The Benefits of Breaking Sugar Addiction

This week’s newsletter is on breaking sugar addiction and contains suggested steps for breaking this addiction.  This is supplemental material for the newsletter (July 13, 2016) If you are interested in subscribing to my weekly electronic newsletter, please drop me an email:  lora@weightsandbalances.com

Breaking the sugar habit is not an easy one but there are many benefits.  Some people quit cold turkey; while others gradually reduce the amount of added sugars, they are eating.

 Signs of Addiction (including Sugar)

These include experiencing three or more of the following symptoms (listed at the Mayo Clinic) in any 12-month period:

• Tolerance (typically, an increase),
• Withdrawal symptoms when you cut down or stop using alcohol. (or sugar)
• Drinking (or eating) more alcohol (sugar) than you intended or drinking (eating) over a longer period than you intended.
• Having an ongoing desire to cut down on how much you drink (eat sugar) or making unsuccessful attempts to do so.
• Spending a good deal of time drinking (eating sugar),getting alcohol (sugar) or recovering from alcohol (sugar) use.
• Giving up important activities,including social, occupational or recreational activities.
• Continuing to use alcohol(eating sugar) even though you know it’s causing physical and psychological problems.

 Practical Suggestions

• Cut back on the amount of sugar you add to food and drinks such as coffee, cereal and pancakes
• Compare food labels and select the products with the lowest amounts of added sugars.
• When baking a cake, you can reduce sugar amount by one-third.
• Replace sugar in recipes with extracts or spices such as cinnamon, ginger, almond or vanilla
• Replace sugar on cereal with slices of fresh fruit.

These are benefits of breaking the sugar habit gathered from many places online and put into this one huge list!

• Lower blood pressure
• Reduce your risk for heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, kidney damage, artery disease
• Lower your bad cholesterol
• Decrease your heart attack risk
• Improve your memory and focus
• Decrease your risk of Alzheimer’s and Dementia
• Lower your risk of Depression
• Improve your skin and lessen the aging process
• Improve the severity of acne
• Lower your risk of diabetes
• Help prevent fatty liver disease
• Reduce your risk of certain cancers such as pancreatic cancer, breast and ovarian cancer.
• Reduce your bad breath
• Lessen your chances of asthma or COPD
• Increase your energy levels
• Lessen your cravings
• Improve your immune system
• Lessen your risk of obesity
• Improved sleep quality
• Lessen the amount of medications needed
• Lessen joint pain and inflammation
• More stable moods
• Increased weight loss – your body burns fat!
• Headaches will be drastically reduced and sometimes eliminated
• Better overall health
• Saving Money – no longer hitting the snack machines on a daily basis for a treat and not eating out as much
• Reduced anxiety levels
• Improved mental health
• Improved digestion
• Improve your cooking skills as you make more of your food from scratch. This helps to reduce the amounts of those hidden added sugars!

Breaking the addiction will not happen overnight but the benefits will be well worth the time investment it will take!