Why I Quit Sugar(s) At 30

If you haven’t cared for a diabetic patient in your family, you might have a hard time grasping the magnitude of sugar related ailments. Caring for my grandma for the last 5 or so years has challenged me to think carefully about my food choices. I’m not writing this article as a nutrition expert (which I am obviously not). I write this in an attempt to encourage you to embrace healthy diet practices.

“Quitting sugar” means different things to different people. Some people give up all sugars, in all forms, including carbohydrates. Others choose to consume sugar or sugars in moderation. Carbohydrates are a source of sugar and affect your blood sugar levels. Many research studies have shown that foods which contain sugar do not necessarily make the blood sugar rise higher than foods of equal carbohydrate levels which do not contain sugar. Simply put, carbohydrates will kill you faster than common sugar.

In my case, when I made the decision to quit sugar, I toned down on consuming foods with a lot of sugar or high carbohydrates. So I don’t take sugar in my tea or juice; I simply take hot lemon water with fresh Tamarind (enkoge in my native tongue). I’m also very careful about the concentration carbohydrates on my plate. I love cassava and potatoes but I can only take 2 or 3 pieces in a single meal. My plate is mostly filled with avocado or some other vegetable. I don’t drink much alcohol (which is very high in sugars); I can do 1 or 2 beers a week. I have done this since the beginning of 2020 and my weight has since improved from 85kg to 74kg.

The 80-20 rule is a very good guide. Each time you’re taking a meal, the high carbohydrate foods should be only 20%. But most of us have this switched; we’re instead consuming 80% sugars.

Studies show it’s less important what we’re eating than how we’re eating it. The body doesn’t care about the type of sugar you’re ingesting. It only cares how much of it you’re eating.

Since sugar is everywhere and is really hard to resist, giving it up or taking it in moderation will seem like a huge sacrifice for most. Processed foods with sugar will always taste better because they are designed that way. They are intended to trap you. It’s a trap that targets both the young and old.  A quarter of Ugandans in urban centers are over-weight by the time they make 30. Excess weight in African men is trendy because it’s associated with wealth. We couldn’t be more wrong though.

How our bodies respond to sugar(s)

When we consume sugars(s), our brains’ reward center activates and produces the chemical dopamine, which makes us feel good.

When we over consume sugar(s), our brains become overwhelmed with pleasure. Once we are used to this kind of pleasure, to the point of an addiction, our brains then are conditioned to want more sugar(s) to be able to generate the same feeling of pleasure. At this point we’re basically becoming sugar addicts.

It’s believed that by 2025, 1 in every 10 people around the world will have type 2 diabetes and will struggle with lifestyle diseases.

Our food culture

If our ancestors were to return from the grave, they would be shocked by our current food habits. On average we consume an equivalent of 20 teaspoons of sugar per day. But our bodies cannot handle more than 7 teaspoons per day.

Our sugar security system

Inside the pancreas is a cluster of cells called “Beta cells”.  The beta cells are part of our sugar security system. We only have 2 grams of these cells. If these cells were to wither away, we would die in just a matter of weeks.

Any time you eat a high carbohydrate diet (more than 7 teaspoons of sugar), the sugar is saturated throughout the entire body, from top to bottom. The beta cells then sound the alarm and invite the “excess sugar trucks” to ferry the excess sugar away.

The sugar trucks are the insulin. They carry the excess sugar and feed it to other organs like the liver and the balance is stored as fat. This is an important process because you don’t want to have excess sugar laying around in your blood stream.

Anytime we eat high carbohydrate food, the beta cells sound the alarm bells. Foods like maize flour, rice, matooke, cassava, potatoes, pasta, bread…etc always trigger the sugar alarm bells.

The alarms are supposed to trigger automatic increase in insulin production. This eventually causes the beta cells to burn-out. This condition is referred to as pre-diabetes.

Beta cell burnout has a lot to do with food choices. If your beta cells weaken and your diet doesn’t change, you’ll need daily insulin injections to stay alive.

Reversing Beta Cells Burnout

With a few lifestyle changes you can reverse beta cell burnout because the body has the ability to heal itself.

As we intake more sugar(s), our beta cells security system weakens and high blood sugar will eventually lead to other illnesses like kidney failure, heart-disease, Alzheimer’s..etc

The amount of deaths caused by sugar related illnesses are twice as many compared to road accident deaths. Sugar has become a gradual death sentence. If we don’t change our food patterns, each of us will probably have a diabetic patient in our immediate family in the next 2 decades.

Would you like to have more energy and productivity?

The solution is eating less sugar; reducing sugar in your diet can be a life changer.

7 out of 10 people suffer from chronic illnesses and 50% of the world’s population take medication every day for the rest of their lives. Do not add to that statistic.

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