AVENTURIST LIVING WITH IVEY
The Lowdown on SUGAR
How sugar works within the body and SMART SWAPS to eliminate it from your diet By Ivey Leidy | Photography by Kent Anderson When it comes to sugar, many people feel out of control. The good news? It’s not your fault. Proven to be highly addictive, sugar floods the brain with so much dopamine (the pleasure hormone) that we can’t help ourselves but to overeat and keep coming back for more. This addiction dates back to the beginning of mankind, when sugar was used as a means of survival. Our brain told our body to binge on the rare berry bush or beehive as a way to store fat for times when we’d need that reserve for fuel. Unfortunately, we never evolved out of this. While we no longer roam the earth hunting and gathering, we simply head to the pantry instead. Our endocrine/hormone system acts as our internal control center and is made up of organs and glands that communicate with our brain and gut, carrying out numerous functions within the body. This system usually works in perfect harmony, but when you add sugar to the mix, an interesting phenomenon occurs.
Sugar increases production of the “hunger hormone” known as ghrelin and deactivates our “satiety hormone” known as leptin, tricking our brains and bodies into thinking we are hungry. Fast-forward to present day, when our food industry has added sugar to almost every processed food we eat. This constant exposure to sugar leads not only to overeating (especially of more sugary foods), but to obesity and diabetes. The massive increase in chronic disease, heart disease, hypertension, and especially type 2 diabetes in recent decades is no coincidence. Kicking the addiction to sugar may seem daunting, but with a few changes, a remarkable shift can occur. Not only will your taste buds change, making foods more flavorful, but hormones may stabilize, improving mood and sleep and regulating blood sugar and blood pressure.
» SUGAR AND KIDS
If you take the grams of sugar listed on a nutritional label and divide by four, you get the number of teaspoons of refined sugar or table sugar. The USDA recommends no more than 10 teaspoons of sugar per day for adults and 6 per day for children 2 years of age and older. Infants’ taste buds are designed to crave fat and sugar in N’ice cream breastmilk; their rapid growth requires more calories. Unfortunately, this sweet tooth can Save sweets and treats for special remain until puberty, resulting in children occasions. having very limited palates. Here are some tips for limiting sugar intake during these years: Keep fresh fruit and vegetables on hand for snacks. Eliminate juice, soda, and sports drinks, which can contain up to 50 grams of Read labels! Just because a cereal sugar per drink. Stick to water instead. says organic and whole grain doesn’t mean it contains less sugar. Try to keep Replace desserts with fruits and fresh cereal sugar content to less than 6 grams fruit popsicles, low-sugar yogurt, or per serving. n’ice cream.
1 Leidy chooses berries over sugary desserts.
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