How To Eat Less Sugar This Holiday Season?

Zaid Siddiqui

, Health A2Z

Is It The Best Way To Limit Sugar Cravings Just By Eating As Much As You Want?

 

An idea that expeditiously became very popular among dietitians says that letting ourselves graze unfettered on a cache of Christmas fruit cake can reduce our sugar lust in the long run.

 

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Various research studies have found that constant sugar detox can’t limit our sugar cravings; eventually, it results in overindulging. So, many dietitians recommend keeping sugary snacks on hand and eating them as you like until they fulfill your desire for sugary food. Sooner, this way you can reduce the urge for such foods.

 

“When people try to eliminate or severely restrict, it generally just backfires,” says Boston dietitian Rachael Hartley.

 

People across the world actively indulge in sugar intake, which results in a range of health problems. According to various doctors and researchers, Americans are fond of taking sugar in the long run since the American government’s dietary guidelines recommend taking less than 10% of their daily calories from added sugar.

 

Dr. Judson Brewer, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at Brown University and author of a forthcoming book about eating habits says that sometimes people assume they can build up the willpower to avoid sweets altogether. Still, in this way, they increase the chances of overeating later. Hence, the obvious way to avoid overindulging—a zero-treats policy—often fails in such situations.

 

“Willpower is more myth than muscle,” says Brewer.

 

Setting a blanket rule to avoid certain foods feels more feasible to some people than deciding whether to eat them with each encounter. Nevertheless, according to Debbie Petitpain, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, this strategy only works with a smaller subset of food than all sweets, or it is way more challenging to stick with such sugary treats in the long run. Some people often think they can build up the habit of skipping sweets, but in this way, they end up with increased overeating.

 

Why Is Restriction Hard?

 

According to Petitpain, a variety of sweetened foods effectively trigger an abnormal enjoyment instinct, increasing our sugar intake. Compared with naturally sweet foods like blueberries, processed foods with added sugars, such as gummy bears, deliver a dopamine hit that can make it more challenging to stop eating them, says Brewer.

 

Restriction plays a vital role in promoting an all-or-nothing approach to sweets, which means they might eat an entire bag of candy today because another diet starts tomorrow.

 

The research was done at the University of Minnesota and says that dietary restrictions might increase the chances of an eating disorder such as binge eating, which actively contributes to excessive weight gain.

 

Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a University of Minnesota professor who is the principal investigator of the studies, says that most restrictions related to your diet eventually “end up in a kind of binge cycle as opposed to a cycle of flexible eating.”

 

Dietitian Hartley works with clients on what she refers to as “stocking behaviors.” She requests they keep some of their favorite foods, particularly desserts, at home. She claims People’s need to consume the treats decreases over time as they become accustomed to having them available. According to her, some people may crave sugar at first, but this desire usually fades with time.

 

“You get used to the flavors, and when the food comes off the pedestal, it starts to feel like any other food,” she says.

 

 

What Are The Sugar Game Plans?

 

According to Allison Tragash, she is a mother of two school-age children in South Orange, N.J. She often faces difficulty with the overindulgence of sugar in their children, so she decided not to give them a blanket whenever they ask for sweets like cookies. Despite giving such unhealthy sweets, she offered other healthier foods side by side. She used to impose a deal where she said they could have a treat, but she needed to wait until mealtime. Or she’ll ask for feedback; what if they get only cake for dinner?

 

She shares her experience and says, “The more permissive I am, the less they try to take the dessert; they don’t even necessarily eat it; they just want to know they can have it.”

 

Crystal Karges, a San Diego-based dietitian who works with families, says, unsurprisingly, a fully permissive approach to sugar won’t work for kids. Nevertheless, she doesn’t encourage restrictions. Moreover, she suggests a strategy to offer sweets alongside regular meals to normalize the treats.

 

Brewer, the neuroscientist, suggests an alternative way to restrict yourself by finding your “pleasure plateau” despite cutting the treat entirely. Train yourself to pay attention to how a treat tastes as you eat it and analyze when you stop enjoying the taste of it.

 

Various alternate ways, such as practicing attractive eating or mindfulness over time, can help your body limit sugar consumption, ranging from having more energy to having fewer cravings to losing weight, Brewer says.

 

Neumark-Sztainer says in her home, roughly 70% of the food options are nutritious and lack added sugar, including whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, which actively limit the excessive sugar craving habits in the long run.

 

She also recommends avoiding counting the amount of sugar they eat each day, which may contribute to increasing your anxiety. Despite this, she says, “Try to look at the whole picture and not make a big deal about it.”

 

 

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