What Happens When You Quit Sugar?

The average American consumes half a cup or more of sugar every day and surveys claim eating less sugar makes you crave it more. some people even say it gives them withdrawal symptoms. So what exactly happens to your brain and body, when you try to quit sugar. After 24 hours of no refined sugar and you start to lose water weight.

Our body regulates our blood sugar levels through the pancreas. The pancreas releases two hormones insulin and glucagon. when blood sugar gets too high the pancreas releases insulin and when it gets too low the pancreas releases glucagon. In the first 24 hours of no sugar blood sugar levels drop and the pancreas releases glucagon which breaks down glycogen, the storage of sugars in our body to create the energy you need.

The thing is glycogen is bound to 3 grams of water so the breakdown of glycogen for energy is responsible for the initial loss of water weight you see in the first 24 hours of not eating sugar. On day two is when you start to feel fatigued and crave sugar as the body continually needs to create new sources of energy.

Gluconeonate Genesis is activated which is the conversion of proteins to sugars in the body as well fats will be broken down into ketones to create energy. This can make you feel tired get headaches and even have sugar Cravings, but there's not enough human studies to understand why this occurs.

Animal Studies have shown that in rats, Neurochemical Pathways causing dopamine release are activated when the rats consume sugar and in some cases, this can be more potent than cocaine in rats. This is why you may have seen pop science article headlines like sugar more addictive than cocaine.

The reason for this is that Sugar activates dopamine release, this creates a positive reinforcement around wanting to trigger and can create Cravings. But to be clear there is no evidence that in humans' sugar can be as addictive as drugs like cocaine.

On day three is when you get a metallic taste in your mouth and your breath starts to stink the breakdown of fat into ketones due to the lack of sugar intake creates the release of acetone in your body which when breathed out smells like nail polish remover over or rotting fruit.

Some Studies have even shown that if you measure acetone in your breath it can predict the level of ketones in your blood. This smelly breath can last a few days to a few weeks, but this is based on zero sugar. we're talking not even fruits in your diet; we're mainly focusing on what happens when you cut out added or refined sugars.

Day five to ten of not eating added sugar and your taste buds have officially changed to be more sensitive to Sugar. one study had people do a water fast for 5 to 14 days and found that the threshold to detect sweet flavor was much lower increasing sensitivity to the taste of sugar.

This isn't that surprising because people who consume a lot of sugar actually decrease their sensitivity to that sweet flavor and feel like they need to add more sugar to their food or beverages in order to feel the sweet flavor again.

After six weeks of no sugar and you may also notice your bowel movements are becoming more regular with less bloating or cramps. IBS affects almost 10 to 20 percent of the population in North America. IBS is a group of symptoms that people experience it's their whole life such as diarrhea, constipation, cramps and bloating and doctors recommend a low FODMAP diet.

FODMAP stands for fermentable oligosaccharides disaccharides monosaccharides and polyols which are pretty much diets with less refined sugar and more natural sugars reducing refined sugars can relieve IBS and has been shown to improve symptoms within six weeks.

After 10 weeks of eating no sugar, you might start to notice that your skin is looks like lot healthier, that is because sugar can cause acne lesions. Within one week of high intake, clinical trials have shown that after 10 weeks of low sugar diets acne lesions have significantly reduced.

After one year with no additional sugar intake, you'll also see improved sleep. A study looking at 53 000 post-menopausal women showed that three years of low sugar intake was correlated with reduced insomnia. Although the effect of sugar on sleep is a little controversial as we don't really know if it has a negative impact on daily sleep.

In fact, some Studies have even found that sleep is improved with high sugar intake before bed. After one to five years of no added sugar intake your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity are reduced.

High sugar intake is associated with a laundry list of other diseases including cancers mostly due to its association with obesity, but people are catching on it's estimated that almost 46 percent of added sugar in our diets comes from soda and in America drinking pop has decreased over the past 10 years.

Now some of you might be wondering if you do cut out sugar like this can you just replace it with something like aspartame or other artificial sweeteners. our artificial sweeteners actually secretly killing you. That's all for today, please share this story to your friends and click the like button and subscribe me for more stories. Happy Eating, Happy Living,