How To Stop Eating Sugar

Not All Sugars are Sweeteners

If you want to learn how to stop eating sugar, for real, there are 3 things that you need to know.

What sugar is
Why it’s bad for you
Where it’s hiding in your diet

Identifying sugar is an important step. Most people just think candy and junk when they think about sugar but those are obvious sugars. Finding the not so obvious sugar in your diet is the real key.

Making a change to reduce or eliminate sugar is hard. Change is always hard but nearly impossible if you don’t have motivation to make that change. Hopefully, understanding what sugar does to your body and health will help motivate you to get off the sugar.

What Sugar Is

What is sugar? It’s simply a generic name for sweet, tasty, soluble carbohydrates. (1)

That simple explanation of what sugar is makes a powerful point. Sugars are carbohydrates, carbohydrates are sugars. By the way, this is a BIG hint about where sugars might be hiding in your diet.

When talking about sugar, most people think of the white stuff, table sugar. Table sugar, also known as sucrose is a combination of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

The Many Forms of Sugar

Glucose, Fructose, Galactose (monosaccharides, meaning 1 or single)
Sucrose, Lactose, Maltose (disaccharides, meaning two, combo sugars)
- Lactose, milk sugar is a combo of glucose & galactose
- Sucrose, as mentioned above is a combo of glucose & fructose
- Maltose, is two glucose sugars

This post is going to focus on glucose & fructose since these are the sugars found in fruits, vegetables, natural sweeteners and processed foods.

Once you eat sugar, the body has no idea where that sugar came from. It doesn’t think oh, yay, fruit or oh, hmm, a candy bar. Sugar is sugar is sugar, it’s all the same to your body. It’s absorbed and processed just like any other nutrient.

During absorption, the body breaks sucrose apart into glucose and fructose. It then processes the glucose and fructose. Important point, glucose and fructose are processed differently.

Glucose

Glucose is absorbed in the small intestine where It enters the blood stream and is transported around the body as a fuel source. All cells in the body can use glucose as fuel.

When we eat glucose, it enters the blood stream causing the level of ‘sugar’ in the blood to rise. The body wants the sugar in our blood stream to be at a very precise level. Any rise causes the body to immediately respond with insulin. Insulin clears the excess sugar (glucose) out of the blood stream by moving it into cells where it is converted into energy. Glucose needs insulin to be metabolized (used) by cells.The body has the ability to store small amounts of glucose as liver or muscle glycogen. This is our bodies ‘rocket fuel’. We don’t store a lot of glycogen but what we do store is powerful. We use the stored glycogen when we need to react quickly, think sprinting or jumping out of the way of a speeding car.

Fructose

Unlike glucose, cells can’t directly use fructose as energy. There is actually no biological use for fructose. All fructose must be converted into different usable forms.

Like glucose, fructose is also absorbed in the small intestine but it is transported directly to the liver where it is converted into several useful substances. About half of fructose is converted to glucose, another 25% into lactose, 15% converts to glycogen and then the last little bit is turned into triglycerides. Unlike glucose, fructose does NOT increase blood sugar levels nor does it cause a release of insulin. This fact caused many to believe fructose was a ‘safe’ or at the very least a benign sweetener.

Unfortunately, fructose causes way bigger problems than originally believed.

Why Sugar is Bad For You

The modern American diet is a high fructose diet. Maybe you’re thinking, so what, fructose is a natural sugar found in fruit. Natural, that’s good, right? Sure, if you only get about 15-20 grams of fructose/day from a small amount of organic fruit that’s only available seasonally.

Unfortunately, our modern American diet is full of fructose all year round from real, natural foods AND high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other sweeteners found in processed foods. The average American gets about 55 grams of fructose per day. (3)

But fructose doesn’t raise blood sugar levels so it’s got to be better than other sweeteners, right? Nope, even though fructose doesn’t have an effect on blood sugar it is more strongly linked to our current obesity and diabetes epidemic than glucose. (4)

A diet that includes excess fructose puts a huge burden on the liver. Nothing else in the body can help the liver metabolize fructose. The liver is 100% in charge of dealing with fructose. Here’s a quote from Dr. Jason Fung:

“…excess fructose is changed into fat in the liver. High levels of fructose will cause fatty liver. Fatty liver is absolutely crucial to the development of insulin resistance in the liver.”

When the liver is being buried in fructose bad metabolic things tend to happen:

Triglycerides are formed, which can build up in liver cells and cause liver damage.
High levels or uric acid are associated with gout. Uric acid also turns off the production of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide protects artery walls from damage.
Free radicals are formed which can result in oxidative damage to cells, enzyme and even genes acid.
The body becomes insulin resistant, a sign of systemic inflammation and the first step toward type 2 diabetes and other diseases associated with chronic inflammation.

Fructose & Insulin Resistance

I want to harp on the whole fatty liver, insulin resistance thing for a moment. I’m hoping this will help with the WHY you should quit eating sugar.

In Dr. Jason Fung’s book, The Obesity Code, he outlines a particular study that show the progression of fructose to insulin resistance and then to pre-diabetes. The progression is in weeks!

“A 2009 study showed that pre-diabetes could be induced in healthy volunteers in only eight weeks.”

The study showed that insulin resistance develops after only 6 days of excess fructose consumption and by 8 weeks pre-diabetes was established. WHAT!

You may be wondering what they mean by ‘excess fructose’. The study fed people 25% of their calories as Kool-Aid sweetened with fructose. In a 2000 calorie diet that would be 500 calories. Unfortunately, in the modern American diet, where ‘healthy’ fruit smoothies, sports drinks, super sweet, fancy coffee drinks and energy drinks are the norm that is not an unrealistic amount of calories. Combine all that drinkable sugar with the sugars found in processed treats and other foods and you can see how the amount of dietary sugar really skyrockets.

Final word on why you should limit the amount of sugar, particularly fructose in your diet. A diet high in fructose has been associated with diseases of inflammation: obesity, diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, even cancer.

Do you think of those conditions/diseases as an inevitable result of aging? If so, please STOP! You have control over how you age. The sooner you start to make changes and remove inflammatory sugars from your diet the faster you can start to take control of how you feel and age. People that are healthy, strong and feel good don’t think about age. Those are the people that say ‘age is just a number’. They say that because it’s true. Be that person!

Where Sugars Hide In Your Diet

Processed Foods

The first thing I always ask of people is to please stop eating processed foods. Processed foods are often full of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is 42% glucose and 55% fructose (remaining 3% as other sugars). This is a huge hit of fructose.

If we cut out processed food and eat fruits and vegetables that are grown locally and in season we will get about 15 grams of fructose per day. An amount our bodies can tolerate and process.

Unfortunately, an average adult eating a modern American diet gets about 55 grams of fructose per day. This increase in fructose consumption appears to parallel the modern obesity and diabetes epidemic.

5 Signs You’re Eating Too Much Sugar

You’re shaped like an apple and you’re waist to height ratio is greater than .05
Your most recent cholesterol test showed high triglycerides (over 100)
Your fasting glucose is over 95
You have high blood pressure
You suffer with gout

Where is the Sugar Coming From?

Remember that statement: sugars are carbohydrates, carbohydrates are sugars?

Obvious dietary sugars:

sugary cereal
cookies
cakes
muffins
candy
soda
ice cream
alcohol

Less obvious dietary sugars:

Bread & other products made with grains
Gluten-free Grains: rice, oats, quinoa and products made with these grains
Beans and Legumes
Corn and products made from corn
Potatoes and products made from potato
Fresh fruit, fruit juice, dried fruit, jams, jellies
Vegetables
Natural Sweeteners: honey, maple syrup, sugar, coconut sugar etc…
Snacks: crackers, pretzels, rice cakes, potato chips, veggie chips
Condiments: balsamic vinegar, bbq sauce, ketchup, jam, teriyaki sauce, Worcestershire sauce, hoisin sauce, steak sauce, sweet dressings, tartar sauce, cocktail sauce
Drinks: soda, kombucha with added sugar, carrot juice, fruit juice, smoothies with fruit, sports drinks, fancy coffee drinks, juice boxes, slim fast, carnation instant breakfast, vitamin water, beer, sweet wine, brandy, rum, mixed drinks

All carbohydrates! Carbohydrate is the umbrella term for SUGAR.

The Modern Diet

The modern American diet (MAD) is designed to limit fats and proteins. When we don’t eat fats and proteins there is a void, that void is filled by carbohydrates (a.k.a. sugar).

If you are 40 or older you’ve spent most of your life following the dietary guidelines which has resulted in years of eating lots of sugars.

The body is VERY resilient. It works really hard to keep things balanced. Unfortunately, 40 years of pounding sugar has caught up with many of us. We see this in many different ways. Here are a couple of typical signs:

the inability to lose weight the way we used to
being diagnosed with conditions we relate to aging but are really a result of chronic inflammation like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gout, pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s

What to do?

Natural, whole food carbohydrates are not necessarily bad foods, many are considered healthy, nutrient dense, good foods. This is true but partial. What’s good for one person can be very bad for another. How do you know what’s good or bad for you?

It all depends on where you fall on what I like to call the Spectrum of Health

Well

A metabolically healthy person with normal/low blood sugar levels, low fasting insulin, lean, active, sleeps well, eats real food, has all day energy and enjoys a consistent, pleasant mood.

Unwell

Someone suffering with multiple conditions or diseases related to insulin resistance/high fasting insulin and increasing fasting blood sugar levels.

Type 2 Diabetes
High Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol (particularly triglycerides)
Obesity
Cardiovascular Disease
Cancer
Alzheimer’s
PCOS

Between Well & Unwell = one or more of the following:

pre-diabetic
abdominal obesity
resistant weight loss
reactive hypoglycemia
fatigue
brain fog
binge eating
one of the conditions/diseases listed above

If you are WELL please cut processed foods and enjoy a wide variety of natural, real food carbohydrates both starchy and non-starchy vegetables, all kinds of fruits and even some gluten-free grains.

If you are UNWELL please cut all processed foods and all carbohydrates except non-starchy vegetables. Yes, this includes cutting all grains even gluten-free grains, and fruit.

If you are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum you need to cut all processed foods and stick with mostly non-starchy vegetables. You may be able to tolerate an occasional sweet potato and some fresh berries as a treat.

As you approach the ‘well’ end of the spectrum you can start to reintroduce the ‘healthy’ foods you eliminated. Everyone’s tolerance for ‘healthy’ carbohydrates will be different. You’ll need to evaluate how those foods make you feel and decide if they are worth including in your diet or not.

What To Eat

Healthy fats and proteins. Fill your plate with non-starchy vegetables (the veggies grown above ground, except corn). Eat healthy fats like avocado, nuts/seeds. Make your veggies tasty and filling with olive oil, butter and coconut oil. Finish filling your plate with proteins like wild caught fish, grass-fed meats and pasture raised chicken/eggs.

Protein will fill you up. Fats will help keep you feeling full. Ideally you want to eat no more than 3 meals a day without snacks. Remember, this is a process. It will take time to get your body balanced. 2-3 meals/day without snacks is the goal. You should not feel hungry. Not snacking should come naturally. Sound crazy? Not surprising but guess what, it’s not crazy. If you’re eating nutrient dense, real food your body will be happy. It will be getting everything it needs and it won’t constantly ask to be fed. Not having to eat all the time is VERY liberating. Think of all the hours in a day you’ll have to do other things!

What To Do Next

Please click the image below to go to my Hangry to Healthy coaching page. Let’s work together so that you can lose weight and never gain it back. It’s time for you to enjoy being leaner and getting stronger and healthier!

All my best,

Amy White Hangry to Healthy Weight Loss Program

References / Resources:

1) Sugar Defined

2) Sorting Out the Science on Sugars

3) Is fructose bad for you?

4) The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung (Amazon Affiliate link)

Amy White, Functional Nutritionist

I’m Amy a board certified holistic nutritionist, certified functional nutritionist and lifestyle practitioner and certified Life Coach. I help women in midlife understand the changing needs of their body so that they can stop dieting and lose weight permanently. At 56 I live what I teach. Don’t believe the story that your best years are behind you. They are not. Your best years are just starting!

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