‘lows.’
So getting back to reducing sugar…
If you need to reduce you sugar, but don’t want the usual carb cravings and the nasty fatigued feeling that can commonly go with it, it may be a case of simply making a more gradual reduction in your carbs (sugars) rather than an abrupt one.
If you feel like the side effects are just too much, add back your carbs until you feel better again and then try cutting down again, but this time slowly to give your body the time to adapt, so your metabolism adjusts slowly… minus the shock.
Oh and eat fermented foods such as sauerkraut with every meal, which really help balance sugar cravings AND replace the good bacteria in your gut that the sugar has disturbed!
Hope this helps!
P.S. If there’s anyone in your life (friend, family, employee) who feels they want to do better with their health, please share this post. It might be the fresh perspective they need to feel better.