Helpful Tips to Detox From Sugar

The not-so-sweet truth is that the massive intake of sugar in this country is one of the main factors of chronic disease. Just like drug addiction, sugar causes a food addiction in some people, making it very difficult to stop. Addictive drugs cause neurochemical changes in the brain, such as changes in dopamine and opioid receptor binding, which reinforce addictive behaviors. Similarly, sugar has been shown to stimulate the brain’s reward centers through the neurotransmitter dopamine. Consuming too much processed sugar has been linked to heart disease, cancer, dementia, obesity, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, depression, and even acne, infertility and impotence. If you want to reset your body and detox from the harmful effects of sugar, follow the guidelines below.
1. Remove all processed foods from your home
The easiest way to detox from sugar is to quit cold turkey. To prevent reading food labels for hours and hours, eliminate anything that is packaged, canned, frozen (with a few exceptions, like frozen organic berries) or pre-cooked from your kitchen. There are a variety of names for many of the common forms of sugar. It can take forever to sift through foods by reading labels, so just commit to eating fresh, whole foods and nothing else. Ideally, for 10 days you should avoid any foods that come in a box, package or a can or that have a label, and stick to real, whole, fresh food. Furthermore, the best way to fully detox is to give up all grains for 10 days as well.
2. Stick to water
Any form of liquid sugar is worse than solid food with sugar because it enters your bloodstream faster. Imagine the sugar directly entering your liver and turning off the fat storage mechanism within your liver, which in turn leads to the production of belly fat. Sugary beverages like soda and sports drink don’t satiate the body. Further, the energy they provide only lasts for a short period of time. While detoxing, be sure to avoid fruit juices, soda, sports drinks, and sweetened teas and coffees. Instead, drink plenty of water because thirst can often cause sugar cravings. To function properly, your liver needs water and glucose to produce glycogen. When your body is dehydrated, it is much harder to produce glycogen, thus causing a sugar craving to kick in.