If you are a sugar addict you may be wondering if is ever possible to stop! At the height of my sugar addiction, I was eating a family block of chocolate and a Chokito bar every day! My health was terrible, I was tired and sluggish and my brain was so “foggy” that I could barely think straight. I also used to suffer from really bad moods which I used to have to hide behind a smile.
When I got so tired that I had to have a sleep as soon as I got home from work, I went to my doctor. All of the blood tests came back normal. He told me that going by the results, he wouldn’t hesitate to recommend me for a life insurance policy. He didn’t have any idea how to help me at all. I thought that my problem might be allergies, so I started to do some research at my local library and I came across a lot of information about sugar. This is how I started to learn how detrimental it can be to your health and I realized that it was time for me to stop.
My motto is that you have to control the sugar and not let the sugar control you. Having beaten a sugar addiction myself, these are my four favorite tips.
1. Eat a whole food diet
The best way to describe whole foods, are to think of them as foods that your great-grandmother or great-grandfather would recognize. Whole foods are unprocessed foods such as beef, fish, meat, chicken, fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains (whole grain pastas and breads), nuts and legumes. An easy way to work out if a food is a whole food is to ask yourself, does it need a label to describe it? If it doesn’t, then it is most likely a whole food. You should avoid processed foods altogether or keep them to a minimum. If more than a few ingredients are mentioned on the nutritional label, then it is probably best to avoid it.
2. Don’t eat white foods
OK this is a general rule because you can still eat white onions, potato and cauliflower. White foods to avoid are sugar (white or brown), white pasta, flour, bread and rice. Substitute wholemeal pasta, wholemeal flour, whole grain bread and brown rice. You only need to stay off white foods for six to eight weeks until you lose your sugar cravings, after that treat them as treat foods and don’t have them every day.
3. Don’t eat low fat foods
The low fat food industry is big business these days with yummy tasting, attractively packaged goodies and the unspoken promise that you will feel great, lose weight and look like those svelte models in the advertising. Well the truth is that low fat foods often contain a lot of sugar because they need to make the product taste good somehow.
4. Eat more fat
The low fat diet period developed from skewed research back in the 1950s. There is now a lot of evidence to show that it is not fat that is making us fat, but sugar. Fat helps with satiety (making you feel full) which is very important if you are trying to lose weight or kick a sugar addiction. Weight Watchers have just launched some changes to the current program to allow two teaspoons of healthy oils such as olive, flaxseed and sunflower daily for zero points.
5. Eat your fruit with a little protein or fat
When you eat fruit, always make sure that you eat it with a little protein and/or fat. For example eat a few nuts or a 20 gram slice of cheese with an apple. Have some Greek yogurt with your mango. The protein and fat help to slow down the speed at which the sugar hits your blood stream which stops you getting sugar highs and lows.
If you have been feeling that it is impossible to stop sugar addiction, follow these five tips and you will be well on your way to quitting sugar forever. Eating whole foods, including fats, will help to keep you feeling full and will prevent the blood sugar lows that make you crave sugar even more. If you want to beat your sugar addiction, you need to quit sugar for 6-8 weeks completely. By then you should be able to introduce the occasional sweet treat without setting off uncontrollable cravings.
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