You want to give up sweets? Then you've come to the right place! In this guide we tell you how to get rid of sugar step by step.
Who does not know it, too much stress at work, boredom, loneliness, fatigue, holidays or just ravenous hunger.
All this automatically makes you reach for chocolate or sweets. But there are many other reasons for the desire for sugar.
But the good news first: You can kick the sweet habit. However, that means more than just keeping your hands off sweets.
Cutting sweets from our diet is just the tip of the iceberg. Sugar has a major impact on our health and even our mood.
With every bite of sugar, your body gradually overacidifies. This disturbs the blood sugar level. And that, in turn, can lead to bad mood swings.
There are numerous negative effects on your health. Anyway, it won't be easy to give up sweets. But our tips will definitely help you.
25 reasons why you should stop eating sugar
Tip: bitter substances!
Good to know: No matter what's making you want to eat a whole bar of chocolate right now, bitters help curb that craving.
Mix a little of it into your smoothie or recipes and you won't get cravings later.
Today, we hardly eat any bitter substances. Instead, we eat everything that is sweet. And after that, we get even more of a craving for sweets. With slightly bitter salad, many already pull a face.
Yet bitter substances are so enormously important for the balance of our body. And even more important: they protect against cravings.
If you often suffer from food cravings, you should try the Products from Bitterliebe* try.
Bitterliebe has developed drops made from natural herbs that suppress the desire for sweets.
The drops you just take in between. Take a look at the reviews, they are positive :)
Table of contents
How to kick the candy habit in 8 steps
The biggest problem is habits. People who eat a lot of sugar simply don't like less sweet things.
Something seems to be missing. This is exactly the feeling that has to change if you want to kick the sweet habit.
You definitely need discipline and determination to kick the candy habit. These tips will help you fight the battle against sweets.
1. how to get out of the habit of snacking?
Define Reasons, why you want to give up sweets. At the beginning of every journey is the question: why? This is also the case when you want to eliminate sweets from your diet.
So before you start giving up or reducing sugar, ask yourself why you want to. For it to succeed, you need small goals. Cutting everything out of your diet overnight right away will make you unhappy and won't get you to your goal. At the same time, you need to keep the big picture in mind.
- What is the motivation that drives you?
- What do you want to achieve with it?
- Why is a life without sugar worthwhile for you?
Write down the reasons and keep them in mind if you ever have a craving for sweets. This is the first step in consistently fighting sugar cravings.
Break down your goals into small subgoals. Destination 1 could be to take a close look at your food cupboard and mark everything with a red sticker that contains sugar. The point is to make you aware of where sugar is everywhere.
Start with it only Every other day have something sweet to eat and reduce the number slow. This will take you forward step by step and help you to give up sweets.
If you are interested in the topic of sugar-free living, then you should take a look at the book "Forever sugar-free" read through. It contains great tips on how to reduce your sugar consumption.
21 days without sugar - the big self-test
2. understand what sugar does in your body
When you're short on time, reach for something sweet or a ready-made meal. It's quick and convenient.
However, both contain carbohydrates that cause the blood sugar level to shoot up quickly. However, this state does not last long. Hunger is satisfied only for a short time.
Soon you feel the urge to reach for chips or chocolate again. The sugar in your blood releases the happiness hormone dopamine. That makes you happy in the short term.
But as soon as the blood sugar drops again, the good mood evaporates. In addition, hunger returns. A vicious circle that you can only break out of if you can give up sweets.
3. slowly reduce sugar and sweeteners
In the first step, it is enough to reduce sweets and sweetened drinks. To give up everything immediately is quite unrealistic. After some time, you can try to give up refined sugar completely.
A good alternative is Coconut blossom sugar*, Erythritol* or stevia.
If cravings still plague you, you can drink a glass of water or unsweetened tea first.
Sometimes this is not a real feeling of hunger, but simply thirst. If cravings occur frequently, it can also help if you abstain from fruit for a while.
How healthy are sugar alternatives really?
4. analyze your food
It can help you to become aware of the extent to which you consume sugar, in what form and, above all, when. You will quickly notice how many Food contains hidden sugar.
This is how you analyze your sugar consumption:
- Create a sugar diary by writing down all your meals every day.
- In addition to food, you should note down all drinks. These can also contain a lot of sugar.
- The next step is to analyze these dishes and foods.
- Also pay attention to the hidden sugar that is contained in convenience foods, for example.
- After that, you should eliminate sweet foods or replace sweet ingredients.
Consider alternatives, such as sweetening with Erythritol* or Coconut blossom sugar* that you like so that you don't feel like you're going without.
With sugar substitutes, however, you must not eat too much if you want to give up sweets. The less the better!
A 90 day sugar challenge incl. recipes can be found in the book "Sugar is(s) not!" by Andrea Ballschuh.
5. recognize the triggers for your sugar consumption
When do you reach for chocolate, gummy bears and other sweets? There are many external factors that particularly tempt us to snack. Observe yourself in everyday life. In what situation do you snack?
It is often situations, feelings or boredom that tempt us to eat something sweet. These are the most common triggers that tempt us to snack:
- Boredom and distraction
- Food odors
- Pictures of food (Instagram, cooking magazines, etc.)
- Anger and self-punishment
- Loneliness, inner emptiness and sadness
- Lack of sleep, fatigue and exhaustion
- Overload
- Lack of physical/mental exercise
- Social constraint
- Stress and pressure to perform
- Bad weather
and much more. Do you recognize yourself? Or are completely different triggers active in your case? Keep a record of what tempts you to snack for a few weeks. In this way, you can ultimately learn to deal with the situation differently and escape the sugar trap.
6. look for substitute actions to give up sweets
Stopping sweets is not one of the easiest disciplines. Try to distract yourself.
- You can look for healthy alternatives to sugary snacks.
- Or better yet, you take a short break or power nap.
- Exercise or a walk can also help distract you from sweets.
- Or how about a phone call with your best friend or meditation?
Find something that makes you happy in the long run and suits you to give up sweets in the long run.
7. set on natural flavors
Are you one of those people who quench their thirst with iced tea, sweetened coffee or lemonade? Then you should be aware that you are consuming a lot of sugar.
Besides the negative effect on your health, your taste buds also suffer.
Sensitivity to sweets decreases. At the same time, natural flavors such as Cinnamon* give the impression of sweetness, just like fruit.
If you stop adding sugar to strawberries in the future, then you'll realize what they really taste like. If you only like something when it has sugar in it, then you should simply stop eating that food.
But what about beverages? If you think that water doesn't taste good, you can make the switch to water step by step. Until sweet drinks no longer taste good.
Squeeze a fresh orange and dilute the juice with water or add fresh mint to the water and you have a ingenious detox water recipe.
Because the taste and the habit will definitely change if you stay consistent with it. Besides water, you can of course also drink unsweetened tea or coffee.
By spreading sugar, you will perceive the flavors of each dish much more intensely. It takes some time, but it's worth it. It makes the world taste much better :)
Is brown sugar healthier than white?
8. do not eat too little
Just because you want to give up sweets doesn't mean you have to eat less. When you're hungry, you should eat.
By strict renunciation you will not reach your goal, but tend to ravenous appetite. This greatly increases the likelihood that you will reach for chocolate.
Replace meals that used to be largely sugar with healthier alternatives.
Instead of sweets, you can eat complex carbohydrates.
You should regularly eat carbohydrates such as whole grains, vegetables and legumes, because these foods are not only much healthier than sweets, but also keep you full for a long time. This prevents cravings from arising in the first place.
Try these delicious veggie vegetable balls with chickpeas and vegetables.
How long does it take to kick the sugar habit?
If you decide to give up sugar and do a detox, you need to eliminate the white fattener from your diet. And you have to do it for at least 21 days. This is how long it takes for all the sugar to disappear from the body and for our body to deal with the withdrawal symptoms.
That means cutting out colas, sweets, convenience foods and processed foods from your diet. So you'll be doing a lot of your own cooking to really make sure you're not eating sugar.
Reach for high-fiber, high-protein foods like dairy, fish, lots and lots of vegetables, low-sugar fruit, Legumes and get smart about vegan recipes.
Why (almost) everything contains sugar
More and more people want to give up sweets. But this begs the fundamental question: Why is there so much sugar in all foods?
The industry uses sweeteners to make products more attractive to us. Whether subconsciously or consciously, we find the taste of sugar just mega delicious.
But it's not just the industry that is to blame for increased sugar consumption. We consumers should also rethink our behavior.
Numerous foods are additionally sweetened without it actually being necessary.
For many people it is quite logical to sprinkle the already sweet strawberries once again with powdered sugar.
The industry supplies us with what we demand and buy. A vicious circle. That's why it's so hard for us to kick the sweet habit. Did you know that there are up to 6 sugar cubes in one fruit yogurt?
In addition, most beverages consist almost exclusively of sugar. And if there is no sugar, we simply put some in our drinks. For example, in coffee or tea - two sugar cubes are quite normal.
For some years now, sugar has been used not only to optimize taste, but rather as a flavor enhancer.
If you want to do without it, then you must first analyze when and with what you take it everywhere.
- Why do I sugar strawberries? Don't I like them without it? Then why do I eat the strawberries at all?
- Do I have to drink the coffee, although to drown out the bitter taste I need a lot of sugar?
- Why do I add sugar to the tea? Wouldn't it be better to go for a milder type of tea and then dispense with the sweetener?
Questions like these are important for finding out where sugar is found and when you eat it. The answers are the first step in helping you kick the sweet habit.
Why should I give up sweets?
There are plenty of good reasons why you should give up sweets. From the financial impact to the self-determination of your eating habits and the negative effects on your health.
Breaking the habit of craving sweets can be driven by a variety of things.
But the fact is: sweets are full of sugar combined with trans fats or saturated fatty acids.
Eating sweets is addictive in the long run.
In addition, sweets rob energy, because after consumption the blood sugar level slips rapidly from a high to a low.
In addition, sugary food contains a lot of calories.
For this, essential nutrients that nourish human cells and help in regeneration are missing.
There are now plenty of studies on the connection between excessive sugar consumption and diseases of civilization.
These include obesity (overweight), diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome and arteriosclerosis.
The metabolic syndrome is characterized by four major factors. These include high blood pressure, obesity, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance (precursor of diabetes mellitus).
Why is sugar avoidance so hard?
Trying to kick the sweet tooth habit is fraught with difficulty in more ways than one.
Sugar is a kind of addictive substance that can also trigger a physical craving.
You get
- Cravings for sweets,
- Dizziness,
- bad mood,
- a shaky feeling
- Headache
- and in the worst case even fainting
Your body wants to show you that it needs the sugar. Even the most disciplined people are "forced" to reach for a sweet drink or candy before their eyes go black.
Moreover, sugar is a kind of soul food. Eating sweets is normal for most people when they are sad, bored, lonely or just happy.
That's why you find it so hard to give up sweets:
1. added sugars are found in 70 to 80 % of foods
Yes, you read that right. We consume much more sugar than we actually realize. It is estimated that almost 70 to 80 % of all available foods contain added sugar.
So you're not just eating it when you snack on chocolate or gummy bears. Even in products that seem healthy, the sugar content is far too high.
Examples include ready-made salad dressings, ketchup, yogurt or fruit juices.
Unfortunately, giving up sweets has not been enough to avoid sugar for a long time.
2. sugar is addictive
Before you start kicking the candy habit, you first need to be aware of where sugar goes everywhere.
Sugar in itself has a similar effect as a drug. And not only physically, but also mentally.
High sugar consumption, like heroin, leads to increased dopamine output.
Dopamine is one of the happiness hormones. That's why you feel better right away when you reach into the chocolate drawer after a stressful day or when you're sad.
Unfortunately, this feeling does not last long and you constantly need more.
Finally eat balanced and healthy - the great guide!
3. sugar makes hungry
Sugar has a very stupid property. Instead of making you full, it makes you hungry. After you have eaten sweets, you usually get hungry afterwards.
Then all the food becomes way too much. Too many calories, too much sugar and too much fat.
Unfortunately, this is the beginning of a vicious circle. The best thing to do against a big feeling of hunger is something sweet.
But since sugar doesn't keep you full for long, you soon have to reach for something sweet again. This vicious circle creates the feeling of being addicted to sugar.
The positive thing about sugar addiction is that, unlike other types of addiction, it can be broken with the help of good planning.
It's not easy to give up sweets, especially at the beginning, but something will happen that you didn't expect: Sweets and sugar will give you no longer taste.
Sounds incredible, but it's true.
Why bans make sugar withdrawal worse
Giving up sweets is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions. Maybe you have already tried it, but unfortunately failed.
The trick is not to completely ban sugar from your diet.
Because if something is forbidden, it becomes much more interesting. We humans tend to want things that are forbidden.
Of course, you can ban sugar and remove sweets from your diet. That can also go well for a while.
But in the long run this renunciation does not help. The craving for sweets will haunt you sooner or later.
To really kick the sweet habit in the long run, you should say goodbye to sugar sources step by step. Even tasty Food against cravings can help keep blood sugar levels constant.
Our conclusion
Eliminating sweets from the diet is not so easy. Especially at the beginning. Therefore, say goodbye to sugar gradually.
Little by little, you can use less sugar and sweeteners and come up with creative alternatives. Eventually, you'll realize that your habits and tastes have changed completely. Sweets and sugar will no longer taste good to you. Your health will thank you.
We wish you success and discipline in giving up sweets.
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