Do you love sweets and regularly polish off a whole bag of gummy bears or a bar of chocolate on the couch?
Sugar addiction is like nicotine and alcohol. Read here to find out what excessive sugar consumption does to your body and how it can make you fat and sick.
Sugar is everywhere
Both the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend a maximum of 50 grams of sugar per day.
That’s not much because sugar has no added value for the body; it only provides calories that are converted into fat in the long term. But sugar is cheap, and our taste buds go wild for it.
Also, you can retrain your taste buds by “sugar detoxing”! Then the craving for sweets goes down, and your body is satisfied with much less sugar. In fact, your body doesn’t even need sugar as fuel because it can get its energy from fat reserves, as low-carb diets prove.
Here are some sugar alternatives if you can’t give up sweets.
Sugar addiction test: Am I a sugar junkie?
To find out whether you eat too much sugar, take our sugar addiction test right now: Simply answer with “YES” or “NO” and add up the “YESs” at the end of the self-test:
- My thoughts constantly revolve around sweets.
- The amount of sweets I eat is getting bigger and bigger.
- I find it hard to stop snacking.
- I simply cannot control my consumption of sweets.
- If I have to go without sweets, I get in a bad mood and feel irritable.
- I often eat sweets on the sly, even at night.
- I always eat my plate empty.
- I have a hard time dividing portions. I just eat everything.
- I divide my food into allowed and forbidden foods.
- I regularly get on the scale and am usually disappointed.
- I often don’t feel full, or I feel full too late.
- Sometimes I overeat, then I fast again. This changes constantly.
- It is difficult for me to enjoy my food.
- I constantly suffer from cravings for sweets, which I cannot control.
- After the binge, I have a guilty conscience and feel bad.
Sugar fasting: 10 tips for eating less sugar
You need to be aware of one point – otherwise, your personal sugar-free project is doomed to failure: A change in diet does not work from one day to the next.
To ensure that you do eat less sugar in the long term, you must not be too strict with yourself, but at the same time set yourself clear rules.
Your body needs around 12 weeks to become “clean” and recover from sugar withdrawal. That can be tough! So: Don’t throw everything away if you feel weak in the meantime – that’s completely normal! Accept it and move on.
1- Eat protein-rich foods
You should eat around 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. This keeps you full longer and makes you less hungry in between meals because protein-rich foods are great fillers.
Snacks between meals should become a thing of the past. Protein bombs are, for example, poultry, eggs, legumes, tofu, or dairy products.
