Sugar as most of us know it, is a powdery white substance that is found in just about all processed foods, and added by the spoonful to coffee, tea, and countless homemade recipes. That sugar is actually “refined” sugar, which is a highly processed form of various natural sugars.
Most of us are fully aware of of the dangers of refined white sugar; and yet most of us in modern society find it almost impossible to avoid. I’m not here to demonize sugar, because sugar is natural… and a necessary nutrient. However, refined sugar causes a lot of trouble for the body, so what can we do to reduce that trouble? We can:
- Reduce Sugar Intake.
- Slow Down Sugar Uptake.
- Pull Sugar Quickly from the Blood.
Explained in more detail…
- Reduce sugar intake. Maybe you don’t want to reduce your sugar, and that is ok, because there are two more strategies below that can still improve your situation. However, there are a few ways to reduce sugar intake that you might find useful:
- You could reduce your ‘refined’ sugar intake by replacing them with healthier sweeteners, which I explain more below.
- If you eat a healthier diet, especially one with more fats, your cravings for sweets will ebb, and you will automatically use less sugar. The amount of sugar consumed in modern cultures is unnatural, and so it is best for long-term health to reduce it when possible.
- If you avoid processed foods you will avoid a lot of the refined sugar. This goes hand-in-hand with eating a healthier diet. Packaged food products, fast food, soft drinks, etc. are loaded with refined and/or processed sugar.
- Slow down the sugar uptake into the bloodstream. This is where it gets more interesting. Your body can handle natural sugars that are consumed in a natural way, so use that to your advantage. The real problems (diabetes, etc.) occur when our blood is constantly flooded with too much sugar, which eventually leads to insulin issues. If you slow down the rate of sugar absorption into the bloodstream, you reduce that major problem. Here’s how:
- Avoid all refined sugars because they get absorbed into the bloodstream very quickly. Replacing refined sugars with natural sweeteners will dramatically slow down uptake into the bloodstream.
- If you need a sweetener for coffee, tea, cooking, etc., use coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, dates, real stevia, molasses, or pure cain sugar (and its healthy variants). If you search and experiment you can find a healthy sweetener that will satisfy your taste and/or need.
- DO NOT use agave, beet sugar, corn syrup, or other highly processed sugar products. Agave has been a big lie in the wellness community for many years, as it is a highly processed syrup that is not healthy. While beets are a superfood, beet sugar is a highly refined sugar that has no relation to beets and should be avoided.
- DO NOT drink juice! If you want juice, drink smoothies instead, because consuming fiber with sugar slows down the uptake into your bloodstream. And consuming the entire fruit (or vegetable) has many other benefits too. Note that fiber slows down the uptake of pretty much everything – sometimes that is good, and sometimes that is not so good. I am not recommending a high-fiber diet; however, consuming fiber with your sugars definitely reduces the insulin response.
- Remove the sugar quickly from the bloodstream, and thus reduce the insulin response. This one is actually quite simple: Get your muscles moving after you eat. Exercise, walk, or do anything that activates your muscles. The muscles will pull the sugar from your blood to use it as quick energy, so this is a very easy way to reduce the insulin response and dispose of excess sugar.
Finally, be careful about ‘sugar free’ products, as must of them are highly processed and contain artificial sweeteners that can do even more harm. I never recommend artificial sweeteners, as they have been shown to cause many health problems.
When choosing natural sweeteners, always be careful to choose ones that are not highly processed. The food industry is very tricky, so you must know your products. For example, most people think that brown sugar is healthy; however, there are countless types of brown sugar, and most are highly refined. Look for natural, unrefined, organic sweeteners.
