If you decide on becoming a healthy person, breaking the sugar addiction is very important indeed. You need to get rid of sugar out of you life once and for all, it could be the major sticking point and preventing your complete recovery!
If you decide on becoming a healthy person, breaking the sugar addiction is very important indeed. You need to get rid of sugar out of you life once and for all, it could be the major sticking point and preventing your complete recovery!
If Obama wanted to make radical changes to America’s health long-term, all he has to do was treble the price of sugar. Jamie Oliver
If you want to break the sugar addiction, give yourself at least 3 months, because that is how long it can take for you to break away from this extremely addictive substance. Because sugars and refined carbohydrates are so addictive, the first few days of being off them can be quite difficult. There is no doubt; you will experience cravings and withdrawal symptoms. And after about 4 days the cycle will be broken, and you could try some sugar to get an idea of what it has been doing to your body. I can assure you, it isn’t pleasant experience.
To repair your body’s digestion to the point where it can tolerate small amounts of unprocessed sugars, it can take from 3 to 6 months. This allows you not only to wean off that sugar addiction, but it also gives your digestive system the time it needs to heal and to develop the health bacterial flora so important in keeping that overgrowth of candida yeast at bay.
One of the best ways to wean off sugar is by following a whole food plan just like I have outlined in this website. Check out my healthy food choices and junk food page. After your health starts to improve significantly, you can start testing small amounts of whole sugar foods like pure maple syrup, malt extract, and honey. If you notice the burping, bloating and gas production again, then reduce and stop these sugary foods and focus on the whole foods again. Once you begin to re-introduce these sweet foods into your diet, do it slowly and carefully. It is a good idea to remain on the probiotic during this stage as well, and this is one of the main reasons why the probiotic is the last dietary supplement for you to stop taking during your period of recovery from any illness.
Bacteria and yeasts in your gut loves sugar and sweets, and if the bugs don’t get fed on the most refined of carbohydrates (the simple sugars), honey or molasses will do. Bugs are not fussy, they will feed on the sugar you supply it in your diet, whether it be a refined sugar or a less refined sugar like the fructose in fruit which will be perfectly acceptable. The more severe a chronic gut problem is, the higher the demand for these sugars will be, and the more pronounced the symptoms of bloating and gas will be as a consequence for most people. Sugar is also contained is most processed foods such as smoked luncheon meats, tomato sauce (ketchup), soup, etc. so reading labels carefully is very important. Reading labels can be tricky if you don’t know the many names of sugar and sweeteners. Here’s a partial list to help you.
Aspartame, carob powder, corn starch crystalline carbohydrate dextrin dextrose, disaccharides, fructose, galactose, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, levulose, malts of any kind, maltitol, maltodextrin, maltose (malt sugar), mannitol, mannitol, mono-saccharides, sucrose NutraSweet, polydextrose, polysaccharides, ribose, saccharin, sorghum, suamiel, succanat. Please note, not all sugar substitutes directly feeds candida, but all of them damage the immune system, and most are neuro-toxic (causing damage and disturbances to the brain and nervous system).
The fact that sugar greatly depresses the immune system has been known for many years, mainly because of the work of Linus Pauling. Pauling is the only person ever to have received two unshared Nobel Prizes, one for Chemistry (1954) and for Peace (1962). He concluded that white blood cells need a high dose of vitamin C, and so he developed his theory that high doses of vitamin C were needed to combat the common cold, the flu and even cancer.
Did you know that vitamin C and sugar have similar chemical structures so that means they compete with one another for entry into the cells? If there is more sugar around, less vitamin C is allowed into the cell, and vice versa. It is interesting that taking vitamin C also helps curb sugar, alcohol and high carbohydrate cravings.
Since our bodies cannot make vitamin C on it’s own it must be obtained from foods or supplements on a daily basis. Try taking 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily if you have strong sugar cravings. You might be quite surprised to find that you no longer want that ice cream or cookie after your main meal.
Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas. It helps the body utilise blood glucose (blood sugar) by binding with receptors on cells like a key would fit into a lock. Once the key insulin has unlocked the door, the glucose can pass from the blood into the cell. Inside the cell, glucose is either used for energy or stored for future use in the form of glycogen in the liver or muscle cells.
The body’s cells become insulin resistant because they are trying to protect themselves from the toxic effects of high insulin that is required to regulate blood sugar levels when the diet is high in sugar and/or carbohydrates. This causes the cells to down-regulate their receptor activity and the numbers of their receptors so they don’t have to receive the noxious sweet stimuli all the time. It is like having constant loud disgusting music being played and you just have to turn down the volume or you will go insane! Insulin resistance leads to blood sugar problems like tiredness, hypoglycaemia and diabetes, and to high blood pressure.
A less known fact is that insulin also stores magnesium. But if your cells become resistant to insulin you can’t store magnesium, so it is lost through urination. Intracellular magnesium relaxes muscles. What happens when you can’t store magnesium because the cell is resistant? You lose magnesium and your blood vessels and muscles constrict. This causes blood pressure to increase and reduces energy since intracellular magnesium is required for all energy producing reactions that take place in the cell. But most importantly, magnesium is also necessary for the action of insulin and the manufacture of insulin. When your insulin is raised, you loose magnesium, and the cells become even more insulin resistant. It becomes a vicious cycle that begins even before you were born. This is another very good reason not to eat sugar and high carbohydrate foods.
Stevia and Xylitol are the only sweeteners allowed for candida patients, but they should then only be consumed in very small amounts and not during the first three to four weeks, because like all sugar (and artificial sweeteners) it will increase cravings for sugar and high carbohydrate foods.
I have found that Xylitol is the better option; it has the ability to inhibit streptococcus bacteria and has even been endorsed by the US Dental Association as being safe for children in terms of dental caries. Xylitol has proven anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and is very heat stable. I use it in cooking and baking and it tastes great. It is important to remember – only small amounts of Xylitol, but do avoidXylitol in the first three to four weeks. As you progress through the various stages and improve, you can have small amounts of Xylitol and Stevia. Whenever I see a patient with severe candida issues, I prefer they abstain from ALL sweeteners for as long as it takes for them to:
A) – Break the sugar or sweet addiction cycle
B) – Learn to be able to go shopping without the need to buy a sweet treat
C) – Have balanced their digestive flora (no bloating, gas, etc.)
D) – No longer need sugar between meals (tea of coffee) or after meals (dessert)
Have you heard about an herb called gymnema sylvestre? This herb reduces the taste of sugar when it is placed in the mouth. From an extract of the leaves were isolated glycosides (an herbal chemical compound) known as gymnemic acids that exhibit quite a profound anti-sweet activity. This effect lasts up to about 2 hours after you place some of the liquid herb in your mouth, and you only need a tiny amount on your tongue. It is believed that gymnema may block sugar receptors on the tongue, so it perfect to carry a small bottle around with you if you have “killer” sweet attacks in the first month after stopping sugar intake. Gymnema has no side effects, but it does taste somewhat bitter, but you soon get used to it. It does it kill any good bacteria or cause die-off; it just suppresses the sugar cravings.
Vitamin C is another good option if you have sweet cravings, and I recommend you take 1,000 milligrams in the morning and another 1,000 milligrams in the afternoon. Take before meals, and if you find that it only helps a little then increase your dosage to 1,000 milligrams three times daily. Vitamin C can be used in conjunction with gymnema. Just make sure your vitamin C powder does NOT contain any sucrose (sugar), because many do!