If you’re not entirely sure whether you need a sugar detox, take a moment to answer the following questions.
- Do you crave sugar all day, every day—or even a few times a week? I’m talking about candy, sweets, chocolate, or lots of fruit.
- Do you crave carbohydrates? These include bread, rice, pasta, pastries, cereal, sandwiches, wraps, and breakfast bars.
- Do you include something sweet with every meal or snack?
- Do you experience spikes and dips in your energy levels throughout the day?
- Do you often feel tired upon waking in the morning?
- Do you drink alcoholic beverages daily or multiple times per week?
- Are you trying to burn body fat?
- Are you following a low-fat, whole-grain-rich diet that just isn’t working?
- Does the way you eat leave you feeling unsatisfied, hungry, and grazing on snacks every 2 to 3 hours?
- Do you follow a clean-eating type of lifestyle (including, but not limited to, Paleo, primal, low-carb, vegetarian, Weston Price, and real food), but still experience carb or sugar cravings?
If you’re like most people and answered YES to at least one of these questions, then you’re a good candidate for The 21-Day Sugar Detox (21DSD)!
WHAT IS THE 21-DAY SUGAR DETOX? CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!
Sugar is a sneaky thing. It doesn’t just cause cravings and make you fat; consuming too much of it can lead to all kinds of health issues, both in the short term and in the long term. To give you a bit more grounding here, let’s look at a handful of less-obvious signs of sugar addiction, chronically erratic blood sugar levels, and nutrient deficiencies that may be caused by overconsumption of nutrient-poor carbohydrate foods:
Short Term
- Acne
- Fatigue
- Hormonal imbalance
- Mood swings
- Muscle fatigue or weakness
- Other food addictions
- Premenstrual syndrome (PMS), painful periods, hot flashes, night sweats
- Rashes
- Susceptibility to colds and flu
- Unrestful sleep
Long Term
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Anemia
- Cystic acne, eczema, psoriasis
- Depression, anxiety
- Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction
- Insomnia
- Insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes
- myelopathy, neuropathy
- PCOS, infertility
- Substance abuse
When I talk about being addicted to sugar, I’m not just talking about foods that you know to be sweet, or even candy itself. Unless you avoid packaged and processed foods entirely, you probably eat way more sugar than you think!
The foods available in today’s grocery stores are a veritable minefield, with added sugars hidden in nearly everything—breads, pasta sauces, salad dressings, “natural” peanut butter, “healthy” cereals, and even deli meats. These foods have been scientifically engineered to appeal to your senses at both a conscious and a subconscious level. Food scientists are constantly working on ways to strike just the right balance of sweet/salty/fatty, or at least the sensations of these tastes, to keep you coming back for more.
Have you ever noticed that there’s sodium in soda pop? So the very thing you’re drinking to attempt to quench your thirst is actually going to make you even thirstier! Tricky, right? And that can of soda contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar, too.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 13% of adults’ total daily caloric intake between 2005 and 2010 came from added sugars. That’s about 22 teaspoons a day! When you avoid added sugars, you do yourself a favor by eliminating many packaged foods from your diet. In turn, you eliminate many other harmful ingredients and preservatives.
Even though it may feel like the deck is stacked against you, The 21-Day Sugar Detox (21DSD) can truly help. With the 21DSD, you can educate yourself about what you’re eating and what those foods do to your body, and you can break the cycle of sugar addiction.
The 21DSD is a real food-based program designed to reduce and/or eliminate your cravings for sugar and carbohydrates. Through this three-week program, which focuses on quality protein, healthy fats, and good carbs, you’ll change not only the foods you eat, but also your habits around food, and even the way your palate reacts to different foods. Removing added sugars and very sweet foods retrains your taste buds to perceive sweetness, and you’ll find that foods you once thought weren’t sweet at all become quite sweet as the days pass. Even the non-sweet treat recipes in the 21DSD books and at 21DSD.com here will taste quite different to you on Day 21 than they do on Day 1!
Ready to do this?! You can get started right away or wait until the first Monday of the month when we facilitate an incredibly welcoming and supportive community-wide 21DSD program (for free).
Here’s how to get started:
[Moriah, should these be buttons?]
- Get The 21-Day Sugar Detox Daily Guide (book) by Diane Sanfilippo
- Download the free 21DSD Quick Start Guide
- Join our community! You can complete the 21DSD on your own with The 21-Day Sugar Detox Daily Guide book, however, we welcome and encourage you to follow along (and participate) in the 21DSD Facebook Community group (be sure to answer the request for admittance question!) and/or join a private group with a coach, who you can find at 21DSD.com/coaches.
- Follow us: The 21-Day Sugar Detox Facebook Page; The 21-Day Sugar Detox on Instagram; and The 21-Day Sugar Detox on Pinterest.
You've GOT this!