October 31, 2017

As Americans, we eat a lot of sugar. On average we consume about 300 calories worth of added sugar each day. And one in five of us consumes more than a cup of the stuff during that same timespan.

And, don’t get me wrong. I’m not casting judgment on anyone here.

I know, it can be hard to avoid.

Because we don’t just get massive amounts of sugar from stuff we’d usually think of as sweet treats—cookies, soda, cake, candy.

Thanks to the misguided research of the 1970s where fat was demonized in the public eye, once that was removed from foods, big food companies still had to make their stuff taste good, or no one would buy it.

So, they took out the fat and packed in the sugar.

Which is why sugar is in so many things we wouldn’t think of as sweet. Salad dressings, sauces, yogurt, soups… These and more all have tons of added sugar.

So, we need to eat less of it. Giving it up can be tough, of course. If you’re among the 20% of the population who are mainlining a cup of the stuff each day, you’re going to go through a withdrawal period to rival kicking hard drugs. And even if you don’t eat a ton, you still might feel lousy for a few days.

But here’s the good news. Once you kick it, here are five things to expect to have back in your life.

You’ll Need Some New Clothes

The quickest way to lose weight is to stop drinking pop—which is just an incredibly efficient sugar-delivery method.

It’s going to be different for everyone and will depend on a number of factors, but the average weight loss for people who give up sugar tend to lose between one and three pounds per week.

You’ll Be Happy to Say Cheese

Your smile will look better. While not exactly health-related (although dental hygiene is a biggy when it comes to overall health) not giving all those plaque-producing bacteria in your mouth the sweetness they crave is going to keep things brighter in there.

Your Skin Will Look Better

Sugar tends to cause a lot of inflammation with your body, and it’s common for that inflammation to affect your skin. Cutting out the sugar ends up resulting in clearer skin.

Have diabetes? Did you know it’s reversible? Learn more at our next FREE Wellness Dinner Seminar by clicking here.

You Won’t Have to Worry so Much About Losing a Foot

Type 2 diabetes isn’t something to mess around with. Aside from also the hassle of having to spend a good portion of your life hooked up to a dialysis machine, you also run the chance of suffering some serious health consequences—including amputation of your extremities.

You’ll Need Some Shades

Because your outlook is going to be so much brighter. Inside the sugar trap cycle, your mood is dependent upon the sugar for a boost. After you’re off the stuff, however, your mood evens out, and you’re far more likely to feel great—and feel it consistently.

Again, that first initial step isn’t going to be a comfortable one. But your health is worth it. And so is your happiness.

If you decide to embark on the life-changing journey to get out of sugar jail for good, your body will thank you.

Want more? You can watch our video about kicking the sugar habit below:

Want to just listen to it? Click below:

The post 5 Things to Expect When You Give up Sugar appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

September 15, 2017

How does sugar compare when it comes to cocaine addiction? You might be shocked…

A few years back, rats in a lab were hooked up to IVs. Within those IVs was a drip solution that’s been running through the veins of the rats for several weeks. These rats were intentionally hooked on cocaine.

But that’s not the end of the experiment. The rats were taken off the drip, placed in cages, and then given a choice between two water bottles. One bottle contained the cocaine solution. In the other was filtered water and sugar.

Which one would you expect the rats to choose?

Coke… or Coke?

They didn’t just choose the sugar… They did so an incredible 94% of the time. Which is shocking. Even more shocking? When the sugar was taken away, instead of switching back to the cocaine, the rats chose to go through sugar withdrawal—which, according to Dr. Bartley Hoebel of Princeton University’s Neuroscience Institute is the worst withdrawal he’s witnessed short of straight up heroin sickness.

It should be noted that sugar addiction isn’t a strictly biological process. It’s not going to happen to everyone who eats the occasional cookie.

But just as with “harder” drugs (those quotations marks show the degree of hesitation I’m showing not to lump sugar into that category as well) there’s a threshold. You have to eat enough sugar to trigger the chemicals in your brain to begin creating those overwhelming feelings.

Basically, you need to eat A LOT of sugar to get addicted. That’s the good news.

The bad news? Americans eat A LOT of sugar. Upwards of 160 pounds per person per year, in fact.

And many researchers now believe that a good portion of us are addicted to sugar.

Have type 2 diabetes? Did you know it may be reversible? Learn more at our next FREE Wellness Dinner Seminar by clicking here.

Which maybe isn’t too surprising given that our obesity problem is at epidemic levels—or, at least, it’s not a shocking idea when you look at the problem from a safe distance.

But, it’s also very strange.

Most people know that cocaine is addictive. And because of that, most people don’t do cocaine. The subject of addiction overall is obviously more nuanced than that, especially when you’re looking at the opioid epidemic and how much of that began, but very few people starting from scratch seek out something that they know is highly addictive.

But with sugar? We give it to our kids on their first birthdays (if not before.) We give it to them in the form of high fructose corn syrup in crackers, waffles, granola bars, apple juice, and even in their gummy vitamins.

All this despite the medical evidence showing how detrimental sugar is to your health.

Here’s just a quick rundown of what sugar does to your body.

Your Brain

Sugar causes a release of dopamine in the brain, which in turn makes you feel great. For a short time, at least. The more sugar you eat, the more the brain needs to trigger the dopamine. Read up on how hard drugs affect the brain, and it’s the same cycle. Just another example of the body’s addiction response.

Your Mood

Eating a candy bar gives you a sugar high. When it’s removed from the blood, though, you get a sugar crash. Which makes it not so surprising to learn that adults who consume the most sugar are also the most depressed.

Your Joints

If you have arthritis, you should probably hide the sugar bowl. Sugar causes inflammation within the body, which is especially problematic for the joints. Sugar drastically increases your chances for rheumatoid arthritis.

Your Skin

Sugar causes inflammation, and that in turn causes a breakdown in the collagen and elastin, both of which are responsible for keeping your skin young and stretchy. The result? Wrinkles. And a lot of them.

Your Liver

Sugar in the liver can make that organ—your body’s main filtration system—resistant to insulin. Which means a high risk for type 2 diabetes.

Your Heart

Excess insulin, from excess sugar, in your bloodstream can, over time, cause your arterial walls to thicken. This makes your heart’s job that much harder, and leaves you prone to heart disease.

Your Kidneys

At a point, if the kidneys are overwhelmed by the amount of sugar they need to filter out of your blood and start letting the sugar pass into your urine. This stress leaves them weakened and exposed to damage from diabetes.

Your Belly Fat

Excess sugar stores as fat in your body. More sugar means more belly fat.

And that’s just the start of the damage sugar does to your body. Because if you’ve read any of our other blogs or watched our videos, you’ll know that when one system breaks down, the damage flows out through the system like a rock dropped in a pond. If one system comes under high stress, the other systems work overtime to regain balance, which in turn over-taxes them. Sooner rather than later everything has gone haywire and disease has officially set in.

Here’s the thing, though. I’m a cardiologist. I know all this information. But I still have a sweet tooth. I still put one raw sugar in my coffee each morning. So, I’m not passing judgment on anyone. It’s tough.

But I’m working hard to avoid more and more of it as I continue to get older. And I’d encourage you to work on it as well.

Maybe the first thing, the place to start, is to understand that cocaine and sugar aren’t two different things. They fall into the same category. One just happens to be legal (and federally subsidized). Recognizing that those two things are both horrible for your body—and that your brain treats them very similarly—is the first step in taking back your health.

So, what can you do to kick the sugar habit?

Good question. Nicole gives you a full rundown here in her post “Six Sweet Ways to Shake Off Sugar.”

Watch our video on busting the sugar habit once and for all right here.

Or listen below!

The post What Cookies and Cocaine Have in Common appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.