I Cut Out Added Sugar For 10 Days - Here’s What Happened

If you type in “cutting out sugar” into Google, you’ll find multiple resources claiming the same few things:

1) Sugar is not only delicious, but addictive, and therefore, it’s hard to remove from your diet

2) If you do (and can) cut out sugar, you’ll be rewarded with certain health benefits: increased energy, decreased inflammation, better heart and liver health, decreased risk of diabetes, and reduced overall cravings (once the initial cravings subside).

And I’m assuming that these two points above are a surprise to no one. From your grade school nutrition classes to fitness blogs, Instagram, Tik Tok and Pinterest posts alike, it’s been echoed that added sugar is OKAY in moderation but not super great for your overall health.

Being pretty interested in health and wellness myself, as well as being someone always interested in eating dessert, I’ve definitely been very pro sugar. If you’ve been following my tik tok or instagram, you’ve probably heard me say things like “no food is bad,” and “it’s ok to enjoy yourself”– two statements I still stand by today. In general, I think it’s totally fine to indulge in some sugary treats as long as for the most part, your diet is filled with nutrient dense options.

All of those nice, generic things being said, I wondered what would happen if I personally started restricting sugar from my diet. I already considered myself a pretty healthy person, with most of my diet coming from vegetables and lean protein, but would I gain some extra health benefits from cutting out sugar? Immediately, I thought of my skin. I’ve always dealt with breakouts and I’ve always heard that cutting out processed, sugary foods could help clear those up. Would it work? What about being bloated after meals? Carbs increase water retention, so would that be gone too?

Over the past few weeks, I really decided to put myself to the test: absolutely no added sugar, no alternative or artificial sweeteners (and if you guys know me, you know I’m a fan of those), and no alcohol – ugh guess who’s going to be no fun this week.

And I know what you’re thinking. What about weight loss? Like sugar, not on the menu for me. My personal goal behind the “no sugar” diet had nothing to do with losing fat. Despite popular belief, sugar on its own does not make you gain weight. Eating above your maintenance calories, or the calories it takes to maintain your current weight, does as the excess calories will be stored as fat. If you are more interested in weight loss and need help calculating your maintenance calories, check out this Pinterest post here.

And while we’re clearing things up, this “no sugar” diet I was about to go on was not an anti-carb diet. I love carbs and would never go  on a diet where eating them was off the table. Without them, I know that 1) I would be incredibly grumpy as carbohydrates help to improve mood* 2) My workouts and energy would suffer as carbohydrates are the main energy source of the human diet**1

And just so we are on the same page, here is a list of carbs I allowed myself to eat, as well as what I restricted:

Included Carbs:

o   Fruits and vegetables (incl. starchy vegetables like potatoes)

o   Oats

o   Brown Rice or Right Rice, which is made of over 90% vegetables (including lentil flour, chickpea flour, and pea fiber) all blended with a bit of rice flour

Restricted Carbs:

o   Candy / Chocolate / Pastries / Ice-cream

o   Diet Soda / Soda / Juices

o   Potato chips / Pretzels

o   Alcohol

o   Pre-Workout

o   Protein Bars / Protein Powder

o   White Bread

o   Pasta

o   Pizza

o   Artificial sweeteners and  processed foods that contain sugar alcohols***

*The connection between carbohydrates and mood is all about tryptophan, a nonessential amino acid. As more tryptophan enters the brain, more serotonin is synthesized, and mood tends to improve.2 And another fun fact for us women, women have much less serotonin in our brains than men do, so a serotonin-depleting diet tends to make us irritable.3

**When you eat carbs, your body breaks them down into simple sugars, which are absorbed into the bloodstream. As the sugar level rises in your body, the pancreas releases a hormone called insulin. Insulin is needed to move sugar from the blood into the cells, where the sugar can be used as a source of energy.

*** Sugar alcohols are sweeteners that occur naturally in certain foods (e.g., fruits and berries). As a sugar substitute, they provide fewer calories (about a half to one-third less calories) than regular sugar. They also are converted to glucose more slowly, require little or no insulin to be metabolized, and don’t cause sudden increases in blood sugar.2 Examples of foods with sugar alcohols could be chewing gum, diet sodas, candies, and cookies. 

What Is Sugar and Why Do We Like It?

Before we do a deep dive into my experience, I wanted to expand on what sugar is and why we like it so much.

According to www.sugar.org (yes, that’s real), sugar is a carbohydrate produced naturally in all plants, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Of course, even though it’s naturally produced in certain foods, it could be added to others.

If you go back to chemistry class, you learn that sugar is made up of the molecules: glucose, fructose, and galactose (occurs in milk). These molecules can combine to make more complex carbohydrates.

 And just like any other food, sugar provides you body with calories, which you can then convert into energy.1In fact, glucose (mentioned above) is used as the main energy source to fuel your brain, organs, and muscles in order to function and engage in everyday activities.

Source: https://www.sugar.org/sugar/what-is-sugar/ 

But besides providing you with energy, sugar also makes you feel good and releases the “pleasure” chemical, dopamine, in the brain. When you eat sugar, you receive a spike of dopamine that signals to our brain that this is something that sparks joy. That spark in joy, however, can become pretty addicting.

For more information, check out the Youtube video below.

What About The IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) Crowd?

Maybe you heard of them, maybe you haven’t, but the “if it fits your macros” fans aim to eat a certain set amount of macronutrients – meaning, protein, carbs, and fats, every day, aligned with a certain goal (e.g., weight loss, enhanced gym performance). Everything you eat is made up of one or a combination of those 3 macronutrients, with the exception of water and alcohol (alcohol is often referred to as the “fourth” macronutrient because it provides your body with calories – albeit no nutrients). This is similar to calorie counting but goes a step further, with that person aiming to get more or less or of a macronutrient depending on what they are trying to achieve (e.g., having a sufficient amount of protein to build muscle). Once each macronutrient goal has been achieved, the remaining calories, if any, may be used freely.

The great thing about “if it fits your macros” or even simple calorie counting is that no food is off limits, meaning things that are often deemed as “bad,” like sugar, are able to be incorporated into your diet. 

Being a pretty flexible dieter myself, I see the value of having no food completely off limits – it helps with cravings, it allows you to be less rigid, and may be a lower cost dieting option. However, even I could admit, this could lead to encouraging and prioritizing sugary, processed foods. And as I said in the beginning, while these types of foods don’t have to be looked as “bad,” it is important for overall health to choose foods with a rich micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) profile. 

My Experience and What I'll Take From It

I started my “no sugar” journey on May 31st – the Tuesday after Memorial Day Weekend. And while it’s nice to start fresh early in the week, it was definitely rough being hungover, working out early in the morning, and then working at a desk all day without a sugary treat to pick me up. Actually – I think the hardest part was not being able to have sugar in my coffee – having coffee with a splash of almond milk has never been appealing to me if sugar wasn’t involved.              

Throughout that week, my cravings for sugar were definitely at an all-time high. Especially with coffee and chocolate. These are typically small indulgences for me but important ones. I can’t even tell you how many times at work I’ve felt “super frustrated” and “anxious” around 2:30 pm only to have a chocolate covered protein bar and feel immediately better after. To help fight my sugar cravings, I looked to my two best allies – oatmeal and full fat foods (peanut butter, cheese, and avocado). And just to be clear – no I did not mix oatmeal and cheese together (although I did mix oatmeal and peanut butter together) – but this really helped. Having oatmeal satisfied my craving for carbs and helped me feel fuller longer due to it being high in fiber. Full fat, like avocados and peanut butter, helped with cravings as well because of their richer, more luscious taste.

In terms of energy, without sugar, I had less ups and downs throughout the day – although the first week was hard. Once I got past the initial tiredness, I felt that I was able to focus a lot more at work. From what we know about sugar, this makes complete sense. Even though processed, sugary foods may give you a quick boost in energy because they initially spike blood levels, they have less fiber, and therefore get processed by the body more quickly.  

With my skin, I saw very small improvements but nothing major, which also makes sense. While some scientists believe that following a low-glycemic diet may reduce acne because this diet eliminates spikes in your blood sugar, concrete evidence is hard to find.6 The theory behind this is when your blood sugar spikes, it causes inflammation throughout your body. These spikes also cause your body to make more sebum, an oily substance in your skin. Both inflammation and excess sebum can lead to acne. 6

And in terms of bloating, I really didn’t see any difference. I do believe, however, this may be different for everyone especially as sugar alcohols have been reported to cause digestive issues in certain people.

And for those who were wondering, my weight stayed the same.

Although I probably won’t give up sugar or artificial sweeteners anytime soon, I definitely think it makes sense to cut down on the sugar when possible – like not adding as much sugar in my coffee given I’ve gotten used to the taste without it. And even if there aren’t any major differences, I believe that small changes add up pretty quickly.