Pamela Chavez - Sugar Detox: The Sugar Detox Book with Sugar Detox Recipes

Sugar Detox

The Sugar Detox Book With Sugar Detox Recipes

Pamela Chavez and Susan Mullins

Copyright 2013 Pamela Chavez and Susan Mullins

All rights reserved.

The sugar detox diet is designed to stop the sugar cravings and to cleanse the body of all forms of sugar. Sugar is very addictive and can cause a host of health issues. Sugar addiction causes excessive weight gain, high blood sugar, greater chances of developing type II diabetes (especially if diabetes runs in your family), a sluggish metabolism, cloudy mental capacity, lethargy, moodiness, and more. The ill health effects alone should be reason enough to stop a sugar addiction. Consuming excessive sugar also weakens the immune system and hinders the body's ability to fight infections.

Why do a sugar detox on the body?

The very first thing that occurs within the body in the absence of sugar is the increase in metabolism, a boost in energy. This happens because instead of the sugar giving a false boost of energy that later result in a lethargic crash, you will derive your energy from the nutritious foods you eat. Sugar consumption increases the inflammation within the body, which leads to high cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension.

Overcoming Sugar Addiction

Obviously, the first thing to do to overcome a sugar addiction is to stop consuming it. This may be difficult if there is a real addiction. Food addiction is as strong as addiction to other harmful substances like cigarettes, alcohol, and recreational drugs. If you stop the sugar cold turkey, you will likely experience a major withdrawal from sugar. There are a couple of ways to wean from sugar. You can do one, the other, or a combination of both. You know your body best and know what you can probably handle.

The first way to wean from sugar is to do a slow elimination. This method helps to let go of the sugar slowly while giving the body a chance to readjust to less and less sugar. If you stop sugar all at once without some sort of relief, you will have horrible withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms include an intense craving for more sugar, moodiness, blood sugar fluctuations which will directly affect your cognitive behavior, and headache. All the withdrawal symptoms are very unpleasant and weaning slowly helps to avoid these symptoms or just to experience them to a much lesser degree.

Take a day or two (or even a week) to journal your eating habits. Come up with a round figure of how many times a day you consume junk food and in particular any food with sugar. Ideally, the body weans from a bad habit within about three weeks. It takes that long to break a bad habit and replace it with a good habit. With this in mind, stop eating one item of sugar every three days. Keep going until you have completely stopped the sugar. Instead of going without food, practice these rules while you wean. Only eat when hungry, and when hungry replace the sugary snack with a healthy food.

The second way to wean from a sugar addiction is to replace the sugared food with sugar free food. Ideally, you will want to replace it with a healthy snack such as nuts or fruit. But you can also replace it with a recipe from the dessert section of this book. If your body thinks it is still eating sugar such as a sugar free slice of apple pie, it will be satisfied without ingesting harmful sugar.

Try a combination of both methods and figure a way to reach the point of being fully weaned from the sugar.

Here are some other tips on helping to overcome the sugar addiction:

* Do not buy sugared foods at the grocery. Make a grocery list and carry cash to keep from being tempted to purchase the wrong foods.

* Exercise. This is probably one of the best tips in helping to bust a sugar addiction. Exercise is good for everyone. It gives you a natural boost in your metabolism and helps your body to release endorphins, a substance that gives a natural high, a feel good feeling. This can replace the false "high" or boost of energy you may receive from eating sugar. If you are just starting out with exercise you need to know it works just as well to be physically active (such as walking, jogging, swimming, doing aerobics, or weightlifting) just a half an hour every other day. Do a warm up and a cool down for maximum benefit.

* Identify the different reasons you want to eat. Instead of giving in to eating if you are stressed, sad, happy, or habit, try doing something else, like exercise or an activity that will take your mind off of eating.

* If you slip and eat sugar, do not become angry with yourself. Expect to slip occasionally and be kind to yourself when you do.

* It may help to take extra vitamins and minerals to be sure your body is receiving all the nutrition you need.

* Make a menu of healthy meals and snacks and stick to it. By eating nutritious foods you are giving your body exactly what it needs to be healthy.

* Replace all sugary snacks with healthy alternatives. Nature actually does provide us with the best foods to eat. Fruits are naturally sweet and provide a great substitute for sugar. Nuts offer protein and hunger satisfaction.

* When eating out always choose restaurants that offer healthier choices and avoid the junk foods on the menu.

A Word About Sweeteners

Many of the recipes in this book call for "sweetener." This is meant to be a sugar-free substitute in the place of granulated sugar. People have their own choices for a sugar substitute and the recipe leaves it to each person to decipher how much of their favorite sweetener needs to be used. The recipe will call for a "sweetener equivalent to a certain amount of granulated sugar." A sweetener like sucralose will be used measurement-by-measurement just as granulated sugar. However, a sweetener like stevia will require a much less amount. You will need to make this determination according to your preferences.

The use of artificial sweeteners is not recommended, but if you prefer that then by all means try it. The best sugar free sweeteners are the all-natural ones like agave syrup and stevia.

Substitution

You may freely substitute any of the ingredients listed within the recipes and come up with your own version. Meats like chicken can be substituted with lean beef or even lamb. Nuts can be interchanged, pecans, walnuts, and almonds. Even the vegetables are okay to change and add your own personal favorite flavors to the recipes. The same goes with the seasonings. Use seasoned salt instead of sea salt, or try cayenne pepper instead of black pepper. This is your book and the recipes are adaptable and easy to interchange.

Disclaimer

Many recipes in this book are, like most all recipes, adapted from originals, which may or may not be found on websites such as AllRecipes, Food, SparkPeople, etc., in old style cookbooks, and from recipes passed on from family and friends through word of mouth. Each recipe here is therefore considered to be an original to this book, adapted to be sugar free offering great choices for the Sugar Detox Diet plan. There is no guarantee though that another version of each recipe will not be found elsewhere. Many recipes are ancient and have been around for years being cooked successfully in kitchens around the world.

Any advice in this book is for informational purposes only. Please seek the advice and counsel of your health care provider before trying any new diet or exercise routine.

A bowl of hearty oatmeal is the best way to start the day.