Eating a lot of sugar can lead to soo many health issues both short-term & long-term. Energy crashes, mood swings, digestive issues, increased hunger, and even tooth decay. That’s why it’s important to limit the amount of sugar you eat so here are 5 foods that will help you quit sugar naturally.

What Happens When You Eat Too Much Sugar?

As I mentioned above, a high sugar diet causes a ton of health issues and chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, cognitive decline, and inflammation. Other common side effects include weight gain, high blood pressure, anxiety, and in some cases depression.

By removing sugar from your diet, you will start to experience withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, and mood swings. However, these symptoms only occur short-term and good things start to happen.

You suddenly have more energy, you lose weight, you sleep better, inflammation is gone and your chances of getting chronic diseases limits as well. 

Sounds great right? Well, it’s not as easy to kick sugar to the curb, those cravings will make you go crazy that’s why it’s important to find healthy alternatives until your body can adjust. 

How Much Sugar Is Safe To Eat Daily?

The American heart association recommends no more than 36 grams (9 teaspoons) for men, and 25 grams (6 teaspoons) for women. However, reducing your added sugar intake to less than 5% for a 2000 calorie diet is soo much better for your overall health.

5 Foods That Will Help You Quit Sugar

Pro Tip – The key to kicking sugar to the curb is consistency. Simply trying the following foods and thinking “na that’s not my cup of tea” is not gonna cut it! You need to consume these foods regularly so that your taste buds gets used to them.

Water – You also want to drink a lot of water daily. Ideally, you should drink at least 6 glasses of water every day when trying to quit sugar. Water helps remove toxins from your body and reduces sugar cravings.

Note: it can take anywhere between a few days to a few weeks to break free from sugar cravings. I recommend taking it slowly at the beginning. You also want to avoid foods with artificial sweeteners in them.

Read your food labels and if they contain words like aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, neotame, and acesulfame-K, don’t add them to your diet. Why? Because they don’t offer any nutritional value and may also cause health problems.

1. Fruits

Fruits contain natural sugars and healthy nutrients like fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. The fiber in fruits help regulate blood sugars levels and prevent spikes and crashes. When trying to quit sugar, you want to eat fruits like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, lemons, limes, avocado, and grapefruit.

These types of fruits are lower in natural sugars and packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. If you like dried fruits, your best options are unsweetened dried apricots, prunes, and dried berries as they are also low in natural sugars.

I usually combine some of the fruits above into smoothies. One of my favorite fruit smoothie recipe consist of 1 cup of blueberries, 1 cup of unsweetened Greek yogurt, 1/2 a banana, and a teaspoon of pure organic maple syrup. If you prefer smoothies though, make sure to store your fruits in the freezer overnight before blending.

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2. Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt is a great source of natural probiotics, protein, calcium, and potassium. Adding yogurt to your diet daily can help keep you full longer during the day and reduce cravings. You can simply whip yourself up a bowl a Greek yogurt with fresh fruits from above and a drizzle of pure organic maple syrup or honey.

3. High Protein Foods

Similar to Greek yogurt, adding other high protein foods like lean meat, beans, tofu, fish, and eggs to your diet will keep you full longer throughout the day and reduce sugar cravings. That’s because protein takes longer to digest and regulates blood sugar levels.

Protein also influences the release of  hormones called leptin and ghrelin, both of which plays an important role in regulating appetite.

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4. High Fiber Foods

When trying to quit sugar, you need to consume more high fiber foods because they help with digestion, promote fullness, reduce cravings, and regulate blood sugar levels. Foods like leafy green veggies, oat, quinoa, legumes, whole grains, and chickpeas are some of the best options.

5. Healthy Fats

Healthy fats help regulate blood sugar levels and prevent spikes. They also regulate appetite hormones that cause cravings. When you eat healthy fats, they digest slowly which means, you’ll stay full longer. Foods like avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil, and full fat dairy products are what you want to focus on.

Conclusion

Quitting sugar is one of the best decisions you’ll make for your overall health so if the going gets rough, remember that you are doing yourself a huge favor and be patient. Please make sure to share this post if you found it helpful and also, you can follow me on Pinterest & Facebook for more awesome posts.