Does your daily sugar intake concern you?
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is healthy eating or weight loss, your daily sugar consumption might be an area to focus on. Isn’t refined sugar the first thing to go, when making a weight loss goal? This makes sense, as sugary, processed foods, also tend to be the ones with little nutrient value.
Many people think of candy bars, cookies and sugary drinks as foods to stay away from when reducing sugar. Assessing your sweets or treats intake, is a good place to start. Your overall processed food intake is important as well, due to many hidden sugars in processed food.
Watching your sugar intake is one way to support health blood sugar levels and create a positive impact on your health. Added sugar in foods impacts your body’s blood sugar levels, which in turn affects the way you feel, and even perform through your day.
You may be reducing your sugar intake because of concern about chronic illness, mold illness, insulin resistance, or diabetes.
If you are looking to curb your daily sugar intake, this post will help you understand:
- How much is TOO much sugar?
- What does too much sugar DO to your body?
- What does low or high blood sugar feel like?
- How does sugar impacts certain organ systems of the body?
- How to improve your sugar intake with one simple tip.
There are certain times of the year, like holidays and Halloween, that our sugar consumption can increase. These times can be transient, and a little something here and there doesn’t usually create long term health problems. Many go on a sugar detox after these holidays, as a way to cut the refined sugar and give the body a break.
Our tip will help you reduce your sugar intake for the long haul, and help you manage your blood sugar throughout the year. You can even apply this type of thinking through the holidays, when sweet treats seem to be lurking on every table!
How much is TOO much sugar in your daily diet?
“Added sugars are among the most controversial and hotly debated topics in all of nutrition.” (1)
If we were to take the American Heart association’s advice, men should consume no more than 9 teaspoons (36 grams or 150 calories) of added sugar per day. The amount is lower for women, at a recommended 6 teaspoons (25 grams or 100 calories) per day.
Many of you feel much better on even less sugar. That’s because sugar consumption directly affects blood sugar levels in the blood, and indirectly affects organ systems in your body.
What does too much dietary sugar do to your body?
Besides raising your blood sugar, too much sugar can:
- Increase unnecessary calories
- Cause cavities
- Increase risk for chronic conditions, like diabetes or cardiovascular disease
- Contribute to weight gain
- Feed the oral bacteria and fungus in your mouth
- Cause fatigue, through sugar crashes
- Cause irritability, through sugar crashes
- Affect your digestion, and cause bloating
- Possibly affect your sleep
Sugar, or glucose, is the body’s main source of energy. The energy that comes from glucose, will serve your body better if it comes from whole foods, that contain vitamins, minerals, fibre and resistant starch that feeds your good gut bacteria!
Your body does have a check and balance system that helps your cells utilize the sugar that makes its way into the blood, after eating.
The hormone Insulin is needed to move glucose into your cells to be used for energy. Insulin is made in your pancreas. It’s an energy storing hormone. Insulin works with glucagon. It’s job is to make sure that blood sugar levels don’t get too high, and glucagon is there to make sure blood sugar, or glucose in the blood, doesn’t get too low.
At CBH test the bioenergetic performance of the pancreas, and we test for energetic patterns of glucagon and insulin from your hair and saliva samples.
If you have done testing with us, and your pancreas dial shows stress, you may see both insulin and glucagon show up on your report as either energetically low or high.
What does low or high blood sugar feel like?
Signs of High blood sugar include:
- Increased thirst, (also a sign of a mold issue)
- Increased Urination (another sign of a mold issue)
- Change in weight
- Change in appetite
- Change in energy
Signs of low blood sugar include:
- Sweatiness
- Shakiness
- Hunger
- Nausea
- Foggy thinking
Many of us have experienced low blood sugar at times. It’s pretty common!
How does sugar impacts certain organ systems of the body?
One main organ system that sugar impacts is your liver. Whatever we eat needs to be metabolized, and that includes sugar. What doesn’t get used for energy, gets stored as fat. Fat can get stored in your liver, and make your liver less affective at its job, which is detoxification.
Sugar also affects your cardiovascular system. Higher blood sugar can damage the lining of your blood vessels and contribute to hardening of the arteries, which in turn can increase blood pressure.
Your gut microbiome may also be influenced by too much sugar, and cause gut dysbiosis (2).
Your gut microbiome is connected to countless other systems in your body, including your nervous system (brain), your integumentary system (skin, hair and nails) and your endocrine system (hormone regulation). When the gut is not balanced, other systems may not be either.
Nutrient absorption is affected, and you may have increased gas and bloating after too much sugar.
Our simple tip when it comes to reducing your sugar intake is this:
No naked carbs.
If you have a meal or snack that is JUST carbohydrates, your blood sugar might rise too quickly.
This can mean your candy bar, or soda. This can also mean that piece of toast you had at breakfast. Ever eat toast, or cereal, without protein, only to feel hungry, or hangry, later? That’s because foods like that are called simple carbohydrates as opposed to complex carbohydrates.
Simple carbohydrates, also called simple sugars, are digested quickly and can, spike blood sugar.
Simple carbohydrates include sugar, candy, and baked goods. Eating these naked, without protein, fat and fibre. can result in a blood sugar crash. You feel fatigued, have brain fog, and even feel hungry a short time later.
Complex carbohydrates are different, as they still have fibre and nutrients in them. Examples are starchy vegetables like sweet potato, winter squash and legumes.
There are other foods that can affect blood sugar, including some dairy products. Milk contains a sugar called lactose. which is a simple sugar. If you are not sensitive to dairy, or lactose intolerant, having milk products that contain a high amount of fat, offsets the lactose, or milk sugar.
By focusing on a source of protein, some healthy fats, and some fibre, at every meal or snack, you will automatically reduce your refined intake of sugar! This can look like a slice of whole grain or Ezekiel bread, with avocado and an egg!
Looking to reduce your sugar intake for the long haul?
Stuck in a rut with what to eat?
Our practitioners can help you get started in understanding your blood sugar! You can access them with or without a bioenergetic scan, to get started!
Are you a practitioner wanting to learn more about Bioresonance testing? Visit our Certification Course!
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5133084/#:~:text=Consumption%20of%20added%20sugars%20has%20been%20associated%20with%20increased%20risk,%2C34%5D%2C%20and%20even%20cognitive
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7284805/
