Only four more days until 31 days of no sugar (and alcohol…although in about 4 more days I’m going to quit reminding you all of that as it will most likely prompt you to drink).  Below are some things to think about WHY a sugar detox is good and necessary (despite so many Internet reads telling the public that detoxing is unnecessary.  Hogwash)!

Sugar is addictive — I could most certainly write a lengthy article complete with study after study convincing you of that fact.  Rather, just believe me.  Sugar is as, or more, addictive that drugs or alcohol.  In repeated studies where sugar is present rats will gladly choose it over cocaine.  This is why I stress to go easy on yourself if you find this detox difficult.  If you do not think the food industry, or the sugar industry, knows how addictive sugar is then you are aware now that I’ve told you.  Great book: John Yudkin’s “Pure, White and Deadly.”  And he’s not talking about the nose candy.  Much like smoking, the dangers of sugar have long been known (since the 50s!) and yet that research and knowledge has been kept mum.

Sugar causes disease — In fact, sugar is known to cause inflammation.  And, inflammation is the cause of disease.  So, albeit statistical theory says correlation does not equal causation I beg to differ.  While sugar in itself is not dangerous to the body (it is the over consumption that is dangerous) it does not have any nutritional value.  Sugar in copious amounts, which is what the typical American consumes every day, replaces nourishment (which is natural anti-inflammation) and revs our body’s engines unnaturally which causes inflammation and lowers our immunity (I could talk about the pancreas’ role and the release of insulin and all that jazz…but I’ll spare you for a moment).  Remember the low-fat craze?? Dreamed up by the food and sugar industry to deter you from real food (that has fat) to consuming low-fat food that has no fat, and no flavor, and heaps of sugar. Sugar is fat-free and thus a perfect reason to create a gazillion dollar low-fat and fat-free industry that was the WORST thing to ever happen to the American public (and is taking years off my life trying to convince clients to move away from).

Sugar begets more sugar — The more sugar you eat (or continue to eat) the more sugar you will want to eat.  Duh!  Easy to see why over 80% of the grocery store (which is 80% larger than in the 1980s) and over 600,000 food products have added sugar.  If people are addicts then all the better to sell.  Remove the over consumption and we remove our cravings.  What’s horrible, truly horrible, is that so many of us think it’s our own weaknesses that cause us to fail.  We don’t realize how trapped into sugar fixes we actually are because of biology.

Sugar makes us fat — “Yeah, yeah” you’re thinking but sugar does not make you fat only because of the excess calories.  When we eat sugar (brace yourself for science) that the body is able to handle it performs the normal mechanisms with ease.  The sugar from food (natural or added) is swimming about in our blood and needs a “key” to get into our cells to be used as fuel.  That “key” is the insulin secreted by our pancreas. That “key” is released into our blood and binds onto our cells to “unlock” them for the sugar to enter.  But, when sugar is consumed in excess and is literally always in our blood stream (hello America’s eating habits) then the pancreas is always secreting insulin and the receptors on the cells get burned out from too much action. Those crucial engine parts then become insufficient.  The rise in juvenile Type 1 diabetes (non-functioning pancreas) can easily be attributed to poor genetics being passed down.  In addition, the pancreas gets burned out as well and thus many Type 2 diabetics become Type 1 diabetics (insulin-dependent).  It’s plain overload.  That much insulin and that much sugar is too much and forces our body to convert the excess into fat.  In the process it changes our metabolism and that’s why losing weight can often be so difficult no matter how hard we try.  We have a shoddy engine we expect to work effectively.  Clean out the engine, try to repair the parts you cannot replace and most likely your engine will begin to work properly.

All the more reason to sugar detox.  Food for thought as you contemplate the next 4 days and how you want to adopt your detox.