Sugar Detox Plan: What to Eat During a Sugar Detox
Start the Year with a Sugar Detox Plan!
The new year is a time to hit the “reset” button, examine our lives, and reflect on changes we’d like to make in the coming year. Starting the year with a sugar detoxification program can help us to renew and refresh from the inside out so we are truly our best selves to the core.
Email us for information on how to get started, and pricing if you need support and accountability for your sugar detox journey.
Toxins are everywhere
In the past 50 years, more than 100,000 toxic chemicals, including heavy metals and pesticides, have been introduced into the environment — into the air we breathe, food that we eat, and water that we drink. Toxins can accumulate and damage critical internal body systems, so it’s no wonder that the incidence of toxicity-related afflictions (such as cancer, arthritis, allergies, obesity, skin conditions, and cardiovascular disease) is also on the rise. In addition, a wide variety of symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, pain, cough, gastrointestinal problems, and more can all be related to toxicity. In addition, certain types of food, such as processed foods and simple carbohydrates candy, sugar, sweets, cakes, pies, cookies, muffins, breads, and dried fruits are high in sugar, toxic to our digestive system, and cause us to gain weight, make poor food choices, and develop diabetes. A sugar detox plan and knowing what to eat during a sugar detox is crucial for success. In my journey of overcoming sugar addiction, codependency people pleasing, and a binge eating disorder I've learned that not only excess sugar consumption can lead to food cravings, binge eating, and sugar addiction but my depression and anxiety were major factors for my cravings. I learned that sugar stimulates the dopamine and opioid receptors of the brain, which are the same receptors stimulated by other addictive substances, such as cocaine and morphine. Just like those drugs, sugar can become addictive because it influences our mood. Overcoming these challenges involved:
Nutrient-Dense Diet: Focus on a balanced and nutrient-dense diet. Ensure you're getting an adequate intake of vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients. A well-nourished body is better equipped to handle stress and regulate mood.
Mindful Eating: Practice mindful eating to develop a healthier relationship with food. Pay attention to hunger and fullness cues, savor the flavors, and eat without distraction. This can help prevent impulsive and emotional eating.
Regular Exercise: Engaging in regular physical activity has been shown to have positive effects on mood and can help alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression. It also contributes to overall well-being and can be a helpful component in managing cravings.
Emotional Regulation: Develop strategies for emotional regulation that don't involve food. This could include activities like meditation, deep breathing exercises, journaling, or seeking support from friends, family, or a mental health professional.
Gradual Reduction: If you find it challenging to eliminate sugar completely, consider a gradual reduction approach. Slowly reduce your sugar intake over time to allow your taste buds to adjust and minimize withdrawal symptoms.
Professional Support: Consider seeking support from healthcare professionals, such as a registered dietitian, therapist, or counselor, who can provide personalized guidance and support tailored to your specific situation.
How does the body detoxify normally?
A healthy body has many systems in place to remove toxins. Water-soluble toxins can be filtered and removed by the kidneys, the intestinal tract, and through sweat and breath.
Fat-soluble toxins must first be made water-soluble, which occurs in the liver.
There are three phases of detoxification of fat-soluble toxins:
Phase I: Large toxins are broken down into smaller pieces by a group of enzymes known as the cytochrome P-450 family. In some cases, these smaller compounds can still possess some toxicity if allowed to build up, and that’s where Phase II comes in.
Phase II: The byproducts of Phase I and other remaining toxins are effectively neutralized and made water-soluble so they can be excreted from the body. This process is known as “conjugation.” Once toxins are made water-soluble, they can be eliminated through our urine, bile, sweat and breath!
Phase III – In addition to Phase I and Phase II detoxification, liver detoxification involves a third phase which takes care of the final elimination of toxins. This involves direct excretion into bile; and is called the Phase III detoxification (T.Ishikawa, Trends Biochem.Sci., 17, 1992).
Support your body’s natural detoxification
By participating in a sugar detoxification program, we can actively assist and support the body in its own natural cleansing actions and help it to eliminate toxic substances. A sugar detox program helps to strengthen all of the organs involved in detoxification, including the liver, lungs, kidneys, skin, and lymphatic system. Among the valuable benefits of a successful detoxification program are:
Increased energy
Clearer skin
Stronger immune system
Greater mental clarity
Improved digestion
Weight loss (if desired)
Balanced Sugar Level
A Sugar Detoxification program to start the year strong
Drink plenty of water. One of the keys to eliminating water-soluble toxins and toxic metabolites is having plenty of water available. Water helps dilute waste products and carry them out of the body. Drinking pure spring water all day is recommended. Freshly squeezed lemon or lime is a simple alkalinizing addition.
Exercise. Another way to move toxins out of the body is to increase blood flow through movement and exercise. Regular exercise will also improve overall health.
Green Powder and Superfood. Choosing a green powder with spirulina and other superfoods is a safer, natural way to detoxify. Many contain a unique blend of sulfur amino acids, lipotropic factors, and minerals that support all the body’s detoxification pathways. The potent nutritional detoxifiers like methionine, glycine, cysteine, and glutathione also boost neuroimmune and cardiovascular health. Choline and inositol improve cell communication and increase the cell’s defenses. A liver-protecting formula that combines five carotenoids, pure silymarin (milk thistle), vitamin E, CoQ10, methionine, and glutathione to deliver unique synergistic benefits. This unique formulation helps protect liver cells from damage and facilitates the liver’s role as the body’s main detoxifying organ.
So make sure these are part of the green powder you chose.
Vitamin C. A buffered l-ascorbate powder helps strengthen, repair, and energize the immune system while mobilizing and removing harmful toxins from the body. The healing effects of vitamin C are widely known. The vitamin C portion of this program can fill the deficits we all have and put the healing potential back into our bodies so we can rebuild and revitalize tired and stressed organs and tissues.
The scientific literature has confirmed vitamin C’s key role in
Immune system function
Collagen repair and formation
Joint function
Energy production
Antioxidant protection and function
Detoxification
Protects delicate endothelial cells that line blood vessels from free radical and toxin damage and so much more.
Optimum ascorbate. Enhances hormone production and function as needed and helps the body adapt better. In addition, it is important to take the amount of ascorbate needed to keep an adequate supply in the cells. This varies based on levels of distress, toxins, acute and delayed allergy reactions, and cell buffering/ alkaline reserve. Optimum ascorbate use is based on calibration of need (see ascorbate calibration instructions) or as directed by your health professional.**
Omega 3 fatty acids, which are extremely helpful in improving antioxidant absorption, dissolving fat-soluble toxins, and repairing cell membrane fluidity.
Your Sugar Detox Plan
Using the Sugar Detox Plan with your Diet
Rebuild and Revitalize by feeding the body what it needs to naturally obtain the potent medicine found in the right foods. These next 30 days will find our meals full of green leafy veggies, salads, roasted vegetables a full 4-6 servings a day. You can have any lean protein that you want, chicken, turkey, salmon, and other wild-caught seafood. Protein is essential for rebuilding muscle and tissue and helping the body recover from injury or illness. Protein is important in hair and nail growth.
Choose the right foods. Remove toxic substances such as caffeine and alcohol, eliminate processed foods, and limit intake of sugars and saturated fats. This will help your body detox naturally.
Specifically, you will want to avoid the following foods:
Sugar:
Avoid refined sugar, including sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, and dextrose-containing products. Also, avoid artificial sweeteners. (Monk fruit and stevia are healthy options.) Fresh fruit and fruit juices are preferred.
Processed Foods:
Instead of snacking on chips, candy, and cookies, choose nuts and seeds as a healthier option. Alkalinizing suggestions include sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and cashews.
Avoid refined flour products such as doughnuts, cakes, cookies, white rice, and pasta. Wheat and other gluten-containing grains should be minimized. Grasses like quinoa, amaranth, and brown rice are healthier options.
Avoid fast food and processed foods.
Red Meat and Dairy Products:
Conventional red meat can add to the toxic load. Better protein sources include grass-fed beef, chicken, turkey, fish, beans, and legumes. Milk, butter, and other dairy products should be kept to a minimum or eliminated. For many people, cow dairy is difficult to digest and can impede the process of detoxification.
Caffeine:
Coffee, both regular and decaffeinated, black teas, sodas, and other drinks containing caffeine should be avoided. Green tea, ginger tea, and herbal teas are better substitutes.
Alcohol:
Avoid all types of alcohol and recreational drugs. This will give your mind and body a rest from harmful toxins.
High Amounts of Conventional Table Salt:
Sea salt is a healthier option.
In addition to avoiding toxic and processed foods, you will also want to avoid immune-sensitive foods and substances, to help reduce inflammation and enhance repair. Please keep in mind your food sensitivities and avoid these.
Determine how much Vitamin C is best for you. As the central antioxidant molecule responsible for regeneration, recycling, and cell detox, the amount of ascorbate needed by any given individual varies more widely than that of any other essential nutrient.
Take a salt and soda bath. We recommend a salt and soda bath 1-2 times per week to help you relax and to enhance the detoxification process. Combine a half cup of Epsom salts with a half cub of baking soda in a very warm bath (You may also choose to add lavender or other relaxing essential oils.) Soak for at least 20 minutes. While soaking, practice deep breathing and let the warm water take all your stress away. Since Epsom salt is another name for magnesium sulfate, this bath will help remove toxins from your body, and if done regularly, can also help to boost magnesium levels. Healthy magnesium levels support healthy serotonin levels – essential for improved mood.
This Sugar Detox Program is 30 days long and it is part of our BodyPeace Membership will gently supply your body with much-needed nutrient levels that will put back into you what has been burned out over the last year. You will find a sense of well-being and a much-needed element of self-care in the special program you will embark upon this next month.
Email us for information on how to get started, and pricing if you need support and accountability for your sugar detox journey.
ARE YOU LOOKING TO DIVE DEEPER INTO SELF-CARE?
I Can Help in Developing A Plan For Self Care
Do you want help developing a self-care plan that works for your own busy schedule? Do you want accountability in implementing a self-care plan? If you or someone you love is struggling to maintain optimal mental and emotional health, consider reaching out to Spiced Life Conversation Art Wellness Studio and Botanica. We are a Metro Atlanta, Conyers Georgia area. We are a coaching and counseling practice with empathetic, skilled counselors and recovery coaches who can help you set goals, develop a self-care routine, and move forward to build a more fulfilling life. Our team would be happy to work with you either just for a couple of sessions to develop and implement a Self-care plan or longer term to work toward overall better mental health within our membership site or other programs.
About The Author: Dr. Nikki LeToya White MSEd-TL, Ph.D. RHN is the founder, director, and full-time board-certified trauma-informed nutritionist, folk herbalist, and wellness consultant at Spiced Life Conversation Art Wellness Studio and Botanica. She created Spiced Life Conversation, LLC Art Wellness Studio, and Botanica to provide the Metro Atlanta area with counseling and coaching services where clients are carefully matched with the right program for healing abandonment and childhood emotional neglect trauma that cause codependency, emotional eating, financial stress, and imposter syndrome as it relates to the fear of success and being abandon. We help you begin your emotional healing journey with ease. Recently, we have expanded to include an online membership site so we now provide support to people living all over the world. All of our recovery coaches provide at least one evidence-based treatment to assist in your recovery. Dr. White is a big proponent of self-care and helping people live a fulfilling life! She has been in full remission with both codependency and emotional binge eating disorder since 2016. In living a life in recovery from sugar addiction. I love my low-sugar balanced lifestyle.
Best Regards
Dr. Nikki LeToya White