Extracted from the blog of Mike Kamo, 6/8/15. 7 Things that happen when you quit sugar
Sugar can be deadly for your health, your waistline and your mind.
Sugar has been linked to many negative outcomes, including tooth decay, anxiety and heart disease.
Mike says that sugar can even make us look much older. Apparently, sugar attaches to the collagen in our skin and reduces the effectiveness of our collegan and elastin. These are the proteins in our skin that help us stay youthful, so without them functioning correctly, the skin will begin to look dull and dry. And of course, sugar aggravates acne.
Too many sugary foods over an extended period will cause resistance to the insulin hormone. This will trigger our bodies to store extra fat and to slow down our metabolism. Sugar also messes with the leptin hormone that controls our appetite and can result is us eating more than we need.
According to Mike, avoiding sugars before bed will result in a better sleep because there won’t be a rise/drop in sugar levels during the night and our brains won’t be stimulated.
Sugary foods are broken down very quickly, so blood sugar levels rise and the brain stops producing orexin. That’s when we stop being alert and start to get unfocused. Instead, we should be using healthy fats as fuel.
Foods you might be surprised have a lot of sugar
flavoured yoghurt- fruit juices (some fruit juices even contain more sugar than soft drink)
- sports drink (these should be used “sparingly and infrequently”)
- smoothies, bottle tea and energy drinks, eg Red Bull
- bbq sauce and tomato sauce (make your own with a can of tomato puree, vinegar, onion and garlic)
- pasta sauces, Asian sauces, salad dressing, peanut butter
- multigrain breads, wraps, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, rice cakes, pretzels
- baked bean, canned soup
- skim milk, soy milk, rice milk
- canola oil, palm oil, margarine
- fat-free items. These generally contain sugar to make them taste better.
