DRAFT – NOT COMPLETE
There’s a serious sugar addiction epidemic sweeping the country. Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Steven Gundry reveals his top 4 tips and tricks to help kick your sugar addiction once and for all.
Not surprisingly, I had a friend who was hypoglycemic from the misguided but supposedly “healthy” lowfat lifestyle he was following. Despite eating organic fruits, veggies, and meats much of the time, all that sugar made him a nervous wreck not to mention unbareably moody from the sugar highs and lows.
I’m happy to say that my friend’s sugar addiction is long behind him and I’ve taken notice of his story as well as many others I’ve known to make it my mission to educate about the dangers of sugar.
Below are the four steps for finishing a sugar addiction for the long haul. It’s important to remember how long each step takes is entirely your choice. There’s absolutely no hard and fast track to completion. The purpose is to continue to make progress even if a single measure takes a bit longer than others. And, for those who have a setback, that is not the world’s end. You may continue to progress, even if in the beginning its one step forward and two steps back. Eventually you will retrain your body and your brain. Progress, not perfection is the objective!
Step 1: Replace ALL Refined Sugar with Natural Sweeteners
This step means just what it says. You have to get rid of all of the white sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in your house wherever it might lurk and replace it with organic, whole kinds of sugar such as honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar and sucanat (whole cane sugar). Don’t use agave since it is highly processed.
Do not forget condiments . . They’re a large source of HFCS. Replace them with condiments in the healthfood shop that taste just as good and do not have some kind of refined sugar as a principal ingredient.
Not ready to eliminate soda entirely? Then buy soda just from the healthfood shop where you will find brands available that use unrefined cane sugar instead of HFCS. You won’t miss a thing taste and satisfaction-wise by ingesting them, I can guarantee you.
Stir sucanat or coconut sugar in your tea or coffee rather than white sugar. Only whole, unprocessed sweeteners make the cut.
Replace these candy bars with healthfood store variations which use whole cane sugar rather than refined white sugar as the sweetener.
Step 2: Increase the Amount of Whole, Unprocessed Fats in Your Diet
As part of this step, be sure to clear out of your pantry any item that features a “reduced fat” or “fat free” advertising line on the package.
Fat is your friend when you’re intent on slaying the sugar monster!
Eat that yummy fat which surrounds your grassfed steak. It’s full of nutrition and it’s a massive advantage in stabilizing your blood sugar.
Do not worry that your triglycerides will take to the moon and you will drop dead of a heart attack. It’s the mill fats which are so harmful to your cardiovascular health, not entire unprocessed fats in milk, cream, eggs and butter. Doctors and nutritionists who tell you otherwise aren’t up on their study.
Certainly avoid transfats, partially hydrogenated fats, interesterified fats and some other rancid, cheap vegetable oils which are used in processed foods. But welcome with open arms cream, butter, egg yolk, coconut oil, and other types of conventional, nourishing fats.
As you increase the whole fats in your diet, most people today find introduction of a therapeutic strength probiotic and homemade fermented foods to be of great benefit. Probiotics helps rebalance gut bacteria to a positive ratio and keep candida in check. There are over 18 free movies on this site which show you how you can make all types of fermented foods and fermented beverages which will keep those pathogenic yeasts in your gut under control which are a large contributor to from control sugar cravings.
Step 3: Remove All Forms of Processed, Whole Sugars From Your Home
Once you have abandoned the lowfat lifestyle and adopted traditional fats in your house, you’re prepared for the next step: getting rid of processed sugar foods in your house even when made with organic, whole organic sweeteners.
That is right, lose the organic sodas, organic snacks, pop tarts, organic chocolate and some other organic junk food which you began purchasing when you switched from processed sugar to natural sugars in step one above.
This might appear hard, but wait … let me clarify.
You are still able to eat as much natural, whole sugars as you need if made with honey, maple syrup, sucanat, coconut sugar.
The catch is that today you can not buy them . . You must make them yourself.
So in the event you would like chocolate chip cookies, have at it. You simply have to make them at home using whole, natural sugars. You can not just walk into the pantry and pick up a bag of Newman’s Own Organic Chocolate Chip Cookies.
What this measure presents is the inconvenience element.
When something is inconvenient, the majority of the time, you are only going to skip doing this, am I correct?
By way of instance, if I have a bag of organic chocolate chip cookies in the pantry and an extremely stressful event occurs suddenly from the blue, the odds that I will walk into the pantry and eat a few, or more likely, the whole box of cookies is quite high.
At least it’s for me.
If, on the other hand, I don’t have any prepackaged, simple to munch organic cookies in my pantry in any respect, the odds that I will whip out the mixing bowl and make a chocolate chip cookies myself are much much lower.
In this step you are still permitted to drive to the store and purchase some organic cookies if your craving is overpowering. However, when you walk through your front door, whatever you have not eaten at the car goes in the garbage.
Only homemade candies made with natural sugars are permitted in your house from this step ahead. You may make as many homemade candies as you like and eat as many as you like, but they need to be produced by hand.
Can you do it? You absolutely can if you’re eating a lot of whole fats in your diet! Eating lots of whole, unprocessed fats is the ace in the hole as your cravings won’t ever be overwhelming because your blood sugar will be steady the vast majority of the time.
Step 4: No More than 3 TBL (36 g) of Natural Sugars per Day
Congratulations are in order when you’ve made it this far into the fourth and last step. You’re currently 90% of the way to slaying the sugar monster on your life!
The last step involves a gradual decrease in the amount of natural sugars you have to some manageable amount of no more than 36 g every day. Based on Tom Valentine in his classic anthology Search for Health, important immune system suppression starts to occur above 36 g in a given day. This is the amount for adults, by the way. It would be approximately half (18 g) for children. This is the amount you must attempt to refrain from surpassing any given day. Notice that the sugar in dried or fresh fruit counts toward this total that is daily.
How long should this step take? As long as is needed. For some, it is going to take 1 week. Others might find it takes a few months. The purpose is to keep moving forward and do not give up in case you fall off the wagon on event. Just get up, dust yourself off, and keep going!
Ideally speaking, a number of your days shouldn’t include any sweets at all after awhile. With a goal of no candies ever isn’t realistic, however, so don’t even go there emotionally.
Our civilization is sugar saturated so sometimes you’re just going to indulge. Don’t be worried about it or feel guilty about it for even a single moment when it occurs.
For those who have slayed the sugar monster in your house by transitioning to just natural sugars, eating more whole fats, prohibiting organic junk food from discovering a normal home on your pantry, and eating homemade candies only on an occasional basis, then you have completely accomplished your objective!
You’re now eating natural, whole sweets in moderation and appreciating them in a secure manner that won’t endanger your long term health.
Well done, my friend!
How to End a Sugar Addition for GOOD
Below are the four steps for ending a sugar addiction for the long haul. It is important to note that how long each step takes is completely up to you. There is no hard and fast schedule for completion. The point is to continue to make progress even if one step takes a bit longer than the others. And, if you have a setback, that isn’t the end of the world. You can continue to move forward. Progress, not perfection is the ultimate goal!
Want to learn more about the dangers of sugar visit the Paleo Passion Foods blog – with tips on keeping sugar out of your diet and products made with no additives, no preservatives and no added sugar. Visit: http://paleopassionfoods.com for foods with no artificial sweeteners and no added sugar!
