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Refined Sugar now targeted

I know! I know! But we have to start somewhere.

How Giving Up Refined Sugar Changed My Brain

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Consuming refined sugar can impact mood, decision-making, and memory. Here’s how good it can be to give it up.

That right there is a huge admission.

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When I recently mentioned my weight loss and current daily dietary intake to a doctor friend of mine, I expected her to congratulate me on my success. And though she did, she also cautioned me that while my daily calorie levels were something to continue, she was worried I was getting too much refined sugar in my diet. As she knows I have an interest in not only maintaining a healthy weight but in mental fitness as well, she pointed out that study after study shows how bad refined sugar is for both our waistlines and our brains.

As he tells his weight loss journey, we find it's just "good ol' calorie counting" but details indicate he was one of those Mindless Eaters on a see-food diet. These are people who lose weight with Nutri-System, so whatever.

But the nutritional aspects get revealed.

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She explained that eating too much refined sugar–which is found in most sweets, sodas, white breads, and pastas, virtually all “fat free” and “low fat” snacks, fruit juices, yogurts, energy drinks, most Starbucks drinks (including many coffees), sauces (ketchup, BBQ sauces, mayo, pasta sauces), and countless other packaged foods–has now been shown to make us cranky, make us make rash decisions, and make us stupid. My friend’s point was clear: Just because I’m thin and my blood tests show no sign of diabetes, it doesn’t meant the amount of refined sugar I’m eating isn’t negatively effecting my health.

Honestly, I know a lot of people who figure the same way. I'm thin, sugar is harmless, QED.

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The American Heart Association says men should eat no more than 37.5 grams of sugar a day and women should eat no more than 25 grams. But the World Health Organization now says even those allowances are too high, suggesting both men and women should eat 25 grams or fewer each day. The average American currently eats 126 grams of sugar a day–though most don’t realize it. Much of that amount comes from the refined sugars added to our foods during manufacturing.

All of us label readers know just HOW MUCH has been added, everywhere. It's why I can't "eat normal" because it's a real task to avoid added sugars.

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Giving up refined sugar isn’t easy from a practical standpoint. It’s found in virtually all packaged foods and drinks and most food at fast food restaurants (a large Big Mac meal deal has 85 grams of sugar–236% of your daily allowance). That means if I were to escape refined sugar, I was going to have to spend more time at home cooking fresh foods than I was used to. Further, not only would I have to cut out my once-a-day sweet treat, but also all canned drinks (soda, energy drinks, and fruit juices), white breads and pastas, and those deceptively “healthy” yogurts with fake fruity sauces added for taste. I also gave up sugar and milk in my coffee.

My bold. Because of course he did!

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It’s also important to note that for these two weeks I did not give up sugar entirely, only refined sugar. I ate plenty of natural sugar–those found primarily in fruits, and the ones that the body turns into glucose from the meats, fats, and carbohydrates we eat, which are a very important source of fuel for the body and, more importantly, the brain. Without the consumption of natural sugars, the body would not have enough fuel to survive for long.

I warned you!

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Things changed radically on the second day. Even though I had had a filling breakfast and lunch (two oranges, eggs, and whole-grain rice with vegetables), around 2 p.m. I suddenly felt like I had been hit by a truck. I felt foggy and had a headache, which never happens on my normal diet. This fogginess and the headaches continued intermittently for the next two to three days. During that time, I had intense cravings for both soda and sugary treats. On the third day, I actually got the shakes for a period of time. It was very, very hard not to have something sweet.

“As you were not feeding your addiction, your brain was shouting out to have sugar to satisfy its cravings,” says Rebecca Boulton, a nutritional therapist who specializes in hormonal health and sugar cravings, whom I contacted to help me make sense of what was happening in my body. “This is a period of adjustment, and starts with the cravings being more intense before they start to get better.”

THIS is what people need to hear.

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Boulton says that the increased sweetness I began to taste in fruits was a sign my body was adjusting to being freed from nonstop refined-sugar intake. My tastebuds were adjusting to the newly recognizable natural sweetness of fruits. In turn, my headaches stopped because my body was no longer fighting the sugar cravings. “Your blood sugars are balanced without the constant roller coaster of sugar highs and lows,” says Boulton, “which reduces your brain fog and increases mental clarity.”

The nutritional authorities needed a target, and actually, it was pretty easy. White Death. So while it's not nearly good enough... it's good.

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The final thing I want to mention about my refined-sugar-free diet was its effect on my weight. I did not undertake this experiment to shed pounds, and since this wasn’t a weight-loss diet, I kept to eating the same number of calories as before. I also ate plenty of fats (red meat, avocados) and plenty of carbs and natural sugars (from fruit, veg, and whole grains). The only thing that I changed about my diet is I eliminated any calories from refined sugars.

And I lost 12 pounds in two weeks.

That is also what people will notice :)

This was originally published in 2015, but it's appearance on Pocket indicates interest/promotion, and thus, timeliness.

Everyone starts at the beginning.

What can I stop eating in order to lose 12lbs in two weeks?? :lol:

Just stop eating, probably.

Anyway, this article remains timely. People just don't realize how much sugar comes with packaged foods.

It seems to me that she's using intermixing "refined sugar"with carbs in general. I'm trying to think how there would be refined sugar in a Big Mac meal deal. I have no doubt it has 85 grams of carbs -- which, I get, are metabolized as sugar, but those carbs are not refined sugar or added sugar. The bun obviously has carbs, and the small amount of catsup on the burger would have some refined sugar. The fries would have carbs, but not refined sugar. Are they counting the sugar in the soda?

Just seems like she's mixing two different things here. Like, she says, "She explained that eating too much refined sugar–which is found in most sweets, sodas, white breads, and pastas ..." White bread and pasta are carb-heavy foods, but they don't have added refined sugar, as do sweets and sodas.

But, agreed that people don't realize how many carbs (often from ADDED sugar) are in packaged foods.

While you mentioned this is from 2015, 25 grams of sugar per day as the recommended maximum??? Guess it's considered a small amount when compared to the average 126 grams. Wow.

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Hamburger and french fries
Despite McDonald’s promises to make healthier products, the amount of sugar in their hamburgers is more than three times greater compared to what it was in 1989.

You would perhaps not expect to find a significant amount of sugar in a hamburger, but these days there is actually 9 grams of sugar in one single Big Mac hamburger (probably mostly in the bun).

https://www.dietdoctor.com/mcdonald...ugar-hamburgers

Wow! I had no idea! Though it does say it's likely mostly in the bun:

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You would perhaps not expect to find a significant amount of sugar in a hamburger, but these days there is actually 9 grams of sugar in one single Big Mac hamburger (probably mostly in the bun).

Still, I bought plain pork chops (no breading, nothing) from Walmart once and was surprised to see the nutrition label indicate 3 grams of carbs in a 4-oz chop.

Thanks for posting that.

Yep, surely it's mostly in the bun.

When it comes to the Big Mac, there's also the catsup (very sugary), and the "special sauce", which from what I understand is Thousand Island Dressing. Back when I was doing a LC type of diet in the 70's, the salad dressings that were recommended were French, Italian, and Thousand Island, because they weren't terribly sweet compared to some others that were available. There were no nutrition facts labels back then though - they'd only just started listing ingredients on packaged products at that point, so there was no way to know how much sugar was in everything. Still, like everything else on the market, the sugar content seems to have been increased significantly since then, because even before going back to LC about 17 years ago, those dressings started tasting a lot sweeter to me, and my guess is they've only increased the sugar content even more since then.

Anyhow, increase the amount of catsup and "special sauce" on the Big Mac, even just a little bit, and you end up increasing the sugar content of the sandwich even more, in addition to whatever increase there might be in the sugar content of the bun.

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Originally Posted by Calianna

Still, like everything else on the market, the sugar content seems to have been increased significantly since then, because even before going back to LC about 17 years ago, those dressings started tasting a lot sweeter to me, and my guess is they've only increased the sugar content even more since then.

Just a few months ago I was checking dressing labels, which went like this: "Water, HFCS," and I didn't need to know any more.

Also, I understand McD's have always added sugar to the buns so they will brown faster and more consistently.