Sugar withdrawals suck!

26^th April 2012

Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory. Norman Vincent Peale

It’s only rain ‘-) keep reminding yourself we wouldn’t survive long without it!  My members were amazing yesterday coming to get weighed regardless of the rain, and they were rewarded for their efforts over 240lb lost and two achieved their goals, WOW, well worth getting a bit wet.

Oone of my members told me yesterday that she’s addicted to coca cola, she’s trying to do cold turkey from 3 litres a day, at one time I would have laughed and said no your not, it isn’t addictive but now I know differently, so can sugar be an addiction or is it just a habit?

Did you know that sugar could be addictive apparently, a 2008 study by Princeton University showed that when rats ingested large quantities of sugar, the changes to their brains were similar to those seen with drugs such as heroin and cocaine.  It’s immediately gratifying, an instant energy boost.  We all know it helps towards your weight problems, possibly even more so that fat, everyone looks on the label at the fat content but who looks at the sugar content!  Did you know apple juice is used as an ingredient because it sounds healthy, but realistically it’s mostly sugar!   I’ve seen members eyes light up when I mention the word chocolate, it’s sweet, sugary and delicious – everything that gets your juices going.  Brits are collectively eating 2.25 million tonnes of sugar a year, that’s an average of 58lb of sugar each, the equivalent of 27 bags, if you want an instant visual it’s a little more than a large sack of potatoes!  Unfortunately a lot of it is hidden in foods such as bread, soup and salad dressings, I bet you didn’t realise that. 

Yeah sugar is called lots of different names to fool you if you are looking at ingredients, they are;

Concentrated fruit juice

Corn sugar/syrup

Dextrose

Dextrin

Evaporated cane juice

Fructose

Galactose (that sounds like a planet!)

Honey

High-fructose glucose syrup

Hydrolysed starch

Invert sugar syrup

Isoglucose

Lactose

Levulose

Maltose

Maltodextrin

Molasses

Sucrose / sucrose syrup

Treacle

We all know it’s difficult to give something up if you really enjoy it, and also if you’re a little addicted to it.  You can’t go to a rehab centre for doughnut addiction, well I’m guessing you actually probably could if you’d got enough money.  But in reality it’s very difficult to go cold turkey; going from a 3 spoon sugar tea drinker to no sugar overnight is hell.  The best way to do it is to wean yourself off it slowly, or stop drinking tea ;).  If a food label shows that sugar is in the top three ingredients – stop buying it. 

If you decide to cut back on sugar, and get a sugar craving in the afternoon have a banana and a glass of milk, it may not be the same as a mars bar, but you’re body will appreciate it.

Switch to sweeteners, it’ll help, we humans are built with an innate desire for sweet foods apparently, so if you really can’t live without, use sweeteners.   To help balance out your blood sugar levels, up your protein.  A handful of walnuts would be great, and before you say OMG they’ve got so many ProPoints in them – so has chocolate!

Boosting your vitamin C intake can help lower blood sugar levels, oranges, kiwi fruits are both good examples. 

So who’s up for a bit of cold turkey, I’m doing the alcohol version, do you need to do it with the sweet stuff?

Beware the hidden sugar, this is how much is lurking in some of the things you don’t realise;

Orange juice = 4 ½ tsp

200g tomato soup = 2 ½ tsp

15g ketchup = 1 tsp

30g cornflakes with 125ml milk = 2tsp

3 slices wholemeal bread = 1 ½ tsp

Half a jar of pasta sauce = 1 tsp

1 milk chocolate digestive = 1 1/3 tsp

Can of cola = 8 ¾ tsp

Can of baked beans = 5 tsp

Fat-free vanilla yogurt = 2 ½ tsp

So there’s some food for thought, are you consuming too much sugar, is that the reason you feel sluggish, or have a sugar slump in the afternoon.