There’s been a lot of talk in the media about the bad effects of sugar consumption and the benefits of a sugar detox.

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Sugar is hidden in all sorts of foods including bread and salad dressing.

Add to that our love for things like cookies and yummy ice cream and it’s no wonder our sugar consumption is skyrocketing.

Unfortunately, all this added sugar is doing a lot of damage to our health and making us gain weight in skyrocketing ways.

It’s time to cut down on sugar in our diets.

Here are six reasons why you should do a sugar detox to cut sugar from your diet.

1. Consuming sugar spikes your insulin.

As soon as your body starts to digest sugar, your insulin spikes up. Insulin is the hormone that is in charge of keeping blood sugar levels from rising too high and converting extra sugar into fat for storage.

Because it’s a delicate process, consuming sugar in large quantities will cause your insulin to spike causing your pancreas to deal with more than it is designed to handle. Over time it becomes less and less effective at processing the insulin. This is when things start to negatively affect your pancreas.

2. Consuming sugar is the major cause of weight gain.

Because of this as well as sugar adding a lot of calories to food, it can make you gain weight.

Since the late seventies when health authorities advised consumers to lower their fat intake, the food industry has provided us with all sorts of low fat and fat free food options. To make these low fat foods taste okay, they have to add a lot of sugar.

Take a look at regular and low-fat or fat-free salad dressing. The lower fat options have a lot more carbs and in particular, sugar. You may not taste it, but it’s there. Since sugar is much more quickly digested than fat, you are hungry sooner after consuming a low fat meal making you eat again. The end result is weight gain.

Here is my post about the best detox for weight loss.

3. Consuming sugar increases your risk for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

With all that increased sugar and weight gain comes a higher risk for diabetes and a condition called metabolic syndrome. Metabolic Syndrome is a group of symptoms and behaviors that put you at a much higher risk of developing heart disease and Type II diabetes.

Thankfully both conditions are reversible and the first step toward better health is to cut out the sugar.

4. Sugar can raise your blood pressure.

According to a study on heart.org, one of the main consequences of excessive sugar intake is a major risk factor of high blood pressure.  High blood pressure increases the work load of the heart and arteries so that over time, it can damage your entire circulatory system.

5. Sugar can dull your brain and even cause depression.

Not only do sugars eat away at your teeth enamel which you already know, but it can also eat away at your brain power too.

Research has shown that eating too much sugar can negatively affect your cognitive function and even reduce proteins that are needed for memory and responsiveness. When your brain experiences continuous sugar spikes, insulin then becomes unresponsive to its effects and can turn into depression and anxiety.

6. Finally, sugar doesn’t have a lot of nutritional value and it makes you hungrier.  

Sugar causes spikes in your blood sugar, that then make your body produce a large amount of insulin to pull the sugar out of your system (and convert it to body fat).

The sad little side effect of that process is that your blood sugar goes on a roller coaster ride that will leave you hungry and craving more sugary treats.

And who wants that?

So, decide now to go on a sugar detox and reduce your sugar intake for good!