Sugar is harmful for our health. It contributes to obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even premature aging – according to Gwyneth Paltrow’s holistic doctor avoiding sugar can make you look younger by up to 10 years.
Abstaining from sugar can be challenging – particularly when experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Here are 12 remarkable things that will happen when you give up the sweet stuff.
1. Increased Energy
Sugar may provide you with a quick boost of energy, but its spike will quickly lead to a crash, leaving you exhausted and demotivated. By ditching sugar altogether, your body’s energy levels should become more consistent throughout the day and your mood swings should decrease significantly. For optimal energy levels try including lean proteins, whole grains and vegetables in your diet in order to stay energized and awake!
Sugary foods stimulate your brain’s release of dopamine, similar to how addictive drugs do, triggering withdrawal-like symptoms when you stop eating them, such as headaches. Be mindful to drink lots of water to stay hydrated as dehydration can also contribute to headaches.
People experiencing withdrawal due to changes in blood sugar and dopamine levels often become irritable and fatigued as a result of quitting sugar, so make sure that you stick with your new eating habits, exercising daily to boost energy levels.
Remember, quitting sugar may take some time; however, its benefits will become evident within days or weeks of making the commitment to leave sugar behind. While at first it may cause discomfort, quitting can boost energy, sleep quality, focus, weight management, mood and skin quality while contributing to improved energy, sleep, focus, weight control, mood regulation and skin conditions. Following a healthy and nutritious diet combined with physical activity will have long-term health benefits that will leave you feeling healthier than ever!
2. Better Sleep
Sugary foods cause blood sugar spikes that disrupt sleep cycles. Furthermore, their fluctuations interfere with hormones that control appetite control – leading us back down the same cycle: craving sweets but being unable to rest well enough.
Sleeplessness increases hunger and can contribute to weight gain and poor health, including heart disease and high blood pressure. A diet rich in sugar but low in fiber increases your risk for cavities and bad breath.
As your body adjusts to using glucose for energy instead of sugar, your sleeping and waking patterns will improve and become more restful. No more nightly blood sugar spikes and drops; your body will get used to having steady amounts of glucose as fuel instead.
As cutting out sugar reduces stress hormones that inhibit restful sleep, sleep quality will also be improved. People often eat sugary snacks close to bedtime which increases stress hormones and prevents them from having restorative restful restful slumber.
Study findings revealed an inverse relation between added sugar intake and sleep quality that did not reach statistical significance; however, poor quality sleep was much higher among participants in Group A who consumed more added sugar compared to groups C and D who consumed less added sugar; also, Group A participants consumed more caffeine than groups C and D, likely explaining why their relationship wasn’t significant; these results indicate that restricting added sugar can improve sleep quality as well as decrease stress hormone levels and risk for heart diseases.
3. More Glowy Skin
Sugar consumption triggers a process called glycation. This involves sugar molecules combining with certain proteins in our bodies such as collagen and elastin to form chains of molecules called glycoproteins that give skin its youthful look and texture. Consuming too much sugar exacerbates this effect and accelerates it, leading to wrinkles appearing sooner than normal and an acceleration in skin aging processes.
A diet high in sugar leads to inflammation. This inflammation not only damages our internal organs but can be especially destructive for skin conditions like acne breakouts and other forms of inflammation that lead to an aged-looking complexion. Furthermore, high sugar consumption makes healing from injuries harder, fight allergens off better, and makes us more susceptible to infections such as the common cold.
But when you stop eating sugar, your body can quickly begin healing itself and reducing inflammation. Within 72 hours of eliminating it, insulin levels and inflammatory responses should decrease significantly and your complexion should improve, along with any cravings for sweets that you previously had.
Plan to consume less sugar by opting for fresh, whole foods and understanding ingredients on labels. Switch out soda for water and opt for fruits and vegetables over processed baked goods or snack bars as snacks; try to increase fiber intake as this will help your body regulate sugar intake while slowing the aging effects associated with an excess of sweets in your diet. BB Aesthetic offers various skincare treatments like Sculptra and BBL Forever Young that can further help boost your glow such as fine lines/wrinkles/acne breakouts/uneven skin tone! For even further enhancement, they offer various skincare treatments like Sculptra/BBL Forever Young which can reduce fine lines/wrinkles/acne breakouts/uneven skin tones and more!
4. Stronger Immune System
Your immune system is what protects against disease-causing germs, so a weaker one increases your susceptibility to illness and increases the risk for chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and obesity. A diet high in sugar also suppresses this function within your body.
A healthy immune system relies on having a balanced gut microbiome and eating nutritious food, but research also suggests that other factors, including stress management, sleep hygiene and exercise can enhance its performance. Though no direct correlation can be proven between lifestyle choices and improved immunity and better overall health outcomes, eating foods low in added sugars, processed food products, alcohol consumption or excessive alcohol can help strengthen immunity and protect from disease.
Consuming more nutritious whole foods such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains is one way to build up a strong immune system. But even health conscious eaters may still consume too much sugar through sweetened beverages, desserts and snacks such as soda (39g per 12-ounce can) and Starbucks grande chai lattes (42 grams), so it is crucial that consumers pay attention to nutrition labels and monitor how much sugar they’re taking in.
Sugary diets contribute to chronic inflammation that further weakens your immune system. By cutting back on sugar and other unhealthy fats, inflammation levels will drop, helping your immunity work more efficiently.
5. Better Teeth
Since childhood, we’ve all heard that sugar rots our teeth. While consuming excessive sugar may damage oral health (including leading to tooth decay, gum disease and tooth loss), cutting back on sugar consumption can have numerous other positive outcomes for both your body and oral health. Not only will cutting back help you lose weight faster while glowing your skin with radiant health benefits while improving mental clarity as a bonus but cutting sugar consumption also results in fewer cavities and better remineralization of our teeth!
Remineralizing teeth refers to the process of replenishing them with minerals such as calcium and phosphorous to strengthen them, replacing lost minerals like calcium and phosphorous and replacing their density in order to strengthen them against plaque and bacteria damage. Quitting sugar may help remineralize, as can practicing good oral hygiene: brushing twice a day, flossing daily, using mouthwash frequently and scheduling regular visits with your dentist will all help ensure you maintain healthy, strong smiles for many years ahead.
Reduced sugar intake may help lower the risk of dental diseases. According to Healthy Food America, people who consume at least one sugar-laden drink each day are 30% more likely to develop tooth decay than those who don’t due to glycation, where glucose in the blood attaches itself to proteins in gum tissue, creating cross-links between protein chains which leads to ageing and disease.
Reducing sugar intake can help protect against this. Doing so involves cutting back on foods and beverages containing added sugars as well as naturally occurring ones found in fruits like those found in dairy. Although some people experience headaches, low energy, or irritability at first when cutting back, such symptoms typically dissipate within six weeks as their bodies adjust hormonally to finding energy elsewhere.
