Healthy Eating for Entrepreneurs: How to Overcome the Challenges of Quitting Sugar
Why quitting sugar is difficult?
Food and beverages containing sugar are delicious. We are told to consume them since childhood. Moreover, all the foods and drinks available in grocery stores and restaurants have sugar in them, making it impossible to avoid it altogether. Additionally, during stressful times, doctors recommend consuming candies and chocolates, also known as "endorphins producer," to help release stress.
Let me share a personal story. When I was a child, my grandma used to buy me plenty of Vitagen, Haribos, and Cadburys. You may know what Haribo and Cadbury's are, but in case you are unfamiliar with Vitagen, it is made by fermenting skimmed milk with billions of live probiotic cultures. These cultures help maintain a balance of good and bad bacteria in the intestines, promoting a healthy digestive system. Children are fond of these colorful snacks and healthy probiotic drinks. Whenever I cried, my grandma would give me these treats if I calmed down or behaved well.
Our elders and parents believe that colorful chocolates and cute-shaped candies are linked to children. Likewise, they consider Vitagen to be healthy for children. However, Vitagen is not purely probiotic culture like yogurt. When you search for it online, you can find a few flavors, and a less sugar version has recently been launched. During my childhood, there was no less sugar version, and only the probiotic culture was mentioned in the marketing.
When you search for "how to quit sugar," "no sugar diet," or "sugar-free challenge," you realize how much sugar you have been consuming since childhood. There is a direct way to quit it, and that is to change your mindset about sugary products. According to Allen Carr, a British author of books about stopping smoking and other psychological dependencies, including alcohol addiction, "you only think you desire sugar and that it makes you happy, but that is a lie."
Allen Carr's books suggest that the mindset is the key to quitting harmful behaviors. Once you change your mindset about sugar, you will no longer feel trapped in the loop of seeking happiness through sugar consumption.
What you should know when quitting sugar?
1. Be aware of how you feel while eating sugar.
The doctor or online source tells you that sugar releases dopamine in the part of your brain linked to reward, novelty, and motivation. However, recent research indicates that sugary treats have no positive effect on mood.
In fact, sugar may have the opposite effect over time. One study published in 2017 found that consuming a diet high in sugar can increase the chances of incident mood disorders in men and recurrent mood disorders in both men and women. Further research suggests that cocaine is less addictive than sugar. A study done in rats found that the brain is not adapted to constant and high levels of sugar. This intense sweetness can stimulate the brain's reward center and maybe more pleasurable than cocaine, even in people with drug addiction. Dopamine plays an important role in controlling emotional responses.
Well, you are the only one who knows which research is true when you are about to have "goodies" such as cakes, baked goods, and cookies. Let's say an assorted cake catches your eye because of its appearance. You buy it and take a selfie with it at a good angle. Before you eat it, tell yourself to fully focus on the feeling after eating it. I believe you will feel good about it and be so happy with it, as will I. However, after a few minutes, you may feel like you want more and are not satisfied and may go for another one. The feel-good dopamine is just a few minutes, but the downside is way bigger than you ever realized. From the point of beginning to get more, you frame it as a "craving," or let's be radical and admit it as an addiction. You are addicted, then you adopt the habit of getting sugar in your routine. We believe too much sugar can reduce beneficial bacteria, leading to leaky gut syndrome, diabetes, and more chronic diseases. Now you are in the loop of "sugar gives you happiness" and slowly killing you, and you blame your metabolism for being bad because of getting older. Before you get to this stage, or even if you are there right now, just give it a try and be aware of how you feel about it while eating sugary goods. Pretty much the same as cocaine, if you believe cocaine is bad for you, then sugar is as bad as cocaine too.
2. Read the product’s (ingredient list) label and avoid being trapped in the sugar world.
Vitagen is a good example of a so-called probiotic drink full of artificial flavors and sugar. The company's marketing or branding only cares about its sales and not about your health. If you are financially capable of consuming their products, why not support a company that cares about their sales and your health?
I am a peanut butter fan, but I used to buy the cheapest peanut butter just because it was cheap. I would overeat it and restock it more often, so the company successfully boosted their sales from me on a regular basis. Most of low price peanut butter contains sugar. If you don't believe it, compare the ingredient label between each brand and compare the price as well. That's why cheap peanut butter doesn't scare you; you are just getting one from it, and adding "cocaine" could project repurchasing behavior in the future.
For the pricier peanut butter, you will mostly find 100% roasted peanuts, or it may be with salt or peanut oil. But the budget one always comes with palm oil (another disease-friendly consumable oil), sugar, and then peanuts. If the company is ethical enough, they may state the % of peanuts contains, probably lower than 30%, and the rest is transparent to you with all the chemical names. They are not scared that you will run away from them because we are not being taught to read the label before buying. We are just being told to read the price before buying.
When I further analyze the long-run relationship between me and peanut butter, I must accept the price and be brave enough to buy the pricier one because I believe sugar is bad in the long run, which will make peanut butter bad for me too. When I first tried it, the smell and texture compared to the cheap peanut butter I used to buy were way stronger and tastier on my toast. Surprisingly, the amount needed on the toast is lesser and gives you a full spectrum of how joyful the peanut butter world can be. You are satisfied without wanting to get more of the craving for peanut butter.
Economically, from a long-run perspective, the price of pure peanut butter might be similar to or even lesser than cheap peanut butter as you will repeat purchases once, but maybe a month later. For the cheap peanut butter, you repeat the purchase twice within a month. Similarly, with olive oil and palm oil, you need more palm oil to cook, but you only need half the amount of palm oil compared to olive oil to cook. From today onwards, read the ingredient list before purchasing any dry food in the grocery store, and you will finally find how ugly the beautiful packaging from companies can be.
3. Don’t tempt yourself by yourself.
If you used to buy chocolates, candies, and cakes to store in your house, you are inviting the devil into your house. During the Covid-19 period, everyone is working from home, while the stressful moment in the work makes you crawl for sweets, as you believe you will be relieved with the colorful snacks. So, you feel it is essential to store such goodies in your house. Obviously, from the facts above mentioned you are just getting more and more to have more minutes to feel happy but eventually you are still feeling stressed about your work. The short relief just like a smoker is smoking a cigarette outside your office before Covid-19.
The best thing to do now is to go to your kitchen or goodies box to have a look at the ingredient list and separate it into two parts of treats with sugar and without sugar, I believe you will put most of it or all at the side with sugar, the devil spotted. And now you are in the dilemma of whether should I throw all the devils or consume them as routine, and not buy them in the future, I know how it feels for you right now. I have been there before, honestly, for me, I picked up the decision of not to waste and keep it just in the future don’t buy it, but when I understood the mechanism of how sugar does in my body and the mindset of sugar is bad for me without giving me happiness, I just feel so worse of eating it even while I am stress in work. So, what I do is I go to the grocery to buy the good and pure goodies to put in my house, somehow when I am stressed, I eat the good one, which give me less feeling of wanting to get more and quickly get me back to the work mood of dealing with the stress effectively.
I am in the UK right now, I used to buy normal chocolate that looks fancy regardless of the ingredient for my stress relief treat, but now I buy the one with a higher % of cocoa and dark chocolate, and I even accepted the 100% dark chocolate bar from Mark & Spencer, the satisfaction is really there and you could feel the real dopamine from cocoa rather mixed up with sugar, which is more long-lasting feeling. I am not telling you to get 100% right away but give it a try to get 70% one and you can already feel way more bitter than you used to buy the type of chocolates, from there slowly let your palate accept the taste and mindful of how you feel about eating it. In fact, cocoa is one of the whole foods but because of the sugar added we are being brainwashed that chocolates are sweet and is good for your brain to produce endorphin, it is cocoa indeed but not sugar, so rather saying chocolate give you feel-good chemical, it must reframe as cocoa give you feel good chemical, this is the big company tries to make a business from you and make it as a vague statement. Believe it or not, research says the good stuff in cacao beans is generally bitter in taste, the bitterness of seeds like those of cacao is to deter herbivores and frugivores from consuming the seeds. These bitter components, however, are also some beneficial components such as antioxidants.
We are being taught that sweet gives us pleasure and relief our stress, so instead of getting candies or chocolates, you could try to get fruits like berries, apples,s and oranges, which the sweet origins come from, to fix your sweet pleasure mindset. Most of the sugar in our food and beverage is made from leaves and overprocessed from the factories in order to make it more lasting storage, and most of the processed foods contain sugar in them, if you want to avoid those kinds of foods, you could try getting more wholefoods like nuts, fruits, and vegetables to store in your house, that without ingredient list as t is only one ingredient list like 100% peanuts stated in the peanut butter container. Then you could avoid most of the foods being made with sugar and cut the temptation from yourself in your own environment.
If you used to buy chocolates, candies, and cakes to store in your house, you are inviting the devil into your house. During the Covid-19 period, everyone is working from home, and the stressful moments at work make you crave sweets, as you believe you will find relief in the colorful snacks. So, you feel it is essential to store such goodies in your house. Obviously, from the facts mentioned above, you are just getting more and more to have more minutes to feel happy, but eventually, you still feel stressed about your work. The short relief is just like a smoker smoking a cigarette outside your office before Covid-19.
The best thing to do now is to go to your kitchen or goodies box and have a look at the ingredient list. Separate the treats into two parts, with sugar and without sugar. I believe you will put most of it, or all, on the side with sugar – the devils are spotted. And now you are in the dilemma of whether you should throw all the devils away or consume them as routine and not buy them in the future. I know how you feel right now. I have been there before. Honestly, for me, I decided not to waste and keep them just in case. But when I understood the mechanism of how sugar affects my body and the mindset that sugar is bad for me without giving me happiness, I felt worse after eating it, even while I was stressed at work. So, what I do is go to the grocery store and buy good and pure goodies to put in my house. Somehow, when I am stressed, I eat the good ones, and it gives me less of a feeling of wanting to get more and quickly gets me back to the work mood of dealing with the stress effectively.
I am in the UK right now. I used to buy normal chocolate that looks fancy regardless of the ingredients for my stress relief treat, but now I buy ones with a higher percentage of cocoa and dark chocolate. I have even accepted the 100% dark chocolate bar from Mark & Spencer. The satisfaction is really there, and you can feel the real dopamine from cocoa rather than mixed up with sugar, which is a more long-lasting feeling. I am not telling you to get 100% right away, but give a try to get a 70% one, and you can already feel way more bitter than you used to with the type of chocolate you used to buy. From there, slowly let your palate accept the taste and be mindful of how you feel about eating it. In fact, cocoa is one of the whole foods, but because of the sugar added, we have been brainwashed that chocolate is sweet and good for your brain to produce endorphins. It is cocoa indeed, but not sugar. So, rather than saying chocolate gives you a feel-good chemical, it must be reframed as cocoa gives you a feel-good chemical. This is how big companies try to make business from you and make it a vague statement. Believe it or not, research says the good stuff in cacao beans is generally bitter in taste. The bitterness of seeds like those of cacao is to deter herbivores and frugivores from consuming the seeds. However, these bitter components are also some of the beneficial components, such as antioxidants.
We are taught that sweet gives us pleasure and relieves our stress, so instead of getting candies or chocolates, you could try getting fruits like berries, apples, and oranges, from which the sweet flavors originate. Most of the sugar for our food and beverages is made from leaves and is overprocessed from the factories to make it more long-lasting for storage. Most processed foods contain sugar in them. If you want to avoid these kinds of foods, you could try getting more whole foods like nuts.
Bottom Line
Your mindset about sugar since childhood gives you the wrong perspective and feeling about sugar. Changing your mindset to the right one gives you ways to get rid of sugar addiction in the full spectrum of your life. Once you understand the facts about sugar, you should be aware of how you feel when eating it. The food system is being controlled by big companies that only care about their sales and not your health. Practice the habit of reading the food product’s label (ingredient list) on the packaging before you buy it, so you can spot the dark side of so-called health-oriented companies. Lastly, you must be conscious of what food or snack you would like to store in your house. Always choose whole foods like fruits, vegetables, or those without crappy sugar, including artificial sweeteners. Snacks such as Mark & Spencer's 100% Chocolate bar give you a real feel-good feeling without falling into the sugar trap's world. Whole foods or natural snacks are more sustainable and cheaper than cheap food products high in sugar and chemicals in the long run.
