Because sugar can be so addicting it was very tough for the first week. We don't eat a lot of sugar, but we like to bake here and there. By the end of the second week, we had no more cravings and started craving other things like hot, spicy, and bitter items. Changing your eating habits and taking control of your health requires a lot of effort but it is incredibly rewarding. For example, our energy increased, and our moods slowly became more positive because we had better sleep.  Also, did you know when you are able to control your blood sugar your stress can lower. There is so much value in kicking sugar to the curb and becoming the healthiest version of you! If you feel like you need support on phasing sugar out of your diet, I am absolutely here to help!

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes 150-170 pounds of refined sugars per year! Compare this to the 4-6 pound yearly consumption of the early 1800s or even the high yearly 90-pound consumption of the 1900s. That figure is correct - 150 to 170 pounds a year indeed. That translates to 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 pound, or 30-60 teaspoons, of sugar PER DAY. It's hard to believe you're capable of that, but keep in mind, you are not just consuming sugar in your coffee and baked goods. It is hidden in the majority of foods you probably eat rather regularly.

Sugar is added into foods you wouldn't expect. Some include:

Ketchup

BBQ sauces

Tomato Sauces

Marinades

Salad Dressings

Yogurts

Breads

Protein Bars

Peanut Butter

Soups

Canned fruits

Cereals

Crackers

Oatmeal

Frozen Dinners

This list does not include the obvious culprits of soda, cookies, and ice cream, but these are just some (of the many!) surprising ways sugar sneaks into our diets.

One of the main reasons you may not recognize all the sugar you have in your diet is because it very rarely will say "sugar" on the ingredient lists of the food you buy.

Instead, you may see:

Dextrose

Maltose

Glucose

Fructose

Corn Syrup

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Corn Sweetener

Sucrose

Sorbitol

Sorghum syrup

Agave nectar

Carbitol

Evaporated Cane Juice

Galactose

Inversol

Rice malt

Sorbitol

Nectars

As I'm sure you would guess... There is even more than what I included on this list. A few tips in identifying sugars is looking for words with "ose" or "ides" ending and examining the entire ingredients list as often there is more than one type of sugar in a product.

Mental illness and behavioral problems are often attributed to other sources beyond diet. Allergies, arthritis, and migraines are explained by our environment, stress levels, and response to medication. Immune disorders, degenerative diseases, diabetes, and cancer take time to diagnose, and most people aren't grabbing their food journals at this point to search for the connection.

However, there is more research being conducted on the effects of sugar on human health by the day. To best understand how sugar is so dangerous, you must first know what it is made of. Before sugar leaves the digestive tract, it is composed of two simple sugars, glucose and fructose. Glucose is an important energy source and easy to obtain. If we are not consuming it in our diets, our bodies will produce it. Simple as that.

However, fructose is different. Our bodies do not produce much of it and, there is no need for it to do so. In fact, there is no proven physiological need for fructose at all. The relationship between sugar and insulin resistance has become a crucial topic of discussion. Insulin is one of the most important hormones in our bodies. It is responsible for directing glucose into cells to be used for energy. However, when our cells no longer respond to insulin, our body receives the message that it needs to produce more. In response, the pancreas makes more insulin. But over time, the pancreas is unable to keep up with the demand and blood sugar is no longer able to be maintained. This is known as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is thought to be a big contributor to many diseases, including but not limited to: type II diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease.

Even after these diseases develop, elevated blood sugar remains an ongoing problem.

This excess is often the reason people with these illnesses experience other complications, like blindness in diabetes, for example.

This would not be a problem if everyone minimized their sugar intake significantly and increased their daily physical activity. Typically, the fructose would be turned into glycogen and be stored in the liver for safe keeping until our bodies were ready to burn this energy reserve. However, if there is already an ample amount of glycogen in the liver, eating more sugar overloads it. The extra is forced to be turned into fat. This process is the beginning of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among other complications. To take it even further, some studies have suggested that sugar can be just as damaging as alcohol is to the liver even if you're at a healthy weight! Luckily, the liver can repair itself, but with continuous sugar consumption, it can never catch a break!

Your immune system is responsible for defending your body against illness. That's a big deal! So for your immune system to be compromised, you are putting yourself in danger of pathogens that can make you very sick. According to a study through Loma Linda University, 100 grams of sugar can make your white blood cells 40 percent less effective in killing germs. On top of already putting your body in a stressed and irritated state, sugar directly affects your main line of defense against disease! The most alarming part about this is that the sugar's crippling effects stay present in your system for up to 5 hours after you eat it!

Sugar also affects our brain quite significantly. Studies have shown that sugar slows down the brain's function, hinders new learning, and decreases memory recall. There are also strong connections between high sugar intake and the prevalence of depression and anxiety. What do you think of when you think of a sugar crash? Is it irritability, decreased mood, brain fog, and fatigue? Now imagine that not going away!

Foods rich in sugar disrupt our brain's neurotransmitters that work to stabilize our moods. However, if we are continually disrupting the function of these receptors, we no longer have the inherent control over our moods as we usually do. According to Dr. Kharrazian, a functional medicine expert and author, this is a huge contribution to chronic depression.

While sugar is very obviously a negative contribution to our health and lives, not all sugars are created equally. Some are much worse for us than others, and of course, vice versa.

If possible, avoid these products:

-Aspartame

This chemical sweetener is best known for its appearance in diet sodas. Some people can tolerate it well in the short term, while others report migraines and digestive distress. Regardless of the initial reaction, aspartame has been proved pretty dangerous in isolated situations. For example, the University of Liverpool conducted a study where aspartame was mixed with a common food coloring. The result was clear toxicity to brain cells! Additionally, researchers found that when aspartame breaks down, it creates formaldehyde, a well-known carcinogen.

-Sucralose

Sucralose, commonly known as the brand name Splenda, is processed using chlorine! Researchers are also finding that the waste of those consuming this "sugar" can't be broken down in wastewater treatment centers. Imagine what that means for INSIDE our bodies!

-High Fructose Corn Syrup

This one may be a bit more challenging to avoid. HFCS is in almost everything. This sweetener plays a huge role in the fat build up in the liver, leptin resistance, and major weight gain. A study even found that high fructose corn syrup is sometimes laced with mercury! Mercury is a heavy metal linked to heart disease and developmental disorders like autism.

Some SAFER sugar alternatives include:

-Stevia

Stevia sweetener is an extract made from the leaves of the stevia plant. It has shown to help balance fasting blood sugar levels, cholesterol, insulin resistance, and blood pressure! However, it is important to pay attention to the source of stevia. Some brands include additives so be sure always to check the label.

-Coconut Sugar

Coconut sugar is a natural sweetener, unrefined, and still contains all of its vitamins and minerals. It does not contribute to the strong fluctuations in blood sugar like other, refined added sugars.

-Raw Honey

Honey has less fructose and provides other health benefits, including promoting heart health and fighting inflammation.

As always, too much of a good thing can be bad. So please keep in mind that these alternatives do still break down to glucose and fructose in your body and all sweeteners should be used infrequently. Hopefully, reading this you too can make the decision to give up sugar for a month and see what happens. My mission is to help you get healthier without needing more medications. If you or someone you know needs help, make sure you reach out because I am available for a telehealth call. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

God Bless!!

Keep Breathing,
Dr. Corinne Weaver 

Email: Dr@DrCorinneWeaver.com
Website: www.DrCorinneWeaver.com

Dr. Corinne Weaver is a compassionate upper cervical chiropractor, educator, motivational speaker, mother of three, and internationally bestselling author. In 2004, she founded the Upper Cervical Wellness Center in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Over the last 13 years, she has helped thousands of clients restore their brain to-body function. When she was 10 years old, she lost her own health as the result of a bike accident that led to having asthma and allergy issues that she thought she would always have to endure. Then, after her first upper cervical adjustment at age 21, her health began to improve thanks to upper cervical care and natural herbal remedies. This enabled her to create a drug-free wellness lifestyle for herself and her family, and she also enthusiastically discovered her calling to help children heal naturally.

Dr. Weaver was named one of Charlotte Magazine's "Top Doctors" in 2016 and is now a number-one internationally bestselling author to two books: Learning How to Breathe and No More Meds. 

Upper Cervical Wellness Center is known for finding the root cause of health concerns through lifestyle changes, diagnostic testing, nutraceutical supplementation, and correction of subluxation (as opposed to just medicating the symptoms). The practice offers cutting-edge technological care at its state-of-the-art facility, including laser-aligned upper cervical X-rays, bioimpedance analysis (measures body composition), digital thermography (locates thermal abnormalities characterized by skin inflammation), and complete nutritional blood analysis, which is focused on disease prevention.

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