Fending Off Sugar Cravings

Hello!

This is a fabulous list for which I can’t take credit. One of my super-wise clients compiled this list, to help battle the night time sugar cravings. Thanks, Linda!!! Reasons to avoid sugar:

1) Eating sugar causes blood sugar to spike – this leads to the body’s secreting insulin, which directs calories into storage as fat. (Glucagon is our friend in weight loss, triggering the release of calories from storage, but it only comes out to play when blood sugar is low.)

2) Eating sugar makes tastebuds less sensitive to the natural sweetness of fruits and vegetables – so we are not satisfied with those tastes, and we crave more artificial/refined sweet tastes.

3) Eating sugar (and other sweeteners??) may possibly affect the pleasure centers in our brains, dampening our ability to enjoy other pleasures in life.

4) Insulin spikes cause inflammation, which is the immune response, including production of white blood cells. Their job is to attack foreign matter, but if there’s nothing to attack, they can attack our own cells.

5) Processed sugar requires the body to expend minerals and vitamins to break it down, but unlike with fruit, there are no vitamins and minerals coming back in from the food. So eating sugar actually robs your body of nutrients.

6) Remember – unprocessed food changes the chemistry in your intestines, so they can absorb more calories.

7) Note: for 5-12 hours after you eat, your body chemistry is changed.
a. 5-12 hours after consuming the sugar in two sodas, your white blood cells are 40% less effective at fighting off germs.
b. After a fatty meal, you are more likely to have a heart attack in those hours.
c. After a healthy, plant-based meal, you have more anticancer and germ killing properties.

8) Fructose (as in high fructose corn syrup) is conducive to cancer.

Dwell on THAT next time a cookie calls to you!

Thanks again, Linda!!

Jill