Name: What Happens When You Quit Sugar?
Uploaded: 2023-10-21T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 4 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The average American consumes half a cup or more of sugar every day.

And surveys claim eating less sugar makes you crave it more.

Adverbs of degree

Some people even say it gives them withdrawal symptoms.

So what exactly happens to your brain and body when you try to quit sugar?

After 24 hours of no refined sugar and you start to lose water weight.

Our body regulates our blood sugar level through the pancreas.

The pancreas releases two hormones, insulin and glucagon.

When blood sugar gets too high, the pancreas releases insulin and when it gets too low, the pancreas releases glucagon.

In the first 24 hours of no sugar, blood sugar levels drop and the pancreas releases glucagon which breaks down glycogen, the storage of sugars in our body to create the energy you need.

The thing is glycogen is bound to 3 g of water,  so the breakdown of glycogen for energy is responsible for the initial loss of water weight you see in the first 24 hours of not eating sugar.

On day two is when you start to feel fatigued and crave sugar as the body continually needs to create new sources of energy.

Gluconeogenesis is activated which is the conversion of proteins to sugars in the body as well fats will be broken down into ketones to create energy.

This can make you feel tired, get headaches and even have sugar cravings.

But there's not enough human studies to understand why this occurs.

Animal studies have shown that in rats, neurochemical pathways causing dopamine release are activated when the rats consume sugar.

And in some cases, this can be more potent than cocaine in rats.

This is why you may have seen pop science article headlines like "Sugar, more addictive than cocaine?"

The reason for this is that sugar activates dopamine release.

This creates a positive reinforcement around wanting to eat sugar and can create cravings.

But to be clear, there is no evidence that in humans, sugar can be as addictive as drugs like cocaine.

On day three is when you get a metallic taste in your mouth and your breath starts to stink.

The breakdown of fat into ketones due to the lack of sugar intake, creates the release of acetone in your body which when breathed out smells like nail polish remover or rotting fruit.

Some studies have even shown that if you measure acetone in your breath, it can predict the level of ketones in your blood.

This smelly breath can last a few days to a few weeks, but this is based on zero sugar.

We're talking not even fruits in your diet.

Unlike other parts of the video where we're mainly focusing on what happens when you cut out added or refined sugars.

Five to ten (days) of not eating added sugar and your taste buds have officially changed to be more sensitive to sugar.

One study had people do a water fast for 5 to 14 days and found that the threshold to detect sweet flavor was much lower, increasing sensitivity to the taste of sugar.

This isn't that surprising because people who consume a lot of sugar actually decrease their sensitivity to that sweet flavor,

and feel like they need to add more sugar to their food or beverages in order to feel the sweet flavor again.

After six weeks of sugar and you may also notice your bowel movements are becoming more regular with less bloating or cramps.

IBS affects almost 10 to 20% of the population in North America.

IBS is a group of symptoms that people experience their whole life such as diarrhea, constipation, cramps and bloating.

FODMAP stands for fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharide, monosaccharide and polyols which are pretty much diets with less refined sugar and more natural sugars.

Reducing refined sugars can relieve IBS and has been shown to improve symptoms within six weeks.

After ten weeks of eating no sugar, you might start to notice that your skin is looking a lot healthier.

That is because sugar can cause acne lesions within one week of high intake.

Clinical trials have shown that after ten weeks of low-sugar diets, acne lesions have significantly reduced.

After one year with no additional sugar intake. You'll also see improved sleep.

A study looking at 53,000 post-menopausal women showed that three years of low sugar intake was correlated with reduced insomnia.

Although the effect of sugar on sleep is a little controversial as we don't really know if it has a negative impact on daily sleep.

In fact, some studies have even found that sleep is improved with high sugar intake before bed.

After one to five years of no added sugar intake, your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease type two diabetes and obesity is reduced.

High sugar intake is associated with a laundry list of other diseases including cancer.

Cancer is mostly due to its association with obesity.

It's estimated that almost 46% of added sugar in our diets comes from soda and in America, drinking pop has decreased over the past ten years.

Now, some of you might be wondering, if you do cut out sugar like this, can you just replace it with something like aspartame or other artificial sweeteners?

Or our artificial sweeteners actually secretly killing you.

We have a podcast on that. You can click right here.

Thanks for watching and we'll see you soon for a new science video. Peace.

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What Happens When You Quit Sugar?

fatigue

controversial

recommend

diabetes