Eating a no sugar diet might just be the best thing you can do for your body.
In this article:
- What Is a No Sugar Diet?
- Why Avoid Sugar?
- Benefits of a No Sugar, No Carb Diet
5 Reasons to Go on a No Sugar Diet
What Is a No Sugar Diet?
Also called a sugar-free diet, a no sugar diet involves primarily the elimination of added sugars in foods you eat. This means that any source of added sugar is completely banned from your diet while retaining natural sugar sources like fruit and grains.
Some take the no sugar diet plan a step further even by cutting out fruits and grains.
Why Avoid Sugar?
Sugar meets no nutritional need of your body, whatsoever. While it can cause surges of energy spikes, it isn’t sustainable and there are more reliable energy sources like nuts and grains which don’t lead to the notorious sugar crash.
Sugars are called empty calories for a reason. The only benefit it can do is to make food taste better, and excess amounts can wreak havoc on your body.
Here are some of the negative effects of consuming too much sugar:
- Hair loss
- Tooth decay
- High LDL cholesterol levels
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Cardiovascular disease
- Premature aging
An average adult actually goes beyond the daily recommended amount for sugar intake, which is 25g for women and 38g for men. And yet an average American can consume up to 71.14 g of sugar a day.
Sugars to Watch out For
When going on your no sugar diet or no added sugar diet, it’s helpful to watch out for these other aliases for sugar on ingredient lists:
- Agave Nectar
- Barley Malt Syrup
- Beet Sugar
- Brown Rice Syrup
- Corn Sweetener
- Corn Syrup
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Dextran
- Fructose
- Honey
- Maltodextrin
- Maple Syrup
- Invert Sugar
- Palm Sugar
- Rice Syrup
- Molasses
- Sorghum
- Sucrose
- Saccharose
- Syrup
- Treacle
- Xylose
Benefits of a No Sugar, No Carb Diet
1. Youthful Skin
The excess amounts of sugar present in the bloodstream have links to high blood sugar levels. This can lead to a molecular effect called glycation, which prevents the collagen in your skin from repairing itself.
Collagen is an important protein which keeps skin taut and plump. Eating too much sugar regularly can lead to duller skin, increased incidence of wrinkle formation, and lessened elasticity.
By cutting back on sugary treats and increasing your intake of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, your body can have access to more useful nutrients like Vitamin C, which is important in helping the body produce more collagen.
2. Lose Weight Easier
It’s common sense that eating and drinking too many sugary things can make you gain weight, especially in the middle area of your body. Also called visceral fat, this kind of fat is due to the sudden insulin spikes brought about by excessive sugar consumption, which over time leads to the accumulation of fat around the tummy area.
Visceral fat forms deep in the abdomen, where they quietly produce adipose hormones and adipokines. These travel quickly to blood vessels and organs, causing inflammation that may lead to diseases like cancer and heart disease.
Not only will fat cells collect around your midsection, but on the rest of your body as well. Cutting back on sugar and replacing them with fiber and healthy fats improve your insulin resistance, staves cravings, and prevents your body from storing too much unnecessary fat.
What are Adipokines? These are cell-signaling proteins which are produced by adipose tissue or fat tissue.
3. Lower Diabetes Risks
The rise of food industrialization in many countries may have eliminated hunger, but comes with a huge caveat. Processed and easily available commercial foods contain excessive amounts of sugar, which Americans are consuming on a daily basis.
This has led to the number of Americans with diabetes to multiply threefold from 1991 to 2010. Statistics project the prevalence of diabetes will only rise by 54% more between 2015 to 2030.
While sugar alone isn’t a direct cause for either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, it can lead to obesity, which is a very high diabetes risk factor. Once a patient has diabetes, excessive sugar intake can make symptoms worse, and make it harder to control blood sugar levels.
Cutting back on sugar lowers your risk for developing diabetes later in life, as it helps you stay away from becoming overweight.
4. More Energy
Sugary foods like candy bars and fizzy juices are often marketed as being powerful energy sources. In a way this is true: Added sugars are carbohydrates that are very quickly digested and enter the bloodstream faster.
Sugar in your bloodstream means you get to access a spike of energy a lot faster. This is known as “sugar rush” which provides energy but only in short bursts, leading to a massive crash and lethargy shortly after.
You may not feel the sugar crash, especially since you may be eating foods full of added sugar. This means you’re consistently feeding your sugar rush, only to crash at the end of the day.
Avoiding a dependency on sugary treats for an energy boost and opting for proteins and healthy fat is a more sustainable energy strategy. Snacks like nuts and eggs can supply a more steady stream of energy that can last longer, leave you without cravings, and don’t end up with a crash at the end of the day.
5. Keeps Your Heart Healthy
Several studies point to links between high sugar consumption and coronary heart disease. There is also a high correlation between high-sugar diets and a greater risk of heart disease.
There are many factors which lead to sugar being detrimental to heart health. High sugar consumption overloads the liver, which then metabolizes the sugar to fat.
Over time the fat accumulates around the liver, leading to fatty liver disease which is also a risk factor for not only heart disease but also diabetes.
Excess sugar can also promote chronic inflammation and a rise in blood pressure.
A no sugar diet devoid of added sugars is beneficial for heart health because your body would only have to subsist on natural sugars. These are sugars present in foods beneficial to the body such as fruits, vegetables, and healthy whole grains.
Cutting back on sugar is very difficult, especially since we’ve gotten so used to having it in everything we eat. Staying consistent, vigilant, and realistic about your goals can help you cut back in increments and form a permanent habit that will be healthier for your body in the long run.
Help your body cut back on sugar even more by supplementing your healthy diet with Juvenon’s New Sucralow. It may help tap into reserves of energy to sustain you all day and keep you alert, healthy, and lively.
Have you found easy and practical ways to cut back on your sugar intake?
