The top 5 ways to cut sugar from your diet

Want to fight fat, wrinkles and chronic disease? Consider slashing the amount of added sugar in your diet.

The empty calories in sugar definitely contribute to weight gain -- and the obesity epidemic -- which in turn leads to all sorts of chronic diseases, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more.

Sugar can even make you look older than you are by interrupting the skin's ability to repair itself. The end result is more wrinkles.

Now consider this: The average American eats 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day, according to the American Heart Association. That's a fanatical amount of sweetness -- a level only addicts would share.

The recommended level? No more than six teaspoons a day for women and nine for men.
To fight your sugar addiction and begin to reclaim your youth and health, start by becoming a sugar detective.

Detox the pantry
Identify and toss all sugary ingredients in your home, including white and brown sugars, corn syrups, pancake syrups, jams, jellies, honey and molasses.

Add any boxes of ready-to-mix items to the trash as well, such as pancake, brownie, cookie, cake and instant pudding mixes.

Now take a good look at the labels on the rest of the foods in your pantry, and be prepared to be shocked. Sugar is often used by food manufacturers to extend a product's shelf life, so even savory items often contain sugar. 

Pasta sauces often contain as much sugar as a cookie. Salad dressings such as French, honey mustard and raspberry vinaigrette can deliver between 5 and 7 grams of sugar in just two tablespoons. 

Ketchup is worse -- it has about 4 grams per tablespoon. Barbecue sauce, hoisin sauce, Teriyaki sauce and even pickle relish all contain sugar.

Healthy bran, oat and corn breakfast cereals (not to mention the kids' versions) are packed with sugar, too.

Look for hidden sugars
Think the pantry is now danger free? Probably not. That's because manufacturers hide sugar by using different names. 

Evaporated cane juice, agave, fruit nectar, fruit juice concentrate, brown rice syrup, malt syrup, corn syrup, date syrup, barley malt and anything that ends in an "ose" -- think fructose, sucrose, maltose and dextrose -- are all added sugars.

One advocacy group counted up to 61 different names for sugar on food labels. How can we possibly fight such marketing? Last year the US Food and Drug Administration announced it is making manufacturers list all "added sugars" on food labels. But don't put your detective hat away yet -- manufacturers have until July 1, 2021 to comply.

Watch what you drink
We all know that one can of soda delivers nearly a day's worth of recommended sugar, but have you looked at your favorite energy drink? Sugar is typically the second main ingredient, and many contain more sugar than a soda. 

What about sports beverages, which kids often drink? A 20-ounce Gatorade contains 35 grams of sugar, while some brands of 32-ounce sports drinks have between 56 and 76 grams -- four to six times the recommended daily amount for kids and teenagers.

Ready-to-drink iced tea can contain up to 32 grams of sugar per bottle. Even fruit-flavored waters typically contain added sugars.

It may seem smart to just switch to a diet soda or other artificially sweetened beverage. But there's a catch: Artificial sweeteners can be 150 times sweeter than sugar.

Why does that matter? Because you're trying to train your brain to detox from an addiction to sugar's delicious sweetness. So why would you feed it something that's going to make it crave even higher levels of sweetness?


Inspect those 'health' foods

Many foods marketed as "health" foods are also full of sugar. Instant oatmeal is healthy, but when it's flavored it can have up to 15 grams of sugar per packet. Even the reduced sugar varieties can have 6 grams. Make your own and add fruit.

Look at the ingredients on that "healthy" granola bar and you'll probably find corn syrup, brown sugar, honey, brown sugar syrup, dextrose or fructose. If they've added yogurt or chocolate? Even more sugar.

Speaking of yogurt, even the low-fat flavored versions can have 30 grams of sugar per 8-ounce serving -- it's what they do to make up for the lack of fat. That's as much sugar as two scoops of ice cream.

Substitute
So, detective, you now know what to look for to begin restricting the amount of sugar in the foods you eat. What are you going to replace those foods with?

Whole foods like fruit, vegetables and whole grains. They too contain sugar -- an apple can have around 20 grams of sugar, a banana 14 grams and a sweet potato 7 grams.

But the fiber in that apple, banana and sweet potato can satisfy your hunger and make your body absorb the sugar from the fruit more slowly. Fruits and vegetables also support your health with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients instead of empty, non-nourishing calories.

There are other substitutions you can make to reduce sugar, too. Instead of sugar-laden store-bought salad dressings, use olive oil, red wine vinegar, Italian spices and garlic to make an easy vinaigrette.
Substitute dates, unsweetened applesauce or ripe bananas for sugar in your cakes, cookies, muffins and banana bread. 

Fresh fruit and purees like apricot can cut the tartness of unsweetened yogurt. Fresh or dried herbs can add flavor to vegetables and meats. Balsamic vinegar can glaze Brussels sprouts and asparagus. Roasting veggies brings out their natural sweetness.

After a while, you'll find your addiction to sugar has faded and the natural sweetness of fruit may become all you need for dessert.

And just look at your skin!

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

Here Is How Sugar Addiction May Lead To Depression

All of us feel a little blue at some point. When we are feeling a little extra down, though, a lot of us crave eating something sweet, don’t we? Having that candy, a bar of chocolate, an ice cream, or maybe even a little muffin does lift our spirits momentarily. While eating these sweets occasionally is fine, having too much sugar can have long-term implications on mood disorders.

Complex carbohydrates like fruits, vegetables, and grains have natural sugars that are healthy. However, it is also present in refined food items, such as cakes, pasta, baked goods, candy, and bread. While regular intake of sugar can lead to a variety of health issues, it has also been found to increase your risk of depression and mood disorders. Since the brain depends on an even supply of glucose, sugar’s involvement in aiding anxiety and depression isn’t altogether surprising.
Here we list some of the possible connections between sugar and depression.

1. The link between depression and refined carbohydrates

A study by Columbia Medical Center in 2015 noted that a diet high in refined carbohydrates may become a risk for depression, especially in postmenopausal women. Highly refined carbohydrates include items like white bread/pasta, white rice, crackers, cookies, and soda. These products increase blood sugar and may set off a hormonal response in the body to reduce blood sugar levels. These responses may also lead to changes in mood and cause fatigue.
Researchers also observed that a diet with a higher intake of dietary fiber, whole grains, vegetables, and fruit can lower the risk of depression for middle-age people. Thus, a healthy diet that is low in refined carbohydrates could well be a preventive measure for depressive episodes.

2. Sugar can be more addictive than cocaine

In a study that was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the authors mentioned that sugar could act as a gateway to alcohol and other addictive substances. They added that sugar is refined from plants to produce pure white crystals, much like stimulants, such as cocaine and opium. According to the researchers, this process significantly adds to sugar’s addictive properties.
“Consuming sugar produces effects similar to that of cocaine, altering mood, possibly through its ability to induce reward and pleasure, leading to the seeking out of sugar,” the study states.
Cassie Bjork, R.D., L.D., founder of Healthy Simple Life, further illustrates the point: “Sugar activates the opiate receptors in our brain and affects the reward center, which leads to compulsive behavior, despite the negative consequences like weight gain, headaches, hormone imbalances, and more.”

3. Too much sugar could increase depression risk in men

Recent research has indicated that men who consume more sugar run an increased risk of depression. Researchers from University College London (UCL) studied the sugar in the diet and common mental health problems of a large group of men and women. They discovered a greater link between consuming higher levels of sugar and depression in men. The study claims that men who consumed more than 67g of sugar a day had a 23% increased risk of suffering from a common mental disorder after 5 years than those who had less than 39.5g of sugar.
“This study is important because it is the first to be able to show that an increase in risk of about a quarter in common mental disorders – mostly mild anxiety and depression – in men who eat the most sugar cannot be explained by those who were already anxious or depressed using sugar as a form of comfort,” says Rob Howard, professor of old age psychiatry at UCL.
However, more studies are needed to confirm this theory.

4. Frequent consumption of commercial baked goods can increase the risk of depression

Various commercially prepared baked goods like muffins, doughnuts, croissants, and pastries may taste incredibly good but aren’t good for your mental health according to Spanish researchers. They found that participants who ate the most baked goods had a 38% higher risk of depression compared to those individuals who ate less baked goods.
Too much consumption of commercially prepared baked goods was never good for health anyway. Now that they may have a detrimental effect on depression risk, it is important to be cautious before having these products regularly. 

5. Depression, sugar, and inflammation

A diet that is high in refined carbs may promote inflammation. In fact, researchers at the University of Kansas found that inflammation was an essential physiological effect of dietary sugar intake.

“Added sugars have a profound effect on inflammatory processes within the body and brain, and inflammation may serve as a key mediator of sugar-induced depression onset,” says one of the researchers from the team.

Interestingly, many symptoms of inflammation are also common with depression, e.g. loss of appetite, changes in sleep patterns and heightened perceptions of pain. Furthermore, some studies have reported that inhibition of inflammatory pathways can improve mood. Thus, depression may very well be an elemental sign of inflammation-related issues. 

6. Sugar causes a serotonin crash

Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine is a chemical produced by nerve cells and is found in three parts of the body — the brain, the lining of the digestive tract, and in blood platelets. It is a vital neurotransmitter known as the “happiness molecule” because of its key role in maintaining a positive mood.

When we are feeling low, we often tend to go for sugar and other processed carbs. This generally gives us a serotonin boost or basically helps lift our mood. However, that feeling is short-lived. For instance, candy and sweets, which are simple carbohydrates, will have the greatest impact on your serotonin, but that effect will only last one to two hours before it comes crashing down. This will eventually make you feel worse. Thus, reduced quantities or activity of serotonin in the brain may influence depression.

Do note that the above-mentioned theories are hypotheses and several more studies still need to be conducted to understand how sugar contributes to depression. That being said, it's possible to suggest that high-dose sugar intake can unsettle various metabolic, inflammatory, and neurobiological processes and many of these effects are of particular significance to the onset of depressive illness. Whatever may be the case, it is always good to be careful about your sugar intake for a healthy lifestyle. 


This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

7 Steps to Break Your Sugar Addiction

Most of us are aware that sugar is not the best substance to load into our body, but many of us struggle with breaking free from it - many of us are even addicted to it.

In fact, one study found that a greater neurological reward was provided by intense sweetness than by cocaine. Similar findings are also made when we look at withdrawal from sweetness as well, indicating that weaning off sugar may cause the same neurological symptoms as withdrawing from alcohol, nicotine, and morphine.

Additionally, we all face the reality that sugar is readily available in our food as a cheap fix for our cravings, 24 hours a day, in thousands of different venues and forms. Furthermore, we often use sugar as a reward and it’s the main food substance during celebrations.

So, given these studies and the vast availability of sugar, is there any hope for us? Can we really break free from the chains of our sugar addiction? The answer is yes, and it doesn’t include admitting yourself to a rehab facility for six weeks. The start of your sugarless healing can come in the shape of seven easy steps:

Step 1: Don’t replace real sugar with artificial sugar

In an attempt to provide us all with the sweetness we crave without the excess calories we dread, companies created artificial sweeteners. The first, saccharin, was discovered in the 1870s by a scientist at John Hopkins University.

He wasn’t actually trying to come up with a way to sweeten our foods, he was working on coal tar derivatives and some white substance spilled onto his hand. Later that evening, when he was eating dinner, some of the substances transferred to a roll, making it exceptionally sweet.  After this fateful contamination, the world of food has never been the same.

Artificial sweeteners have been blamed for a lot of things that ail us – but more recently, their effect on our ability to lose weight has come into focus. As it turns out, a lack of calories doesn’t always mean a lack of consequences. A study published in the journal Diabetes Care back in 2013 found that artificial sweeteners can actually alter the way the body metabolizes sugar.

A 2008 study found that rats which were given artificial sweeteners ate more calories throughout the day and gained weight as a result. The researchers carrying out this study found that the ingestion of artificial sweeteners essentially caused confusion between the gut and the brain. The author of the study stated that, “sweet foods provide a salient orosensory stimulus that strongly predicts someone is about to take in a lot of calories. Ingestive and digestive reflexes gear up for that intake but when false sweetness isn’t followed by a lot of calories, the system gets confused. Thus, people may eat more or expend less energy than they otherwise would.”

While these studies give incentive from a weight loss approach to kick the fake sugar habit, it’s what artificial sweeteners are doing to your sugar-laden diet that is most concerning for a sugar addict. Why? Studies show that replacing regular sugar with artificial sweeteners is like kicking your cigarette habit by switching to cigars. You’re still getting the sweetness you crave, so you’re not really taking away that sweet taste which is damaging your health.

If you stick to a no-sugar plan, your cravings for sweetness will eventually stop.

Step 2: Start an exercise regimen and add milk to your diet
Eating a lot of sugar has been shown to enhance reward mechanisms in the brain, thus making it hard to break the habit. For example, rats that were given sucrose wanted more of it and self-fed with it if it was available in their cage. This really is no different to an individual who keeps candy bars and cookies in their home or office desk.  If it’s there, and you have a preference for it, there’s a good chance that you’ll eat it, and you’ll probably feel pretty good after eating it – until you crash and need more. But what if you could replicate these feel-good effects through other foods?

Well, one study, for example, found that consumption of whey protein (a major protein found in milk) increased serotonin (a feel-good hormone that is associated with mood elevation). Other studies have found a link between exercise and increased serotonin production.

Step 3. Say “no” to fat-free products
Here’s the low down on fat-free foods. Fat gets removed and sugar gets added. This is because manufacturers are selling you on the fact that the product is fat-free, not sugar-free. Major culprits include fat-free salad dressing, cookies, cakes, muffins and peanut butter.

The solution to this? Buy full-fat salad dressings and peanut butter. The monounsaturated fats in them will actually help to increase your overall sense of satisfaction.

Step 4: Improve your sleep habits
A 2013 study found that our circadian sleep cycles have a whole lot more to do with when we reach for a sugary snack late at night. Another study found that when individuals were sleep-deprived, their reward activation centers in the brain were increased, thereby making it more difficult to say no to some candy. The bottom line is this – while diet and exercise help a lot with staying away from sweets, neither of them will be as effective if you don’t get enough sleep.

 Step 5: Keep healthy snacks close by
One tactic that seems to work is to keep healthy snacks on hand. Therefore, when you have an urge for a sugary treat, you can distract yourself by taking a few mouthfuls of something healthy. Figure out what your trigger is and have something on hand to distract yourself. It could be an apple, a bag of healthy popcorn, or even string cheese.

Step 6. Chew gum
A 2009 study found that individuals who chewed gum for at least three hours in the afternoon reduced their cravings for sweet snacks. While the study used a sugar-free gum variety, which contains artificial sweeteners, it nonetheless provides an interesting tactic to decrease your sweet cravings.

Step 7: Never forget the benefit to your body
If you remain constantly aware of the damage that sugar is doing to your body, you should be able to convince yourself to stay away from it. Remain focused and never forget that decreasing your sugar intake has benefits well beyond the perfect body.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

Source: huffingtonpost