One of the hardest things a person will ever have to do in todays world, is quit sugar.
WHY? "Isn't sugar fuel for the body? Don't we need sugar, doesn't every living being need SOME sugar?"
YES! We do need some sugar everyday. The issue is that we have all been introduced at a very early age to processed sugar which unfortunately turns out to be….well…."poison" for our well tuned bodies and it's in absolutely everything it seems!
So how can we quit sugar, but not starve ourselves of good sugar?
Let me start by saying this, when God was handing out the 'sweet tooth' to people, well lets just say I was first in line. I've got a sweet tooth and I've got it bad, always have. I'm not ashamed of this fact and my preference of sweet is CHOCOLATE. So when I was faced with the task of giving it up because it was and still can contribute to health challenges and imbalances, it was daunting. I didn't want to give up chocolate because its chocolate I wanted to reduce my daily intake of sugar and chocolate and cookies were my biggest battle. I actually got mad at myself for needing something sweet every single day, I was annoyed!!!
So, I have a handful of very smart nutrition experts as friends (you know who you are) and no matter what 'tried and true' methods they had to give up sugar with minimal withdrawals and cravings, I was still annoyed. Nothing worked for me, in fact, it seemed to make it my main focus on daily basis.
Well I stumbled upon a wonderful trick that I'd like to share with you, you can thank me later.
Because the refined sugars are really the enemy and when you have challenges that are made worse by sugar, unfortunately ANY sugar can trigger them, even healthy sugars that we find in fruit and simple carbohydrates, however when we are 'weening' off of the refined sugars, fruit sugars can be very helpful. I found that having a big plump organic mejool date when my craving was at it's peak, would not only stop the craving but also give me some satisfaction. I wasn't torturing myself by not have anything sweet at all. And just as a bonus these wrinkly little balls of satisfaction even have some health benefits. They contain high in minerals like magnesium and iron and vitamins like b's and are high in fiber so great for the colon and plenty of phytonutrients which means helps with energy and optimum cellular function! Wow!
If you have health conditions that can be worsened by sugar, like candida or just about ANY health issue, cutting out sugar altogether for a while is best. But if you are anything like me, you know…with a class A chocolate addiction, then weening with an easy transition is the way to go.
Of course once I brought balance to all of my health challenges, I returned to the occasional chocolate treat. Keeping in mind that there are extremely wonderful benefits to healthy chocolate, including: it is one of the highest sources of magnesium, and seeking out brands of chocolate that don't used refined sugar and have minimal processing helps a LOT.
HERE are a few of my favorites. CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE AND CHOCOLATE