EATING WELL – I’ve had a sweet tooth for as long as I can remember. Giving up sugar felt a lot like giving up oxygen some days, but I came away with a completely new understanding of cravings and my habits.
Birthdays aren’t celebrated around broccoli casserole. Christmas carrots are for the reindeer. The main event at a wedding isn’t cutting the roast beef.
Some of the happiest and grandest events in our lives are celebrated with sugar—the tongue-tingling ingredient that’s also in everything from bread and yogurt to ketchup and cereal.
Sugar, in short, is everywhere. Indeed, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), say manufacturers add sugar to 74% of the processed foods they make. And, as I discovered, they add it to foods you’d never consider “sweet” by any stretch of the sugary imagination.
Sugar isn’t just a threat to dental health, though dentists everywhere would remind you it’s a leading culprit in cavities.
“Sugar is not a necessary nutrient, and we’re all eating entirely too much of it.”
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Eating too much sugar may also contribute to heart disease, obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure—all conditions that can lead to chronic health problems and even premature death.
Learning to live without sugar—or at least learning to live with less of it—is an admirable goal for anyone, regardless of their health history.
If you are considering a no-sugar period or just want to cut back dramatically on how much of the sweet stuff you’re eating—natural or artificial—I offer some guidance for getting through the rough days and learning to love living without so much sugar.
Why I Did a No-Sugar Challenge
As a person with a world-renowned sweet tooth (if “the world” is just my family, that is), the idea of giving up sugar seemed like the most extreme dietary decision I had made in quite some time. (Trying the keto diet ranks high in my harebrained diet ideas, too.)
However, as I reviewed my debit card purchases and realized I had found “good reasons” to stop by the local cookie shop four times in two weeks, I knew I needed a sugar break …
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