So long, soda! You’ve made the decision - you’re quitting sugar. So the question is…when can you expect to see the benefits?
What happens when you quit eating sugar? If you listened to just about everyone on a diet - not to mention mom when she wouldn’t let you that sweet snack before dinner - sugar is the root of all evil. It’s full of empty calories that get turned into fat, and it’s incredibly addictive.
While it may not create a true chemical dependency like both legal and illegal drugs do, it certainly does well at hooking people. And so it’s the first step many people take when they’re going on a diet - cutting out sugar. But this is easier said than done.
The first thing to remember is that sugar is basically everywhere, including in many healthy foods like sweet potatoes and basically all fruits. Most people who cut out sugar don’t eliminate it 100% from their diet - they mostly just remove added sugar from their meals, which cuts down the calorie intake massively. And it turns out that eating too much sugar can have a major impact on the body.
Mom was right about a few major things - for one thing, too much sugar increases the risk of you developing dental cavities. This can largely be alleviated with careful brushing and flossing, but the same can’t be said for other factors. More sugar means more calories, and that means higher rates of weight gain and obesity.
That leads to other serious conditions - including a higher risk of type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and chronic joint conditions. All this adds up to a lower life expectancy, and some studies even show a connection between excess sugar consumption and memory problems. Does sugar make kids hyper like mom always insisted?
Maybe, but there’s also some evidence that ADHD symptoms are aggravated by sugar consumption. Which raises the question…why does anyone eat sugar? The first reason is definitely “it tastes good”, but the other main reason is the other main symptom you should be looking out for - sugar addiction and withdrawals.
Scientists differ on whether sugar truly has addictive properties, but they do agree that patients have a very hard time getting off the sweet stuff. They find it hard to moderate their sugar consumption, they crave more and more, and it takes more sugary foods to satisfy the craving every time. And that means that the first days without sugar will be the hardest.
Enough of that! It’s time to kick the habit, and power through the worst days. And these days might be seriously uncomfortable at first, because sugar withdrawal can be a beast.
It’s not a high-intensity withdrawal like alcohol, nicotine, or hard drugs, but they have many similarities. People dealing with sugar withdrawal report feeling very hungry, experiencing fatigue and headaches, and even finding it hard to concentrate due to brain fog. But they wont be the only ones impacted as sugar withdrawals tend to lead to mood swings and a shorter temper.
Talk about being hangry. So, are cookies really causing all this? Yes and no!
Scientists have struggled to figure out what causes sugar addiction, and recent studies show that high-sugar foods trigger the release of brain chemicals like dopamine and endorphins. This means that the body might not be getting addicted to sugar per se, but to the chemical reactions that occur due to the pleasure of eating. Additionally, eating sugar changes the gut microbiome, creating a boost for bad gut bacterial that eat off sugar.
Cutting out sugar might cause a mass die-off, which can cause the minor physical symptoms that come with sugar withdrawal. But power through - it’ll be worth it. Withdrawing from sugar long-term basically becomes a sugar detox, and in severe cases, it can lead to other symptoms like insomnia, chills, or nausea and vomiting.
The intensity of these symptoms will be worse in the first week, and can come in waves over the first four weeks, after which, your body will have adjusted to its new chemistry and microbiome. But while physical withdrawal from sugar won’t be a problem anymore, other elements can hang on longer. Mood changes and lack of focus can persist depending on how psychologically reliant someone was on sweet treats.
These can’t be measured and every person is different, but if someone is dealing with sugar withdrawal far longer than expected, psychological issues may be to blame. But the end is getting closer and closer. Sugar withdrawals can begin very quickly after you cut back or eliminate sugar, and they come on quickly.
To make this easier, experts advise that you don’t combine cutting out sugar with quitting anything else - this isn’t the time to knock out all those resolutions at one time. It’s also best not to try this during any stressful time, so go ahead and enjoy those donuts during finals week - you can start your diet after. The first week is by far the worst, and you’ll probably feel hungry and tired for most of it, so take it easy.
Less intense symptoms persist for 3-4 weeks, at which point, you can start to enjoy the upside of quitting sugar. And those effects will start coming in fast and furious. The first thing to note is that you’ll be consuming a LOT less calories.
Sugar is everywhere, and it’s very easy to eat or drink 200 calories of mostly sugar without even thinking about it. This doesn’t mean you’ll be cutting sugar out of your diet entirely - a piece of fruit is a normal part of a healthy diet, but you’ll be surprised by how many foods sugar is hiding in - bread, yogurt, tomato sauce, just to name a few. If you cut those out and look for alternatives, you’ll be surprised by how fast the calories drop - and in many cases, how fast the scale shows results.
And your body is going to work to respond. Your body chemistry will realign itself pretty quickly when you cut out sugar, with your cholesterol and triglycerides dropping. The latter is directly related to sugar - studies show that even at the same weight, people who got less than 20% of their calories from sugar have lower triglyceride levels.
When you replace those added sugars with higher-nutrient foods, your body starts responding even before the number on the scale drops. And that’s not the only place where your body is thanking you. Even if you brush and floss regularly, it’s hard to get rid of every remnant of sugar that remains in the mouth, Mouthwash can help, but cutting out sugar will result in less bacteria in the mouth - which results in better tooth and gum health.
That means that you’ll be able to flash a bright smile without any hesitation - and your dentist will probably praise you, even if it means he gets less work! And this has another benefit as well - the lack of bacteria in the mouth means your breath will smell a lot better - which that special someone might definitely appreciate. And one area of change may be even more visible.
Have you been having trouble with breakouts, acne, pimples, and other skin ailments? A recent study in a dermatological digest indicates that these conditions can be exacerbated by a high-sugar diet. While this isn’t the primary issue - skin care and keeping your pores clean will have the biggest effect - a low-sugar diet full of nutrient-dense foods can help to keep your skin looking fresh and clean when combined with regular skin care.
And you might be able to show off that new look more often - because you’ll be feeling a lot better. Could sugar be making you sick? Not exactly, but it may have been playing a role in why you’ve been dealing with so many colds, stomach viruses, and other ailments.
Sugar can lead to chronic inflammation in the body, which is an overreaction from the immune system. This lowers your natural immune system response, so your body winds up falling prey to a lot more minor bacteria and viruses over the year, and those illnesses also might last longer as your body struggles to fend them off. The cause of this seems to be white blood cells, which aren’y as able to fend off bad bacteria for up to five hours after eating a lot of sugar.
And of course for those struggling with diabetes or pre-diabetes, cutting back on sugar can reduce the symptoms or even eliminate the disease. And you might find yourself feeling younger - and it’s not just a trick. Is a lack of sugar the trick to finding the fountain of youth?
Not exactly, but you’ll quickly find out that it has some serious benefits for your look and your body. Your skin will be less likely to break out, of course, but the amazing thing is that cutting out sugar will also slightly reduce wrinkles. The culprit is a natural process called glycation, which occurs when sugar consumption affects the production of collagen and elastin in the body.
This makes the skin less taut, which leads to sagging and wrinkles. Combine that with the inflammation related to sugar, and a high-sugar diet can result in people looking a lot older than they’d normally do. So no matter the age, cutting out sugar might just result in liking what you see in the mirror a lot more.
And that youthful energy can show itself off in all sorts of ways. Is sugar ruining your sex life? It might be possible.
Cutting back on sugar provides more energy, and that includes increasing your libido. So you’re probably more likely to want to have sex - and your body will help you along. Women who cut back on sugar find that their sexual hormones are more in sync and give them more energy and desire.
Men, meanwhile, find a much more dramatic effect. The insulin spike caused by consuming sugar can cause erectile dysfunction, so cutting out sugar might be the most effective way to get your groove back. And you’ll probably be exhausted after - but there’s good news there too.
Few things make it harder to concentrate and live the kind of life you want to than a lack of sleep, and nothing is more frustrating than lying awake in bed or waking up after only two hours and trying to get back to sleep before the alarm rings. Well, sugar might be a culprit too - especially if you can’t resist those late night sweet snacks. Sugar before bedtime can throw sleep hormones out of whack, increase stress hormones, and cause night sweats that can lead to you waking up less than refreshed.
A few days of refraining from added sugar, and your hormones will be back in sync and it’ll be easier than ever to fall asleep and stay asleep. It all comes together into one big picture. Reducing sugar or cutting excess sugar from your diet doesn’t just improve your physical health - it improves your mental health.
Physical ailments can make issues like depression and anxiety worse. Reducing those, combined with the effect of getting those hormones back in sync, can make it much easier to get mental health back where it should be. Those first few days and weeks while cutting sugar out can be challenging for those struggling with mental health, but it’s like running through headwinds - it makes it all the more dramatic when they let up and you can feel the clear air on the other side.
But that doesn’t mean it’ll all be clear sailing. Are there any negatives to quitting sugar? Maybe - but it depends on what you’re planning to do next.
Sugar might not have many nutritional benefits on its own, but it does have one advantage - energy. So replacing sugar with healthier alternatives might not impact you too much if you don’t engage in much physical activity, but that could be a different story if you’re an athlete. Trying to maintain high-level activity while on a sugar crash might be very difficult, and it might be a while before you find your new energy level.
There’s a reason why marathon runners carbo-load before a race and so many athletes drink sugary sports drinks - the energy boost might justify the extra calories. And that craving won’t totally go away. A sugar detox will remove the physical urge to consume sugar - but it won’t remove the temptation.
No matter how long it’s been since your detox, the odds are that donut will still look pretty good and that cold soda will sound refreshing on a hot summer day. The good news is, sugar isn’t a narcotic - you can’t fall off the wagon in a traditional sense. You won’t take one bite of cake and immediately feel like you need to take ten more and go on a sugar bender.
And in fact, your body might remind you of why you quit in the first place. The reason quitting sugar is so hard is because the body becomes attuned to it and notices the absence all the more keenly. The same will happen when you quit - your body won’t be used to large amounts of sugar anymore, and a binge might result in you feeling a little queasy and fatigued while your body processes the sugar overload.
And the odds are good that this won’t make you want to go back for another session, so your body won’t get used to overloading on sugar again. Much like you trained your body to want sugar, you’ve trained it to not want it. And if you do go overboard one day, it doesn’t change your body chemistry in any long-term way.
The odds are you won’t have to go through any withdrawal symptoms again after “falling off the wagon”, unless it becomes a repeated pattern that starts the cycle over. And the odds are, after taking a look in the mirror and seeing the changes, as well as seeing all the new energy you have, that donut won’t look nearly as appealing. What about some other vices?
Check out “What Happens To Your Body When You Stop Drnking Alcohol” for a look at that most common habit people try to quit, or watch “What Happens To Your Body When You Stop Drnking Coffee (Minute By Minute).
