Cakes, biscuits, lollies, chocolate, fizzy drinks! These are some of the more obvious foods that have high sugar content and are perceived to be ‘unhealthy’. Peanut butter, yogurt, tomato sauce, tinned fish! These foods are perceived as being more healthy but they still are often loaded with sugar! I have tried giving up sugar afew times (halfheartedly) before, but this time I am going to do it with a plan and share my journey with my fellow stemians :) … they always say that it helps to be accountable! I plan to work towards being sugar free within two weeks and then have two weeks completely free of added sugar and fructose (fruit sugar) - the one month sugar challenge! I will officially start the challenge tomorrow 23rd February.

I can remember a couple of years ago watching ‘That Sugar Film’ and being inspired to give it a try - I lasted a week at the most before the sweet allure of cakes and biscuits dragged me back in. Even though noticed I had clearer skin and was much less sluggish and tired I still couldn't resist sugar. This time I am going to take a more methodical approach - the first week I will cut out the most obvious sugars (cakes, biscuits, lollies etc), and I also plan to track my calories each day with MyFitnessPal (MFP) and share some insights through my blogs. By the end of 2 weeks I aim to be below the 36 grams of added sugar that heart.org suggests (and only coming from natural sources - mainly milk in my coffee which I won't give up!).

After 2 weeks I plan to be completely free of added sugar - this means no packaged foods or fruit, and giving up my milk in my coffee :(.. So what will I be eating for the last 2 weeks of this challenge? Vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, eggs, fish, cheese and meat will make up the variety of my diet. I aim to adapt the list of foods suggested for a sugar detox on furtherfood.com.

Research about sugar

So why is so big a deal anyway - what's the harm of having too much sugar? I decided to do some research to find out some of the negative effects that sugar is having on our bodies.
At the most basic level sugar is bad because it is adding calories to your diet without adding any nutritional value - of you got those calories from vegetable for instance you would be healthier as you would be getting more vitamins and minerals. These ‘empty calories’ can lead to excess weight gain - which can then lead to further problems such as high blood pressure and higher risk of heart disease. Secondly sugar promotes and encourages tooth decay - which means more holes in teeth and more visits to the dentist and no one wants that!
Sugar itself can also lead to other problems such as stressing the liver, increasing bad cholesterol and diabetes.

I plan to share my struggles, success and probably a few healthy recipes along the way. Make sure to follow my page to keep up with my updates - I need all the help and moral support I can!

I suggest (if you are interested) in watching the following video as it lays out some pretty good scientific reasons for why sugar is so damaging to our health:

References:
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/Nutrition/Sugar-101_UCM_306024_Article.jsp#mainContent
https://www.furtherfood.com/going-sugar-free-your-handy-food-guide-of-what-to-eat-what-to-avoid
https://www.livescience.com/36188-sugar-bad.html
https://wellnessmama.com/15/harmful-effects-of-sugar/