Sugar is everywhere, from your morning juice to the ketchup on your french fries, but why should you eliminate the bad sugars from your diet?

First we need to understand what sugar does and why we have a love/hate relationship with those shiny white crystals.  Foods containing sugar can be a great source of energy for the body.  When we eat sugary foods, the brain’s “reward circuit” – mesolimbic dopamine system, gets activated.  Thus releasing the chemical Dopamine.  Dopamine basically tells the brain that the sugary foods you just ate were pleasurable.  Again, because sugar is in practically everything we eat our bodies have grown accustomed to the reward.  And before we know it, we want to feel that pleasure all the time.  On the other hand when we eat proteins, the brain releases a hormone that sends a signal to the stomach when you are full.  Unfortunately with sugary foods this doesn’t happen so you’re left feeling unsatisfied with a tendency to binge eat.  

Photo Dilyara Garifullina

The Down Sides

Too much sugar in the bloodstream my friends can lead to high cholesterol.  From there it can spiral into Hyperglycemia.  Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), can damage your arteries.  Thereby promoting plaque which can cause a heart attack, stroke, damaged vision and nerves, depression and possible Alzheimer’s disease.  In addition, other conditions like premature aging, dementia and pancreatic, breast, colon, liver and bladder cancers are also linked to sugar.  Lastly over time, too much sugar causes the pancreas to release more insulin leading to insulin resistance.  Now, the body has too much sugar and insulin and before you know it, you have diabetes!  So, while we might think sugary foods are rewarding, in the end some are highly addictive and dangerous to our health.   

Types Of Sugars To Avoid

Ultimately, the goal is to eliminate the bad sugars from your diet, especially those with a high glycemic index.  To be specific, if you’re following the keto diet anything 20 or higher is a high glycemic load.   And anything 10 or less is considered low.   So let’s look at the different kinds of sugars/sweeteners out there.  

Aside from all the negative health conditions mentioned above, consuming extra sugar also adds up as extra calories.  Therefore resulting in weight gain. 

The bottom line is, we’re not saying you have to cut the sweet stuff completely.  However as we say, everything in moderation.  For this reason you might want to check out my blog post on keto friendly sugar alternatives if you want to still enjoy sweet treats.

Photo Heather Barnes

In our previous posts we discussed, to achieve the best results for losing weight, we need our bodies to switch to ketosis. To do this we need to reduce our carb intake, typically between 20-23 carbs per day in the beginning.  Initially, the idea is to let your body do a sugar detox.  It won’t be pretty as you may experience some withdrawal side effects which do subside in a few days.  After that you’ll see positive results very quickly! Lastly, as a result of ketosis don’t be surprised if you crave sugar less because that was my experience.