YOUR MINI RESOLUTION SUGAR DETOX • WEEK 1

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We hope you enjoyed America’s 250th birthday! Now that we are halfway through the year, we hope you have made improvements in your sleep, are exercising more and with greater intensity, staying hydrated and consuming more FnVs.

Our July mini resolution is to reduce our intake of added sugar to our diet.

CCP helps you stay on track!

Use our log to track your progress toward our mini resolution. This month, we’re looking to up our fruit and veggie (FnVs) consumption!

For questions or assistance, email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele McCambridge:
[email protected]

Why a Sugar Detox?


Excessive consumption of sugar can lead to adverse effects on the brain and cognition.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been unofficially referred to as Type 3 Diabetes in research. While this is a misnomer because it fails to acknowledge all the other modifiable lifestyle factors and nonmodifiable environmental and genetic factors that influence the development and progression of AD, it does drive home the point about the threat to neurological health posed by excessive sugar consumption.

A 2023 U.S.-based study on adult men and women found those with the highest daily consumption of table sugar teaspoons (58 grams or 14 teaspoons) had nearly twice the risk of developing AD than those with the lowest intake (27 grams or 7 teaspoons).

Keep in mind, the recommended maximum consumption of daily teaspoons of sugar for women is 6, and for men, 9. (That is the ceiling, not the goal.) The average American consumes 17 teaspoons of sugar!



How does sugar impact the brain? 


• A diet high in added sugar promotes inflammation. This includes neuroinflammation which, as discussed, leads to neuronal injury, and even death of brain cells. Neuroinflammation is implicated in Parkinson’s disease (PD), AD, dementia, schizophrenia, MS and ALS.

• A diet high in added sugar negatively impacts the microbiome. This is an example of the many inter-related resolutions we will discuss in 2026—the microbiome’s connection to brain health will be another mini resolution for later this year!

• A diet high in added sugar damages blood vessels, including those in the brain. The blood-brain barrier is a filter, composed of capillaries (small blood vessels) designed to protect the brain and central nervous system from pathogens and toxins. A diet high in added sugar reduces the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, increasing permeability.

• A diet high in sugar leads to insulin resistance in the body and brain. Insulin resistance in the brain reduces the available energy to neurons which leads to the development of amyloid and tau. Amyloid prevents brain cells from communicating with one another and tau causes neuronal death.

• A diet high in added sugar can lead to Type 2 diabetes. This type of diabetes, caused and affected by modifiable lifestyle factors, has been said to nearly double one’s risk of AD and other forms of dementia. Prediabetes also increases that risk.



Mini resolution: And thus, this month, we will be removing added sugar from the diet to limit ourselves to 6 teaspoons a day (women) or 9 teaspoons a day (men).


To be clear, for our purposes this month, we are discussing added sugar. Sugars that occur naturally in food are generally OK for the average person, with some exceptions. Nature wraps up sugar in a package of fiber, vitamins and minerals that makes it a wholesome option. On the other hand, added sugar is where the trouble begins.


Goal: We hope this process will help you treat sugar as just that, a treat-and not an acceptable ingredient in every meal. 


Don’t worry, we aren’t going to ask you to go cold turkey out of the gate! Our plan is to remove added sugar from one meal at a time. We will begin with breakfast—the WORST offender in most folks’ diets.


Outside of the sugar that’s obvious in cakes and candies, for example, added sugar is hidden in many foods such as bacon, ketchup, cold cuts, salad dressing and nut butters to name a few that surprise most folks. As a result, we must learn to read labels. Keep in mind, manufacturers have a litany of names of added sugars/sweeteners you may not be familiar with, so vigilant label-reading is imperative! Here is a list of those hidden names.
 
Most food manufacturers are now required to list the added sugars on the nutrition label. But it may be difficult for the average consumer to understand because it’s listed as a percentage of your total daily intake, rather than in teaspoons. Here is an image of how the labels appear. How many people actually know many calories they consume each day to ascertain the percentage of added sugars they’re consuming?


Here is a simple formula to make it easy for you to calculate added sugars:

• Added sugars are listed on labels in grams, and there are 4 grams of sugar in a teaspoon. 

• Divide the total grams of added sugar by 4 and you have the total teaspoons in a single serving of that food item. 

For example, one single serving of vanilla Activia yogurt has 12 grams of added sugar. So the equation is 12 divided by 4, which equals 3 teaspoons of sugar in that one little container!

Here is a printable handout for your refrigerator: 



Free of sugar but “sugar-free”?


Don’t be tempted to buy sugar-free substitutes! In most cases, they are worse for you than sugar!


It is established that artificial sweeteners:
• Adjust the palate toward requiring sweeter tasting foods, leading to more sugar consumption. This is because they taste inherently sweeter than sugar itself, shifting the expectation of the palate.

• Make you hungrier: That’s right, you can’t fool Mother Nature! When we consume food, the palate sends signals to the brain to expect food/calories. When the promised calories are not forthcoming, the brain objects and sends hunger signals making you consume more calories.

• Adjust the gut microbiome towards obesity: It’s sad but true—there are gut microorganisms that lend themselves towards obesity, and artificial sweeteners feed those bugs, increasing their population in your gut.


We know the messaging on sugar substitutes can be confusing. Indeed, virtually all the messaging about nutrition has been conflicting and confusing. Why is that? Here is a link to a past Motivated Mondays Special Edition explaining why nutrition research is difficult to digest (no pun intended!).

So now you know the ceiling—not the goal, but the cap—on how much added sugar to consume in a day (women = 6 teaspoons, men = 9 teaspoons) and how to find and calculate sugar on a label. Geared up with all this information, what will you eat for your no-added-sugar breakfast this week? There is always a veggie omelet, plain oatmeal with banana and unsweetened peanut butter, or a smoothie made with protein (unsweetened yogurt or protein powder), leafy greens and frozen fruit.


Here are a few additional recipes to consider:



For those accustomed to cereal in the morning
• How about a bowl of this to trick the brain into thinking it’s getting its cereal?

• For adventurers, there are recipes out there for breakfast soups. Here is one example. 


Salad for breakfast! Yes, protein, greens and fiber are served right up in this recipe!

No time? Make-ahead this veggie frittata or change up the pan and make egg muffins. There are also Grab-n-Go breakfast options, like these waffles or freeze-dried meals.

And remember these from our last resolution to eat more FnVs? Top with no-added-sugar nut butter instead of syrup:
• Plantain Waffles
• Sweet Potato Waffles
• Banana Pancakes


PRO TIP: Keep in mind throughout the month that a few things will tame sugar cravings including protein, greens, fiber and plenty of fluids (with no added sugar, of course!).

We will see you next week when we take added sugars out of snacks!