It’s time for another monthly healthy eating challenge! Are you ready? We’re going to get a little more difficult this month. It’s called a “challenge” for a reason you know :).
January – replace grocery store eggs with farm-fresh eggs. Easy!- February – start eating more healthy fat. Yum!
- March – cut your sugar intake. Yeah, not so much fun.
Sugar is not just added to foods you’d expect: pop, cookies, cakes, candies, and little debbie snacks. Oh no, they hide sugar in a multitude of forms and in places you’d never guess!
If you live in the US, you probably eat a lot of sugar. I’ve seen estimates that the typical adults eat anywhere from 22-55 teaspoons of sugar per day, and our kids are eating even more than that. Thats more than our hunter/gatherer ancestors ate in an entire year! Dr. Hyman author of the The UltraMind Solution
estimates that they ate only 20 teaspoons in a whole year.
My challenge to you this month is to cut all forms of sugar—both refined and unrefined. You’re going to have to be a real detective if you plan to follow along with this challenge. The following is a list you can use when checking packages for hidden sugar. Print these off, put them in your purse, and take the list with you to the grocery store.
- Sugar (duh!)
- Brown sugar
- Molasses
- Corn syrup
- High fructose corn syrup
- Dextrose (ie. another form of corn sugar)
- Honey
- Beet sugar
- Cane sugar
- Barley malt
- Maple syrup
- Fructose
- Glucose
- Invert sugar
- Sorghum syrup
- Turbinado sugar
- Malt syrup
- Agave nectar
- … and probably many others I haven’t thought of that manufacturers hide in our foods.
Why eliminate sugar — ALL sugar?
You should cut all sugar, for at least a month, because sugar is highly addictive. Some scientists compare the addictive nature of sugar to that of cocaine. Crazy! That is why it’s important to cut yourself off completely, at least for a period of time.
Secondly, sugar doesn’t just make you fat. It’s also been linked to diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and alzheimers. It’s time to break that sugar addiction—for your health! I hope you’ll join this month’s challenge.
Keep me posted. Pose any questions or problems you’re having. I love hearing your updates!
Hello! I am sharing a post about Ketchup (aka high fructose corn syrup). 😉
I hope that you and your readers enjoy!
Jess
Fantastic! Thanks Jess.
People need to know – if you’re staying away from sugar, ketchup is NOT your friend.
Thanks for the list, that is fantastic! We actually cut out a LOT Of extra sugars last month on the Whole30. It wasn’t until we eliminated them we realized how much we were eating, and that was scary to acknowledge. We are totally up for this challenge, and can say that once you do eliminate them for a month it will dramatically reveal the addictive nature sugar has! Looking forward to this month’s challenge!
Would this mean eliminating all fruits as well, or just added sweeteners?
I would suggest at a minimum eliminating all added sweeteners. But, for me, I have to eliminate fruit to break the sugar addiction. When I do eat fruit now, I try to focus on the lower sugar fruits – like strawberries, blueberries, and cantaloupe. I include fruit very sparingly in my diet, especially since I have some pounds to lose.
Great advice Trisha! I quit sugar for 32 days now and the I think the best pay off is the high level of energy through out the day and not feeling that tired anymore (especially in the morning). It can be quite hard the first 3 days but when you invest enough discipline it will be worth the trouble.
Jenni
Jenni,
That is great to hear you success and very encouraging for those who are trying to cut out sugar. I’ll have to check out the 21 day sugar detox, I don’t think I’ve ever run across it before.
I went to buy red beans for chili and one of the standard brands (can’t remember the name) had hfcs in a can of plain red kidney beans!! I was shocked and appalled!!
I just don’t know how we could cut out all sugars, financially with the foods we already have and convincing my family…