After noticing that his consumption of sweet snacks had increased significantly in recent months, YouTuber cam jones You decide to eliminate all foods with added sugar from your diet for 30 days to see what kind of impact it might have on your overall health and wellness. But all it takes is his first “damn” trip to the grocery store on the first day of the challenge to understand that this is going to be harder than he first thought.
“I quickly realized how much added sugar is in the things I normally buy,” she says. “There’s even added sugar in things I assumed were healthy, and the more I look at the labels, the fewer things I add to my cart.”
It’s also not long before the first side effects of giving up added sugar make themselves known: Cam soon begins experiencing intense cravings, a drop in her energy levels and ability to focus at work, and headaches. Looking back, she believes it’s a result of her brain not getting the extra boost of dopamine that she gets when she eats sugar.
“This can lead to overuse and dependency, and then withdrawal,” he says. “On the plus side, withdrawal symptoms are only supposed to last a few weeks, so hopefully this is the hardest part and things can only get better from here.”
Cam focuses her attention on making alternatives to her favorite snacks, like kale chips and sweet potato fries, and stocks up on fruit so she can indulge in something sweet whenever the craving strikes. “Once I get a sense of the snack situation, things really start to pick up,” she says.
In the last two weeks of the challenge, Cam is finally starting to feel some positive effects. “I feel like I’m eating healthier overall and being more strategic with my meals to help keep me full and stave off cravings,” she says. “I’m also starting to notice my energy levels balance out. I’ve been able to get in some good workouts without feeling exhausted later in the day.”
However, you have to admit that this restrictive diet “takes a lot of the fun out of eating” and makes it more difficult to be spontaneous. “It even limits how you can celebrate special occasions,” she says.
“I don’t think it’s helpful to treat sugar as a bad thing, but what I do think is important is being in control of how much you consume on a regular basis,” he concludes. “For me, I feel like these last 30 days have really helped me regain some of that control and develop my intuition so I can be smarter with my eating habits in the future.”
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