You will most certainly experience headaches, weight loss from the elimination of extra water and triglycerides in your system, and your blood sugar levels will drop. However, once the detox symptoms pass, you will start feeling better and stop craving sugar.
Reducing sugar intake has clear health benefits, including reduced calorie intake, which can help with weight loss, and improved dental health. But people sometimes report experiencing negative side effects when they try to eat less sugar. Headaches, fatigue or mood changes, which are , are among the symptoms.
Sugar is a carbohydrate that occurs naturally in many foods, such as fruits and vegetables. The body breaks down carbohydrates to make glucose, which it requires for energy and healthy functioning. Added sugars are sugars in foods that are not naturally occurring. The body requires no added sugars to function properly.
You'll Feel Lighter, Brighter, and Happier
The underlying chronic inflammation that happens when we eat a high-sugar diet negatively impacts our brain function — one of the reasons we get blue with too many sweets.
Our bodies need one type of sugar, called glucose, to survive. “Glucose is the number one food for the brain, and it's an extremely important source of fuel throughout the body,” says Dr. Kristina Rother, an NIH pediatrician and expert on sweeteners.
Deciding to cut back on your added sugar intake is no easy task. However, the benefits of cutting out sugar may include improved oral or heart health, weight reduction, and more. It's also important to know that, though sugar isn't often considered a "healthy" food, eating it in moderation is fine.
Before the prevalence of sugar, honey was used as a sweetener. Gradually, refined cane sugar replaced honey as sugar became increasingly affordable. Also, the taste of sugar is more neutral than honey, which was possibly too strong for some recipes or drinks such as tea or coffee.
Sugar was first produced from sugarcane plants in India sometime after the first century AD. The derivation of the word "sugar" is thought to be from Sanskrit शर्करा (śarkarā), meaning "ground or candied sugar," originally "grit, gravel".
8,000 BCE. First probable domestication of sugar cane by the indigenous people of New Guinea, who chewed it raw.
In 1700, people consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year. By 1800, people consumed about 22 pounds per year. By 1900, people consumed about 90 pounds per year. By 2012, over 50% of Americans consumed a half pound of sugar per day – or, over 180 pounds of sugar per year.
Lower Heart Disease Risk
Less added sugar can lower those levels and may help stop weight gain and fat buildup linked to heart disease. If you get more than 20% of your calories from added sugar -- even if you're at a healthy weight -- you may be able to lower your heart disease risk when you cut back.
Reducing sugar intake can sometimes lead to temporary detox or withdrawal symptoms, such as cravings, headaches, bloating, and irritability. Less than 10% of a person's daily caloric intake should come from added sugars, according to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines .
Dr. Nigma Talib, a naturopath who works with celebrities, has popularized the term “Sugar Face” to describe the effects that excess sugar has on the skin. Supposedly, she can look at someone's face and determine if they have a sweet tooth by the appearance and the location of their blemishes and wrinkles.
When asked does sugar age you, Dr. Nish says the short answer is yes. Sugar ages us in many ways, both internally and externally, including our skin.
Sugar causes inflammation in the skin, so the less you eat, the clearer your complexion may become.
If you feel like you still need something to consume, grab some fruit (these are whole foods and natural sources of sugar that also offer lots of fiber to temper sugar spikes); make yourself a cup of decaf tea; or grab a handful of nuts.
Detoxing from sugar can help you lose weight quickly. “We had over 80 testers from all over the country, and they lost anywhere between 5 to 20 pounds during the 31 days, depending on their weight or sugar addiction,” Alpert said. “Many also noticed that a lot of the weight was lost from their midsection.
Some people experience keto flu, associated with headaches, fatigue and cramps, which lasts about a week. But once that passes, you'll feel more energetic, focused, and calm, says Quebbemann. It's common for people to cut out sugar and high-glycemic foods to lose weight for short periods of time.
Other symptoms of hypoglycemia are caused when not enough glucose gets to the brain; in fact, the brain is the organ that suffers most significantly and most rapidly when there's a drop in blood sugar. These symptoms include headache, extreme hunger, blurry or double vision, fatigue, and weakness.
Eating foods that are high in sugar throughout childhood can lead to preventable diseases, such as heart disease, obesity and high blood pressure. That's why the American Heart Association made the recommendation to avoid added sugar before age 2.
“Therefore, rather than eliminating salt and sugar totally from your diet, it is recommended to include it in a prescribed amount for getting optimum. However, before making any major dietary changes, make sure that you consult a qualified nutritionist or dietician,” she suggested.
Belly fat can be tough to lose, but doctors say cutting out sugar may be one giant step in the right direction.
During Antiquity and the Middle Ages, sugar was a rare and expensive commodity, as with spices such as saffron and nutmeg. From the late 15th century, shortly after Christopher Columbus' first voyage to America, sugar cane plantations developed in the West Indies, then South America, particularly in Brazil.
Sugar is cheap because there are two plants that contain lots of it – sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris). Harvesting them and extracting their sugar were made efficient by the technology of the industrial revolution, notably the steam engine and the multiple-effect evaporator.