The Best Way to Quit Sugar
- 1). Start your day with a healthy breakfast. An example of a good breakfast is egg whites with chopped tomatoes on whole wheat toast. Avoid sugary cereals. Even cereal that you may think is healthy can contain surprising amounts of sugar.
- 2). Cut out soft drinks cold turkey. Soft drinks are loaded with added sugar. A large glass of soda can easily have 16 teaspoons of sugar. Eating at fast food restaurants can rapidly impact your health, because the salty fried food makes you crave sugary drinks.
- 3). Drink green tea every day. Green tea helps break down fat and sugar. If you're tempted to use coffee and other caffeine-filled drinks as a crutch to kick your sugar habit, avoid doing so because high amounts of caffeine wreak havoc on blood sugar levels. Green tea contains small amounts of caffeine and is a better alternative.
- 4). Read labels carefully and check ingredients for hidden sugar before purchasing groceries. Avoid items with high levels of fructose, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, fruit juice concentrate, cane syrup, malt syrup, sucrose and invert sugar. Also avoid artificial sweeteners, because they prevent your brain from thinking you're getting enough sugar from natural sources such as fruit.
- 5). Eat more protein and fewer carbohydrates. Overeating carbs raises blood sugar, releasing serotonin and elevating mood, but the blood sugar levels rapidly dip again. People who eat too many carbs are likely to be more irritable and hungry than people who eat more protein.
- 6). Exercise to get the serotonin release you were getting before by eating sugar. Eating sugar makes people happy because it releases serotonin in the brain. Exercising releases endorphins, elevating mood, so it's a better alternative to eating desserts.
