How to Stop Sugar Cravings with Nutritional Supplements
Let’s be honest.
Sugar cravings can be an absolute nightmare to deal with.
They’re insidious.
Sugar cravings creep up on you slowly. One day, you’re snacking on a single Hershey’s kiss… And the next? You’re demolishing the entire bag.
They’re pernicious.
Sugar cravings don’t affect you so much at first… But quickly you’ll realize they’ve taken over your life. Hangry much?
They’re nefarious.
Sugar cravings can even make you feel a little crazy. They’re an unwelcome house guest that just won’t leave… And on top of it, giving into these cravings is seriously detrimental to your health.
The question becomes…
What do we do about sugar cravings?
It’s an excellent question that deserves a full answer.
Ultimately, we’ll be discussing how to stop sugar cravings with nutritional supplements.
But first, we must dig a little deeper into sugar and the accompanying cravings.
We have to understand the problem before we jump to the solution.
So let’s discuss the negative health impacts of sugar, and the effect sugar cravings have on us.
Why is Sugar so Bad for you?
We all know that sugar is unhealthy.
However, we aren’t always told exactly why this is the case.
Knowing exactly how detrimental sugar is to your health is a motivating factor to avoid it.
So how detrimental is it… Exactly?
Sugar harms our bodies in a variety of ways. Almost too many to count.
So let’s break it down.
Sugar Contributes to Liver Damage
The liver is one of the unsung heroes of the human body. It’s responsible for so many functions... Yet doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
Sugar is one of the many kryptonites that wrecks liver function.
Our lovely liver is responsible for processing sugar. It decides whether to store the sugar (as glucose) or use it immediately for energy.
Normally, this is a seamless process. The problem is… Most of us consume way more sugar than the body is equipped to handle.
The liver is able to store 100g of glycogen and muscle tissue is able to store 400g glycogen at maximum. The rest is stored in adipose tissue, aka fat.
The massive quantities of sugar many of us eat taxes and overburdens the humble liver. Much like too much alcohol.
The result?
Chronic overconsumption of sugar leads to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Obviously, we don’t want that! So keep on reading to discover how we can break up with sugar.
Sugar Packs on the Pounds
I think we all know this one. But it’s important to mention.
Sugar is an incredibly efficient way to put on weight.
And as we all know, obesity is a significant risk factor for virtually all disease.
How does this happen?
Well, I mentioned above the amount of glycogen that can be stored in our liver and muscle tissue. This is a fixed amount.
Anything above what can be stored in our liver/muscle, is stored in our fat tissue. Our bodies tap into these stores when our body is in a fasted state.
It’s recommended by the AHA that:
Women consume a maximum of 25g of sugar a day
Men consume a maximum of 37.5g of sugar a day
This amount you should easily be able to burn in a day without risk of storing as fat.
The problem?
The average American consumes 94g of sugar a day… Which 3-4x the recommended daily allowance (1).
This massive influx of sugar… Day after day… Leaves our body no choice but to store this energy as fat for a rainy day.
We don’t want that either.
Excess Sugar Leads to Insulin Resistance… and Worse
We’ve already alluded to this point, but I’ll explain in a bit more detail.
When we consume sugar, it must be processed by the liver.
Once processed, the hormone insulin is secreted by the pancreas to store the excess glucose. Insulin signals the cells in our liver, muscle, and fat tissue to open up and absorb the glucose.
When consuming a balanced diet there is no issue.
But sugar sabotages yet again…
Excess sugar causes the pancreas to constantly secrete massive amounts of insulin. It becomes a ‘boy who cried wolf’ situation.
Our liver, fat, and muscle cells become ‘deaf’ to the constant call of insulin.
This leads to a situation called insulin resistance.
Excess glucose is not being easily accepted by the cells… So it builds up in our blood instead.
Left unchecked, insulin resistance quickly snowballs into Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
For those who aren’t familiar… Metabolic syndrome is a combo of high triglycerides, reduced HDL (‘good’ cholesterol), increased blood pressure, high fasting blood glucose, and excess fat around the waistline.
Now that doesn’t sound like much fun. Neither does the rest of this list.
Sugar Increases Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Based off the previous mentions, this should be of little surprise!
Sugar is also deleterious to heart health.
As I touched upon before, excess sugar contributes to elevated triglycerides and reduced HDL, or ‘good’ cholesterol.
It’s a little known fact that HDL cholesterol actually acts as a healing agent in the body. So when levels are low, this is an indicator that there is a wound actively being healed in the body. Likely, the location of the injury is in the arteries.
Caused by sugar, of course.
Think about it.
What is one of the main properties of sugar?
It’s sticky.
The same thing happens inside of your body. Sugar takes residence in your cells and hardens. As you know, the last thing you want your arteries to be doing is harden.
Sticky sugar and hardening arteries put you on the fast track to cardiovascular disease.
But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Sugar Zaps our Immune System
I know, you’re starting to wonder when we’ll discuss how to stop sugar cravings with nutritional supplements. We’re almost there! We just have a few more points to go over so you understand how important this all is!
Anyway...
Germs and life forms of all kinds love sugar.
It’s undeniable.
What do you feed yeast for your sourdough bread or beer?
Sugar.
What do you feed your countertop kombucha project?
Sugar.
What does the bacteria in your yogurt feed off of?
Yep. Sugar.
Sugar certainly wins the popularity contest for being universally liked.
Unfortunately, the microbes that make us sick also love sugar.
The detriment to our immune systems is two-fold.
First, sugar has a pro-inflammatory effect on the body that actually suppresses our immune system. So by nature we are more susceptible to infection.
Second, the microbes that make us sick feast on sugar. They grow and grow in population, just making the situation so much worse.
You become more prone to gum disease, skin infections, yeast infections, etc.
It also makes the symptoms of the flu, cold, and other viruses way worse.
You’ll notice if you cut out sugar when you feel sick… You’ll recover much quicker.
Sugar Sabotages our Gut Microbiome, and Makes us Tired
On the topic of fermentation…
We know that sugar feeds the yeast in beer and sourdough.
Well, the same thing happens to the microbiome in our gut.
Too much sugar = fermentation in the gut.
Yuck.
In some people, the toxic by-products of this fermentation actually makes them feel drunk. It also causes many to feel fatigued and like they have brain fog.
Sugar gives the opportunistic bacteria/yeasts/fungus in our guts to take over and wreak havoc on our health.
Candida, SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), dysbiosis, and more are all a possibility.
We don’t want our intestines to resemble a wine barrel. Keeping our sugar intake in check will prevent this!
