It's no secret that our society today has a huge problem with the consumption of sugar. According to a study done by Forbes, the average American adult consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar per day, which counts for about 500 calories per day. This is a monstrous amount of sugar, considering that the average adult should consume only 6 to 9 teaspoons of sugar per day at the very most. Seeing as consuming too much sugar can lead to diabetes, obesity, hypertension, depression and acne, among many other things, America's sugar addiction is incredibly alarming.
I have always been a serious runner, therefore I have never really cared about how much sugar I eat. I have always figured that my five mile evening run will "burn off" the copious amounts of sugar that I eat during the day. From several glasses of juice to sugary cereals to ice cream, I calculated that I consume around 50 grams (or 10 teaspoons) of sugar per day. Even though this is well under the national average, I still want to greatly decrease my daily sugar intake. For that reason, I decided to challenge myself and go a full work week (five days) without consuming any added sugar. The only sugar I can consume has to come from natural foods like fruits and vegetables. I documented the whole thing and here is how it went:
Monday
Today wasn't too bad. I didn't really miss not having any added sugar. The only thing I missed was my heavily sugared coffee creamer in the morning. I did find, however, find out that finding foods with little to no added sugar is pretty difficult. There was a lot of sugar in the bread that I usually eat, so I switched to some weird pita bread that I found in the pantry that had only 1 gram of added sugar. My plain oatmeal is something that I usually eat, and it contains no added sugar. When my sweet tooth kicked in at around 7 p.m., I ate an apple, which obviously has only natural sugars. Overall, this was not too bad of a day. I didn't really feel any different from usual, though. Total added sugar intake: 3 grams.
Tuesday
This morning, when I woke up, I was craving the Fruity Pebbles that were in my pantry. It was pretty disappointing when I ate my plain oats instead. Today I stuck to eating pretty much the same things as yesterday: bread, oats, no sugar added peanut butter, broccoli and plain chicken. However, after dinner I was really wanting something sweet and an apple wasn't going to cut it. I ended up making some sugar free Jell-o. It is made with some fake chemical sweetener that probably isn't good for your body, but there was no sugar so I still ate it. It was delicious. I felt much happier after my gelatinous dessert. Total added sugar intake: 4 grams.
Wednesday
Today sucked. For breakfast I had my oatmeal, for lunch I had some tuna and a piece of bread and for dinner I had a piece of chicken and some salad with oil on it. I still have not felt any major change in energy or anything else like I thought I would. I wanted nothing more than to chug the root beer that has been sitting in the fridge since last weekend. Still, I stayed strong. Total added sugar intake: 2 grams.
Thursday
Today I actually felt really good. I didn't really have any major sugar cravings all day. I also went for a really great run in the afternoon. My head felt incredibly clear and my energy was high for the whole run. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with eating less sugar, but it was still a good feeling. Also, my family harvested one of our few peach trees today, so I might have had several peaches. Still, total added sugar intake: 3 grams.
Friday
Today was my last day of no sugar. To be completely honest, I woke up to my mom making pancakes for my little sisters so I had a full plate of pancakes with syrup. The syrup, at 43 grams of sugar per 1/4 cup, was definitely not in my sugar challenge diet. I felt really sick after eating those pancakes and am choosing to only drink water until dinner to try to flush it out of my system. Although the day is not yet over, my sugar intake is probably well over 30 grams at this point today, so I'll just end the challenge here.
Overall, drastically cutting my sugar intake wasn't all that bad. I did have some strong sugar cravings, but they were avoidable. Although I didn't really feel all that different energy wise, I still felt like I was doing a good thing for my body. After this experience I believe that I will not eat as much sugar as I did before. I can easily keep eating my oatmeal instead of sugary cereal for breakfast and drink water for every meal instead of juice. Plus, with the health benefits of cutting back on sugar, it's pretty ridiculous to consume a surplus of added sugar from day to day. Sure, I'll still eat my ice cream or my pancakes with syrup sometimes, but that doesn't need to be everyday. I'm certain my body will thank me some day.
