The first week is hell, professor knows: here is his action plan to kick your sugar addiction after all | Cooking & Eating

The Dutch eat about 26 kilos of sugar per year. That’s eighteen sugar cubes a day. Then it only concerns added sugar; fruit, milk and many other foods naturally contain sugar. The Netherlands is third in the world sugar consumption ranking, the United States is number one.

That is way too much according to the World Health Organization WHO, because added sugars should not exceed 10 percent of your daily energy consumption. The maximum of 50 grams of sugar per day – for a calorie consumption of 2000 kcal (1 gram of sugar is 4 kcal) – you already get in a natural way, through fruit and vegetables.

Although we all know that too much sugar is not good for our health, we find it hard to resist cookies, candy and soda. Professor Eric De Maerteleire, member of the Belgian health council, sees several causes for this.

“When you eat sugar, dopamine is released in the brain. That is a substance that is connected to feelings of pleasure, happiness, motivation and reward. That’s because sugar is biologically and evolutionarily good for your body. Your brain lets you know that you are doing well because you have found new energy in it. In comparison, dopamine is also released during a hot shower, when dancing, listening to music and during an orgasm. Many things cause a dopamine increase, but not all of them are addictive.”

“In the strict sense of the word, sugar is certainly not a drug, but it is highly rewarding and can lead to addictive eating behavior,” explains the professor. ,, For example, in a study with rats, scientists saw that sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine. But that is an observation in rats that you cannot simply extend to all people.”

However, the urge for sugar is anchored in our genes. “Our distant ancestors needed carbohydrates and sugar to survive, so we are all programmed by nature to love sugar.”

Just look at babies and small children: they intuitively love sugar. “But while we all get dopamine when we eat sugar, there are big individual differences and sensitivities. This makes it extremely difficult for some people to get rid of a sugar addiction. “Mutations in their genetic material drive them to eat extreme amounts of sugar. If you have those abnormalities in your genetic material, it is very difficult to fight against them.”

“First of all, you run a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If you eat too much sugar, your body cannot use all that energy and it is converted into fat. Overweight is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. The risk of cardiovascular disease also increases, especially if you are overweight.”

“Kidney stones and gout can also occur more if you eat too much sugar, because the liver converts fructose into uric acid. Too much fructose can also lead to fatty liver disease, which has similar symptoms to those caused by drinking too much alcohol. The phenomenon can already appear if you consume a lot of fructose for one week. The risk of eleven types of cancer related to obesity is also increasing. Especially if there is obesity.”

Your mental health can also suffer. Eating sugar too often depletes the reward system because it gets a dopamine shot too often. That is why you will always need larger amounts to achieve and maintain the same effect. When your reward system is out of whack, you feel depressed more quickly. And your skin and teeth also feel the impact. Your teeth are prone to tooth decay. And sugar causes more androgens to be released and sebum production to increase, causing more acne and inflammation in the skin. Your skin will also look older faster. If there is a lot of sugar circulating in your blood, this reacts with the amino acids present and substances are formed that accelerate the aging process in the body.”

Finally, there may also be a shortage of vitamins and minerals. If you eat a lot of added sugars, you are more likely to eat less varied and miss some of the vitamins and minerals that come from fruit and vegetables, for example.

With this list of reasons you immediately know why you should eat less sugar. “If your weight is increasing and you feel like you can’t keep your hands off the sugar, alarm bells should go off. Because if you eat too much sugar, it will no longer be used to give your body energy or warmth, but other unpleasant things will happen.”

The professor gives a hard and a soft withdrawal plan below, ideal for putting your good intentions into practice.

Are you the hard type who prefers the short and severe pain, but also quick results? Then De Maerteleire recommends stopping sugar completely immediately. ,, Remove all sugars from the menu for three weeks. You do that radically from one day to the next. Vegetables and fruit with a lot of sugar are also ignored. What you can still eat are proteins, fats and fiber-rich foods such as oatmeal, nuts, coffee and tea.”

What awaits you? “Week one will be hell, you will be shaking, nauseous, headaches and moody. You get withdrawal symptoms. Inform your environment that you will be difficult to approach this week.”

For those who don’t feel like stopping suddenly, there is also a second option. “With this method you reduce the sugar in steps and the focus is on eliminating added sugars. Get rid of all soft drinks in week one, including soft drinks with artificial sweeteners. They continue to maintain the urge for sweetness in the brain. In week two you also delete all cookies, sweets and chocolate, in short all foods that contain added sugars. In week three you continue the system to give your brain a chance to adapt.”

“The big difference with the cold turkey approach is that you can continue to eat all types of fruit and vegetables and that your body gets a little more time to get used to it. The downside is that you have to stick with it longer: one or two months. Moreover, it takes longer before you will feel the positive effect of eating less sugar.”

What can help to keep it up: exercising, going outside, looking for social contacts and doing fun things, as long as they have nothing to do with food or drink. “And keep in mind: what do those few weeks mean in a human life? Moreover, you will quickly get something in return: you will feel fitter, your body weight will definitely go down and other components of the metabolic syndrome will get better, such as blood pressure, LDL cholesterol levels and abdominal circumference.”

After your withdrawal period you can switch back to a normal diet. Keep the Mediterranean diet in mind: lots of vegetables, fruit, fiber-rich natural grain products, (fermented) dairy, fish and olive oil.

“An occasional extra with added sugar such as a cookie or chocolate should be possible, but make sure that 90 percent of your diet is healthy. Then it doesn’t matter much what you do with the other 10 percent,” says Eric De Maerteleire.

A few years ago, Thomas Vyncke struggled with health problems. He had problems with his intestines and an early form of Crohn’s disease. “I ate a lot of sugar during that period. I could eat a bag of sweets in one go, but I also ate a lot of pasta and bread. Occasionally I tried to eat less sugar, but my brain craved it. Five years ago I started intermittent fasting and that changed everything: the stomach ache was gone and my craving for sugar also disappeared.”

It was not the fasting in itself that was the breakthrough for Thomas, but the combination with less snacking in between, removing sugar and carbohydrates from the menu and exercising more. ,,The rehab went in fits and starts and took about four to six weeks. When I was doing well emotionally, I succeeded, but when things were not going well, I tended to eat something sweet. Today I still have a sweet tooth, but now it is a conscious choice: a good pancake or a tasty, fresh donut, that can really taste, you can certainly treat yourself to something.”

Thomas now takes his own experience with him when he guides people towards a healthier lifestyle. “Why people do it and how they kick it is very personal. There is not one approach that works for everyone, but two out of three people succeed. January is the ideal time to start.”

How much sugar can a child per day: Parents of Nu explains what you should and should not give to your child.

Sugar is not always unhealthy, as Marthe Walvoort shows in this video: