Despite always being a health nut you might be surprised to learn that I used to be a total sugar addict. I nibbled on M&M’s daily and drank Starbucks Vanilla Lattes with a packet of Sweet N’ Low. I constantly had cravings for sugar, especially at night. It wasn’t until I removed it from my diet cold turkey and started eating a more balanced ratio of complex carbs, protein and fat that I was able to enjoy it (in natural sweetener form) moderately again.
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In this episode, Walker and I take you through the whole story and touch upon Walker’s relationship with sugar, as well. If you currently feel addicted to sugar, don’t worry – there’s hope with the strategies I share in this episode!
Listen to the Podcast
Listen to the Joyous Health Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play!
In this episode we discuss:
- How sugar makes food addictive (and how food manufacturers take advantage of this).
- My sugar addiction story and how I broke my sugar addiction.
- Mine and Walker’s relationship with sugar as kids.
- How much sugar the average North American consumed then and now.
- The industrialization of food and how it has altered food for the worse.
- Why sugar is considered to be as addictive as drugs.
- The many negative effects of sugar.
- How to break your sugar addiction.
- The importance of balancing your blood sugar.
- How sugar addiction begins.
- What happens when our daughter Vienna has refined sugar.
- Eating a high sugar diet ages your skin through a process called AGEs.
- The link between sugar and heart disease.
- How much sugar is okay?
- Where sugar is hiding in your food (you might be surprised by this!).
- The role green smoothies played when breaking my sugar addiction.
- The best part about quitting sugar.
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Resources
- Natural Ways To Sweeten Your Food
- Healthy Fats I Stock In My Kitchen
- 8 Healthy Snack Ideas For Kids
- Sexy Maca Balls Recipe
- Everything Guacamole Recipe
- DIY Kombucha Online
- Improve Your Digestion With 7 Fermented Foods
- Why I’m Obsessed With The Microbiome – And You Should Be Too!
- Crunch-tastic Sauerkraut – pg. 205 in Joyous Detox
- Spring-Inspired Kimchi – pg. 207 in Joyous Detox
- Food & Emotions Journal
- Joyous Detox Online
Are you struggling to break up with sugar? Share your story with me below!
11 thoughts on “JHP06: How To Break Your Sugar Addiction”
Another great podcast Joy! I was wondering if you could define for me what “refined sugar” is, and what it is not?
Is it white/brown sugar? Or is it syrups, honeys, etc? Thanks! (:
Thank you Kaitlin!
Refined sugar is white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup etc. You can read about natural sweeteners here: https://www.joyoushealth.com/27140-blog-10-natural-ways-to-sweeten-your-food
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my questions, I really appreciate it! 😀 If it’s ok, I have a few more! Why are natural sweeteners like you discuss in your article preferred over refined sugars? Wouldn’t maple syrup or coconut syrup still spike your blood sugar and affect insulin the same way a refined sugar would since they’re both simple carbs?
A much needed episode for this sugar addict! I also live in Toronto and was wondering where you get your water from. Do you use a filtration system at home (if so what brand do you recommend?) or are you buying from the store? I drink tons of water but want to stop drinking straight tap water.
Thanks!
In my office I have a filtration system installed under the sink I bought off Amazon and my hubs installed it. At home we have a more fancy system that removes everything and Kinetico is the brand. However, if I had the counter space I would totally buy a Berkey. I really love those filters, I just don’t have the space for them (small kitchen).
There are really two totally separate considerations. There is a really big difference between white sugar (nutrient dead, highly chemically processed) and coconut palm sugar from processing to the chemicals that are used in the process. So if you’re trying to decide what is best for baking, the natural options are by far superior. The other consideration is blood sugar. If you have diabetes or you’re pre-diabetic then you have to be careful with all natural sugars because if not combined with other balanced ingredients they can spike your blood sugar. Like for example if you use maple syrup to sweeten an almond flour muffin recipe it’s going to have a different effect than refined sugar in a white flour recipe. Hope that helps!
Hey Steph 🙂 Saw your comment
I have been overweight my entire life. Here I am 51 going through menopause and have diabetes and heart problems. My hormones are way of whack and my uncontrolled diabetes is really taken its toll on me. I am suffering from diabetic neuropathy and I crave sugar really bad. I need help. Looking forward to listening to your podcast on how to break my sugar addition. I signed up for the Joyous Kitchen Challenge too. Very excited to start!
Hi Cathy! Glad you signed up for the challenge! I hope it helps and I’m glad you’re excited to start!
Thank you for this podcast. It has inspired me to do a sugar detox. I am from Toronto too and I love baking with sugar.
Amazing! So happy to hear that. I hope you enjoy the recipes here!