Sugar is one of the most popular drugs on the market. Often, I am asked if I could choose one thing we should  eliminated form a diet and the answer is “sugar.” Particular sugars to banish include granulated sugars, high fructose additives and about 5 dozen other name variations. To be clear, I am not talking about fruit sugar here but the refined beverages, baked goods, candy and other highly modified and manipulated super sugars. Let’s break this down to 5 reasons to trash your sugar habit and why you should take the 21 Day No Sugar Challenge!

1. Added Sugars Do Not Contain Essential Nutrients: 

Added sugars like sucrose and high fructose corn syrup contain a significant number of calories and lack any essential nutrients. Sugar foods typically do not contain any proteins, essential fats, vitamins or minerals. Your teeth also suffer from the eroding effect of sugar and your healthy bacterial ratios are decimated while many cancers feed on sugar.

2. Added Sugar is High in Fructose and can upset your liver:

Before sugar enters the bloodstream from the digestive system, it is broken down into two simple sugars… glucose and fructose… Glucose is found in every living cell on the planet and humans can manufacture glucose for energy production. On the other hand, our bodies do not produce fructose in any significant amount and there is no physiological need for it and fructose can only be metabolized by the liver in any significant amounts. This is not a problem if the food source is fruit or you just finished an exercise session. This is because fructose will be turned into glycogen and stored in the liver. But beware, if the liver is full of glycogen because of excess sugar consumption or low activity levels, eating a lot of fructose overloads the liver, forcing it to turn the fructose into fat for energy reallocation in the body. Another nasty byproduct of excessive sugar consumption is the new phenomenon called Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), a growing problem in Western countries that is strongly associated with metabolic diseases of I want to be clear, this does NOT apply to fruit if you have a healthy low sugar balanced diet. It is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit.

3. Sugar May Cause Insulin Resistance:

Sugar is directly linked to Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes. As most people know, Insulin is a critical hormone in the body. It is the conduit that allows glucose (blood sugar) to enter cells from the bloodstream and tells the cells to start burning glucose instead of fat. Constantly elevated blood sugars are harmful and one of the reasons for complications of diabetes, like blindness and peripheral neuropathy. Constantly bombarding our cells with glucose creates insulin resistance, which is believed to be a leading driver of many diseases including metabolic syndrome, obesity, cardiovascular disease and especially type II diabetes.

4. Sugar effects Hormones and the brain which can cause fat retention: 

Calories are only part of the equation when it comes to nutrition management. I have already done a video on the law of conservation of mass and the glycemic load of food sources, so I won’t go into too much here. Basically, Different foods can have specific effects on our brains and the hormones. But sugar causes insulin spikes and the elevation of blood glucose levels which pauses lipolysis in the body. Basically, that means you are not burning fat until the glucose and insulin levels dissipate.

5. Sugar Causes Massive Dopamine Release in The Brain and is Highly Addictive:

Like insidious drugs, sugar causes a release of dopamine in the reward center of the brain. High sugar foods cause massive a dopamine release which far exceeds that of any food sources we are exposed to in nature, including fruit. This addiction can be seen in the obesity epidemic, negative habit patterns, behavior and unconscious gravitation towards feel good products. In a society obsessed with instant gratification, sugar is the perfect drug.