Transcription
Hello Health Champions! Today, we're going to talk about what would happen if you totally stop sugar for 30 days. Please pay close attention because you probably can't even imagine how vast the benefits are and how many destructive factors you can eliminate by stopping sugar.
The first thing that might happen once you stop sugar is some degree of withdrawal. This is the number one thing that keeps people from succeeding. They try it for a little bit and then they get right back into it. We're going to talk about these things because sugar is a very addictive substance. It triggers pleasure receptors; it has reward centers in the brain very much like heavy-duty drugs like heroin and cocaine. A lot of people don't understand that it can actually be that addictive because, after all, sugar is completely natural. It's produced in nature and occurs in all kinds of things, especially in fruits, but also in sugar cane, sugar beets, etc.
So, what's so damaging about it? Why is it so dangerous? Because when we change it, when we refine it, when we concentrate it, we completely change those properties. Now, that refined product, that concentrated sugar product, has the ability to bypass normal regulation. If you never ate sugar from anything else than fruit or small amounts of sugar cane or a little bit of honey and you never had processed foods, it's not very likely that you would get very addicted. However, when you eat tons of this stuff decade after decade, you get hooked and it bypasses your normal ability to regulate to have just a little bit.
The second reason that you experience some withdrawals is that your body will experience a temporary lack of fuel. If you have trained your body into depending on sugar and processed carbohydrates for fuel and energy and then all of a sudden you eliminate it, now for a short period of time your body is going to have a lack of energy. It doesn't know where to get energy or derive fuel. But it's very, very short-term because very soon your body starts burning fat instead and very quickly you become fat-adapted. Fat is actually the better fuel; it is the preferred fuel. Most of your organs run on fat and it creates a stable source of energy. This can happen as quickly as in a few days, even in minutes to hours. This change initiates as your body starts adapting once you cut out the sugar. But it's still going to take a while for your body to fully change around to where it's fat-adapted. In a few weeks' time, you now become metabolically flexible. You train your body that it can derive fuel and energy from a lot of different food sources.
Why are we talking about cutting out sugar for 30 days? Because if you do it for 30 days, first of all, you become fat-adapted and you become metabolically flexible. But also because we're trying to change a habit. If we just do it for a short term, maybe if you did it for a week, you would still see a lot of changes, but it's not long enough for you to stick to it. If you don't stick to it and you go back to eating like you did before, you're going to undo all the benefits that you created.
I've gotten lots of questions about how to stop sugar. Like this guy, he says, "Does this include fruits and complex carbs?" So we're going to talk about that. We're going to understand exactly what those are and also the variables. He says, "I'm an active athlete who exercises many times a week." See, that changes things, and we need to understand where we stand in that regard.
Does it include bread, rice, and pasta? Does it include deli meat because they often have some sugar in them? Does it include coffee with milk and sugar? Because the milk has a little bit of lactose and often people put sugar in there. The number one reason people are told or want to cut out sugar is often to lose weight. But that's just such a small thing. Even if it's important, it's such a small thing out of all the benefits. For example, emotional benefits. How about the improved ability to focus? How about stable energy? How about not having these ups and downs? A lot of people, they eat breakfast, and then they feel good for a little bit, but around 10 or 11 o'clock they start crashing because their body doesn't know how to create stable energy when you eat sugar and refined carbs. Very often, people find that they have a better mood, a more stable mood, but also a higher baseline than what they were used to.
A huge benefit, like we said, is that if you can get over an addiction, now you're really starting to get empowered by not having external things and substances control you. Very often, people wonder, "Should I stop right away or can I do it gradually?" With carbohydrates in general, you can usually do it gradually, but with sugar, I would suggest that you do it cold turkey—stop it immediately and completely. The reason is that it is so addictive. As a matter of fact, the more your tendency is to be addicted to sugar, the more important it is that you cut it out completely and immediately. Because if you have even just a little bit left, that's going to keep you addicted and it's going to trigger your behavior to go back to eating sugar.
Now, we need to understand what sugar is and what the different types are and which ones we should avoid. When we say "cut out sugar for 30 days," what does that mean? Sugar is typically when we say that we are talking about sucrose, table sugar, and that is combined of a six-carbon ring. If you've seen my videos, you may have seen me do this a few times, but I hear from all the questions that people still don't understand these very basics. We're going to go through this.
Glucose by itself, if it's by itself, is a monosaccharide—it's a single sugar. Sucrose, which this is, is a disaccharide, meaning two sugars. Once we eat this and we split this up, now we get two monosaccharides: one glucose and one fructose. The glucose portion is the one that raises blood sugar. When we talk about blood sugar, we're talking blood glucose. So glucose is a sugar; fructose is a sugar. But when we mention table sugar or added sugar in food, it's sucrose—it's a combination of the two. The glucose, which raises blood sugar, also stimulates insulin because when blood sugar goes up, we need to get that into the cell and that's the job of the hormone insulin. Fructose, on the other hand, is very different; it doesn't raise blood sugar very much, but instead it clogs up the liver. That is the unique property of fructose. There are two substances that only the liver can process and break down: alcohol and fructose.
So when we eat a lot of fructose, it's kind of like drinking a lot of alcohol. That's why it's so bad for the liver. Fructose today is the number one cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Used to be that only alcoholics got fatty liver; now we find it in kids because we feed them so much sugar, which is 50% fructose. A lot of people are still confused, and they get seduced and misinformed into using other things that are basically the same thing. For example, they know sugar—this white sugar—they say these white crystals, "I never touch the stuff! But I do use a little bit of honey and I use some agave. I drink just black tea or green tea and I sweeten it with agave. That's good for you, right?" Well, agave is actually worse than high fructose corn syrup, which most people know is a terrible thing. They say, "I don't eat sugar, I just use maple syrup or brown sugar." That's much better, right? No, there's virtually no difference. Or molasses—same thing. A lot of people think that cane juice—often times you'll see products that are supposed to be health food—oh well, it's organic and it's natural and it's only sweetened with cane juice or fruit juice or cane sugar. Well, they're all the same thing. In a moment, we're going to show you exactly how they compare.
Now, let's talk about the physical benefits a little bit. They, of course, include weight loss that a lot of people know about, but you'll be amazed how many people will experience reduced pain. They cut out the sugar, they reduce some inflammation, and a lot of joint pain—shoulder pain, wrist pain, finger pain, knee pain—gets reduced because you reduce inflammation. Of course, you probably know that you get better teeth: fewer cavities, less plaque, less tartar, and buildup because all those things that you don't want feed off the sugar. You will also probably experience improved performance in so many ways. We talked about more mental stable energy, but even in sports you'll probably find that you have more endurance and better performance because as your body learns to use fat, you have a fuel source that lasts much longer and is more stable.
Now, let's look at the different types of sugar and how they compare. We're going to talk about white sugar in terms of glucose and fructose and then compare those. Like we said, sucrose (white sugar) is exactly 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Then we look at honey. A lot of people think that honey is so good for you; that's much healthier, which I would agree it is. But in terms of sugar, it is exactly the same thing. They float around a little bit differently, but in the end when it's all said and done, you get 50% glucose and 50% fructose out of honey. The difference between honey and white sugar is not in the sugar composition; they're the same. However, honey is a natural substance, so it contains certain things. It's a natural antibacterial, it has some positive properties, and that's where this little green line over here is. I've added that just to symbolize that there are some additional benefits. But if you're trying to avoid sugar, then honey is not something you want to be eating.
Then we have agave, which unfortunately a lot of health-minded people think is a healthy product. They think it's a good thing because they've been told so in the health food store. But agave has 20% glucose and 80% fructose. Because of this, it doesn't affect blood sugar as much, so you have less of a blood sugar spike. People thought, "Hey, that must be good! That's great for diabetics." Well, diabetics also have a fatty liver, and agave has 80% fructose which will clog up the liver. A lot of people know about high fructose corn syrup. Well, this is higher fructose than high fructose corn syrup.
By comparison, high fructose corn syrup—normally there are different percentages when they buy it, but the stuff they put into soda for the most part is 45% glucose and 55% fructose. Now, the difference why it's so much worse than sugar is that white sugar, as bad as it is, is a disaccharide. It takes a little bit of time to break it apart; just even minutes will make a big difference. However, high fructose corn syrup—these two molecules, they're separate, they're floating freely from each other, and now the glucose gets absorbed instantly. It doesn't have that little delay, so the glycemic index of high fructose corn syrup is much higher. It also has a little bit more fructose.
Then we look at maple syrup. I mean, that has to be good! It's just syrup; it's just juice from a tree. How bad could it be? Well, in the end, it's exactly the same—it's 50% glucose and 50% fructose. If we kind of really promote the difference, then it's a natural product; it probably has a few vitamins and minerals and some properties that sugar doesn't have, but again, it's fairly minimal. If on a rare occasion you're going to use some sugar and bake something, then yes, all these natural things would be a little bit better because they have these additional properties. But in terms of sugar, they're the same.
Molasses, same thing. It has some nutrients, has some minerals, has a little bit of tiny benefit, but it's still 50% glucose and fructose. Cane sugar, the same thing. High fructose corn syrup has been brought out and people have been shown how bad it is. Now, in comparison, all of a sudden cane sugar (white sugar) almost becomes a health food. Of course, these are the stuff that you want to avoid—all of them.
Now, another common question is: how does this compare to other forms of sugar like bread? Because people don't realize that white bread, all forms of bread, rice, etc., are all sugar. But there is a difference, and the difference is that bread has something called starch. If we start off with one of these GL (glucose) molecules and then we start stringing them together like big trees—like pearls on a string—and these can branch out and they can be hundreds and thousands, even tens of thousands of molecules linked together, this is called starch. This is called a complex carbohydrate.
People think, "Hey, it's good for you because it's a complex carb." Well, these things break apart very, very quickly. We have enzymes that as soon as you start chewing, already in the mouth, you start breaking these off. That's why starch, like bread and rice, spikes glucose and raises blood sugar even faster than table sugar does. But it doesn't have any fructose, and that's why starch is better than sugar. It's not because complex carbs are good for you; they still raise blood sugar like crazy, but it matters a lot to some people and not so much to others, which we'll look at in a little bit.
While they are all sugar and they turn into sugar, the difference is that the white bread is 100% glucose. Now, I know there's a little bit of water, a little bit of fat, some protein in there, but in terms of the carbohydrate they contain, it is 100% glucose. If we do the whole grain bread, which is promoted as a health food, it will still raise blood sugar to the same degree. But it does have a few nutrients—has a little bit of fiber and a few nutrients in there. The same thing with white rice; it's all glucose. Brown rice is all glucose with a sprinkle of nutrients.
If you are to cut this out totally for 30 days, you will start seeing some amazing health benefits. Yes, you lose some weight, you feel better, and all that, but this is really where it's life-changing. You will improve your digestive health. You will improve your chances of restoring a healthy biome. You will improve your immune function. You will get fewer colds and flu. And then we get to the stuff we talk about a lot here on this channel: you will reduce insulin resistance because insulin resistance is caused by high blood sugar—that's the one factor. Cutting out sugar, especially fructose, is the most important thing. That’s going to be enough for a lot of people, but not enough for everybody.
Cutting out sugar is your best bet to reduce a fatty liver, and for some people, that's a big deal. Other people don’t get so excited; they say, "Hey, what's a fatty liver?" Well, a fatty liver is associated—it's the central mechanism around most degenerative diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, and also things like Alzheimer's, dementia, strokes, and high blood pressure, etc., etc.
Now, who needs to stop? Do you need to just stop the table sugar, the white sugar, and all the variations of that, or do you also want to cut out more of the starches? Starch is all glucose, like we talked about. It's found in bread, rice, corn; they're basically entirely made up of starch. Whatever isn't water and a tiny bit of protein is essentially starch. Also in pasta, potatoes. Now, where you are on a metabolic spectrum— a lot of people ask, "Well, is this good for me? Is this bad for me?" It depends on where you are. Some things can be good for people at one end and terrible for people on the other end.
If we look at something like A1C, which is your three-month average of blood glucose, a good value is less than 5.5. I want to see it probably just a couple of tenths lower than that. If you're insulin resistant, if you're pre-diabetic but not fully diabetic, you're usually around six-ish. If you're over 6.5, then they classify you as a type 2 diabetic. Of course, that can go much higher. I've seen people with 15 and even higher than that. The corresponding levels of glucose would be somewhere around a fasting level of less than 95, a fasting level of 110 or less, and for type 2 diabetes, a fasting glucose level of 130 or above.
But as I've also talked about in my videos, you don't only want to look at these; the much better indicators of insulin resistance are triglycerides and actually measuring insulin. There will be a link down below for blood work if you want to get that checked out a little bit more.
A lot of people also hear that if they stop eating sugar, they will lose weight, and then they're worried because they think that they're already too thin. "What if I lose too much weight?" Well, that's not a problem. You stop the sugar because of its detriment on every function, every system in the body. If you trend toward the thin side, if you have trouble keeping weight on, then you eat more fat and protein from healthy sources, but you can also include some of these starches.
For diabetic people, they want to avoid all carbohydrates very strictly, especially the sucrose, but also the starches. However, if you're more on this side, now it is probably good for you to start eating some starches. Your body might actually work better on that. It doesn't mean that you base your diet; it doesn’t mean it becomes a foundation food, but you can have a little bit more. I would probably tell you to favor potatoes over grains because a lot of people are sensitive to grains and they tend to create some digestive problems.
So everyone needs to avoid sucrose, but if you're thin, then you can have some starches. If you are heavy and/or type 2 diabetic, insulin resistant, then you avoid both the table sugar and all added sugars and the starches. But then people also ask about the other little things, like deli meats.
Now, this is becoming more of a personal preference. If you want to keep it totally strict, then you cut out everything that has sugar. If you have a tendency toward addiction that’s just super, super strong, you probably don't want even deli meats. But from a metabolic standpoint, they don't really matter because they'll have something like one gram of sugar in a serving. That's not enough to really mess with your metabolism. If that's all the sugar you're getting, then don't worry about it.
However, if you want to be strict about it, if you want to be a purist, then by all means absolutely, I recommend you cut that out as well. Or if even that little bit of sweet taste kind of sets you off, then you want to avoid that as well.
What about coffee with milk and sugar? Well, you can definitely have black coffee; that's not a problem. As long as you're not sensitive to milk, I think you can have a little bit of that. Don't pour tons and tons of it, but if you want to have a tablespoon or two, that's fine. If you want to make that half and half instead of milk, that's probably even better.
I would, however, strongly suggest that you cut out all the sugar. Don't put any sugar in there at all. If you're used to sugar, it's going to taste a little funny for a few days, and then you'll never miss it again.
What about fruit? Fruit is so healthy, right? Well, if you are on the green side of the spectrum, then you can probably have some fruits. You can have some berries; you can have a few fruits here and there. What I want to caution against is this idea that you hear: "Eat more fruits and vegetables." Fruits and vegetables do not go in the same category. So eat more vegetables as long as you tolerate them well, but be very careful with fruit. On this side, you could have one or two a day, but maybe not every day—maybe not every month of the year.
On the red side, on the diabetic side of the spectrum, you can have a few berries; you could have a handful of berries here and there, but I would strongly suggest you avoid the other fruits.
Now, there are even more benefits besides all the stuff we've already talked about. One thing that people will find is that you get new taste buds. As you get rid of all that sweet, all that chemical, all that artificial processed flavor, you will reset your taste buds and your brain pathways, and you will start tasting food maybe for the first time. It will taste absolutely amazing to you. There is also probably going to be a cost savings because even though healthy food tends to cost a little bit more, you get so much more out of it, and you will stop overeating.
In the end, you'll probably save money. You will even possibly get better eyesight. Sometimes people with very high blood sugar—their blood vessels in the retina—they swell, and that can affect vision. Diabetes is the number one cause of blindness, but even if you don't go blind, you can still start getting reduced vision, reduced focus, and clarity just from a little bit of swelling.
I would strongly recommend that you take the challenge to stop sugar for 30 days and see what happens. Then you can come back and leave a comment, and tell us and tell others, most of all, how many of those things came true for you.
If you've already done this challenge before, please comment because it's so powerful for other people to read these comments and see that it is indeed true that you can transform your life; that it is life-changing when you make these changes.
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