5 things that happen to your body when you give up sugar

Who doesn’t love sugar? It satisfies your sweet tooth, gives you instant gratification and releases happy endorphins in your body. But what happens when you deprive your body of these sweet little demons?

According to a recent report from the University of North Carolina, the average person consumes 300 calories from added sugar every day. Mind you, the added sugar is the super-processed sweet stuff you add to your baked goods, not the natural sugars found in whole fruit and veggies.

The recommended daily intake of sugar for women is six teaspoons or less (roughly 25-100 calories), states the American Heart Association. Precisely why you should lay off the sugary foods.

However, the battle only gets worse once you give up these foods. Here’s what happens to your body when you give up sugar altogether, as compiled from Prevention and The Independent:

1. It’s an addiction:

Once you quit sugar the cravings only get worse. Consequently, your body will try to compensate for it and you may find yourself eating more carbs than usual.

There are four major components of addiction: binging, withdrawal, craving, and cross-sensitisation, says National Center for Biotechnology Research.

2. Withdrawal symptoms:

Sugar has the same effect on our body as drugs: it keeps us hooked. Just like an addiction, your body craves sugar when it’s not in your bloodstream.

Yes, sugar withdrawal is real. You face depression and anxiety when you don’t get your “fix”, and you try taking other foods to achieve the same “sugar high”. Withdrawal also leads to more impulsive behaviours, as a new study by Victor Mangabeira in Physiology & Behaviorsuggests. However, just like with any other addiction, it gets better with time.

3. Memory:

A UCLA study showed that consuming more sugary foods hamper memory and learning abilities. In simple words, a diet high in sugar makes you forgetful over time as it damages communication along brain cells. Once you lay off the sugar, your memory starts to improve and your focus becomes better.

4. Sleep:

When you finally get over your sugar addiction, you also sleep better, according to Prevention. Usually the crash after a sugar-induced high makes you sluggish during the day if you start your day with sugary foods. This, in turn, affects your nighttime rest.

Once you eliminate the sugary stuff from your breakfast menu, you will start to notice that you’re more alert during the day and you sleep better at night.

5. Mood:

Though you’ll be cranky for a while when going through the withdrawal stage of your addiction, once you get over it, you will observe that your mood is better than it used to be before.

A study showed that diets high in sugar cause anxiety, irritability and more mood swings. Once you get off that sugar train, you will no longer feel random bursts of anger or sadness, and will be happier and calmer. Who doesn’t want that?