How to Cut Back on Sugar
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With the summer soon to be upon us hot days and ice cream seem to go together. So let’s talk about sugar.
As many of you know, I discuss diet and nutrition with my patients at WellcomeMD, it is one of the key things we focus on. What you eat can help keep your immune system and body in top shape. Part of eating healthy is the elimination of processed foods and sugar. Both are damaging to your body and health and contribute to disease, especially immune diseases. Today I'd like to explore the changes your body undergoes when consuming sugar.
The recommended daily amount of sugar in the US is 25 to 36 grams. I think this number is too high, especially when referring to refined/processed sugar. And that number is less than half of what the average American eats in a single day which is about 77 grams of sugar. That's a lot of sweet stuff, and unfortunately that number is not getting any lower.
In the U.S., sugar is added to everything, including foods that traditionally don't have sugar. In 2020, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that the rolls Subway uses for their sandwiches should not be considered bread, but confectionary. Why? Because of the high amount of sugar they use in the dough. In the Subway recipe, sugar makes up 10% of the weight of the flour. That's five times what Irish law deems acceptable for bread.
That's a lot of sugar for bread, which is considered a staple in most diets. But this amount is typical in American bread sold in grocery stores.
It’s not just bread, we put sugar in everything. Sugar, salt, and fat, the trifecta of human taste delights we crave it is packed into processed foods to hook us in to wanting more of that food. Sugar is meant to be a treat, not a staple. Too much of it is damaging to our health.
What does sugar do to our bodies?
High sugar consumption is linked to many adverse health effects like fatty liver disease, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancer.
We've all heard of the impact that alcohol has on your liver, but did you know that sugar does something similar to our bodies? The consumption of too much-refined sugar causes Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease – now called NASH. Consuming excess sugar overloads your liver, it can only store so much; to deal with the surplus our body converts it into fat.
We've heard about leaky gut and the impact it has on our immune system. As more and more research is done and becomes available, we've only confirmed what we already know about sugar consumption. It disrupts the gut microbiome and makes us vulnerable to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBS, Crohn's, etc.). Excess sugar in the diet, particularly processed sugars – not just white and brown but fructose, corn syrup, and others found in highly processed foods – damage and reduce the mucosal lining by increasing bacteria that degrade that lining. This lining encapsulates our feces and enables the beneficial bacteria to pass through and grab vital nutrients and minerals.
Sugar has zero nutrients, and the bacteria that feed off of it are not beneficial to our bodies. This is important because it affects our ability to process and utilize vitamins, minerals, and proteins. The dysbiosis caused by this imbalance results in inflammation and has recently been shown to be a contributor in depression and anxiety disorders. It turns out, most of our serotonin is actually produced in the gut, not the brain.
A reduced mucosal lining combined with inflammation creates a leaky gut. Once we have a leaky gut our immune system is activated and rushes to defend us.
Our bodies are fantastic guardians of our health; an immune response targeting the substances that leak through the intestinal wall protects us from materials that are meant to remain and pass out of our body as waste. You may have symptoms, or you may not. They can be digestive complaints (constipation, bloating, and gas), more severe gastrointestinal issues such as Chron's, IBS, colitis, or they may appear as brain fog, joint pain, headaches, memory loss, skin rashes, and eczema.
Sugar also affects our brains and learning. Diets high in sugar lead to memory impairment and an increased risk of dementia. Some other health impacts of too much sugar are weight gain, skin damage, stress (it affects your adrenals and their ability to properly function), emotional state, teeth, heart disease, Type-2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. I could go on, but you get the point that too much processed sugar is terrible for your health.
Notice I said too much. That is the key emphasis here. I love treating myself occasionally. Just the other day, I got to have a fantastic meal with friends, and yes, I ordered a, lovely flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. This was the first time I had dessert in probably a year; I also don’t eat out very often. I'm very cautious around sugar, more so than gluten or salt, because sugar affects me in way smaller quantities.
The good news is that our bodies are magnificent, and our microbiome's replacement is not hard. You can see a turnover in gut bacteria in 3 days. Healing your leaky gut, immune response, and reducing inflammation will take longer but restoring your health and feeling better is worth the effort.
How to eat less sugar?
Take an honest look at what you eat every day. Do this for at least a week – take pictures, keep a diary, but the key is to be honest. Then review it and see where you’re adding sweets and where you can remove them.
Check in with yourself. Do you get an after lunch slump that causes sweet cravings in the afternoon? That could be because you’re not sleeping enough, not hydrated, or simply stressed. Do you have a post meal snack or watch TV while enjoying a treat? Try increasing your vegetables and protein with dinner to help you feel more full after dinner. Most of our cravings are based on habit more than physical cravings. We’ve trained ourselves to want certain things at certain times of the day.
Read the nutrition labels. Everything that ends with -ose is sugar. Fructose, sucrose, glucose, maltose, lactose are all just pseudonyms for sugar. Also look out for honey, evaporated cane juice, fruit puree, molasses, corn syrup, concentrated fruit juice. Remove foods with any of these ingredients from your pantry and grocery list.
Cut out fruit juice. Even if the label says it’s 100% fruit juice, don’t drink it. Juicing takes the sugar from the fruit and removes the fiber, making it absorbed more quickly in the body which can cause your blood-sugar to spike. The fiber found in whole fruits is what helps regulate blood sugar and promotes satiety. While you’re at it, cut out all soft drinks and sports drinks. Most have zero nutritional value.
When it comes to cutting back on sugar, I personally favor cold turkey method. I can’t be trusted around just a moderate amount. However, everyone is different, you may be able to have a small square of chocolate or swap some berries and nuts for a higher calorie sugary snack. See if you can go a whole month without sugar, except for whole fruits. Your body and immune system will thank you.
Tracy Farrell is an expert in gut health, thyroid, and endocrine issues. She has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare starting on the administrative side and then as a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and Integrative Health Coach for the last five years at Natural Endocrine Solutions. She has certifications in Small Intestine Bacterial and Fungal Overgrowth (SIBO & SIFO) and has coordinated wellness programs for clients with autoimmune disorders and thyroid issues such as Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease. Most recently she received a Bone Density Certification from Functional Diagnostic Nutrition.
