Step Six: Reduce or Eliminate Sugars
Now you are ready to tackle the sugars!
After you have worked at shifting to the more complex side of the carbohydrate continuum, and you have been reducing your sugars, you may decide that you are ready to go ahead and eliminate overt sugars altogether.
If you feel you are ready to do this, start by thinking of the process as a detox process. You will be giving up your "drug" and will want to plan a way to minimize your discomfort and maximize your success. Thinking of going off of sugar as "detox" will also help you see that there will be predictable physiological stages and, most important, light at the other end of the tunnel. Going off of sugars doesn't have to be too difficult from a physical standpoint. It may be more difficult from an emotional standpoint. But we will talk about this as we go.
Let's find that sugar! Read labels to see where the sugars are. Here are the names of different sugars. It may surprise you.
| barley malt | galactose | fructooliosaccharides |
| beet sugar | glucose | molasses |
| brown rice syrup | granulated sugar | polydextrose |
| brown sugar | high fructose corn syrup | powdered sugar |
| cane juice | honey | raisin juice |
| confectioners' sugar | invert sugar | raisin syrup |
| corn syrup | lactose | raw sugar |
| corn sweetener | malt dextrin | SUCANAT |
| date sugar | malted barley | sucrose |
| dextrin | maltose | sugar cane |
| dextrose | mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, maltitol | turbinado sugar |
| fructose | maple sugar | white sugar |
| fruit juice concentrate | microcrystalline cellulose |
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Go back to your food journal and highlight the overt sugars you have been eating.
Get a sense of what things you want to exclude from your diet. Decide whether you are going to first cut down and then cut out or whether you are going to go "cold turkey". Neither way is better. What counts most is your style, how you like to make changes in your life. Draw from the experience you have had over the past few weeks in getting to know your own style. Do you take a gradual approach or do you plunge right in? Whichever way fits for you, use it when you create your food plan around reducing or eliminating sugars.
Okay, let's do it!
Now it's time to go off sugars. Withdrawal from sugar will feel like withdrawal from a drug. This is because both sugar and narcotics raise our beta-endorphin level and when we stop using them, the brain starts begging for more.
Plan your sugar detox for a time when you do not have severe stress.
The process usually takes five days, with the fourth day being the hardest. Think through the timing of your detox. Schedule it so that on the fourth day you have time to yourself. Do not start your detox so that the fourth day lands on the day you have to make a presentation to your major account. Do not plan the fourth day to coincide with your son's wedding. Be strategic. You will feel wonderful soon, I promise.
Find more information in the Doing the Steps section of our Resource Center.
Go to Step Seven |
