How to Avoid the Sugar Trap of the Holidays
Why do we need to celebrate the holidays with LOTS of SUGAR?
Sugar & winter holidays go together…but is it possible to celebrate the holiday season without adding a thick layer of sugary ‘celebration’?
Given that we KNOW for certain that sugar has a negative impact on our bodies, AND we know for sure that the body needs the amount of sugar that we give it on a daily basis, AND we know that we get addicted to sugar, why is it a given that we ‘celebrate’ with sugar-laden foods including cookies, candy, and lots of liquor.
Afterward, we make lofty resolutions around sugar, better eating habits and weight loss. We do this because the time comes quickly after the holidays to curtail the indulgence of the last month. BUT, we can’t stick with it, because we’re addicted to sugar and it is hard to change our desires to eat it.
Eating sugar during the holidays is habit
We have all grown up eating lots of sugar around the holidays, so that is what we do. It’s time to reframe our expectations and habits with sugar while celebrating the holidays. Shouldn’t Christmas and Hanukah and all of the rest of the winter holidays be about community, happiness, and connection? What does that have to do with sugar? Sugar harms the body and causes disease. (See the research below for more detail on this.) I think we need to STOP the habit at home, the office, during parties, as gifts. It’s time to get creative. What else can you bring to a party? A candle? A good book or a movie? A toy for a child instead of cookies? Even natural sweetness like in-season fruits, delicious winter comfort foods AND cultivate other norms, habits & activities for celebration.
Ideas
While transitioning….choose a small piece of dark chocolate—where you get slight sweetness & some powerful antioxidants.
During parties, choose kombucha or club soda or seltzer with lemon or lime as a replacement. Both have minimal to no sugar and you can still have a drink in your hand.
It’s time to put sugar in its place. It is harmful to our bodies, and doesn’t deserve a place at the celebration table!
If you have issues with sugar, we have plans to curb your appetite! We’ll help you transition to a better, healthier diet solution. Connect with our holistic nutritionists for a complimentary conversation to see if diet changes are appropriate for you: You can do that here: https://healthynestnutrition.com/initial-consult/
SOURCES:
For people who are inactive and eat a Western diet, large amounts of fructose from added sugars get turned into fat in the liver.
J Clin Invest. 2009 May 1; 119(5): 1322–1334. Published online 2009 Apr 20. doi: 10.1172/JCI37385; PMCID: PMC2673878. Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans. Kimber L. Stanhope,1,2 Jean Marc Schwarz,3,4 Nancy L. Keim,5 Steven C. Griffen,6 Andrew A. Bremer,7 James L. Graham,1,2 Bonnie Hatcher,2 Chad L. Cox,2 Artem Dyachenko,3 Wei Zhang, John P. McGahan, Anthony Seibert, Ronald M. Krauss,9 Sally Chiu,9 Ernst J. Schaefer,10 Masumi Ai,10 Seiko Otokozawa,10 Katsuyuki Nakajima,10,11Takamitsu Nakano,11 Carine Beysen,12 Marc K. Hellerstein,12,13 Lars Berglund,6,14 and Peter J. Havel1,2.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Accepted March 30, 2009. First published April 29, 2009, doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2008.27336Am J Clin Nutr June 2009. vol. 89 no. 6 1760-1765. Fructose overconsumption causes dyslipidemia and ectopic lipid deposition in healthy subjects with and without a family history of type 2 diabetes. Kim-Anne Lê, Michael Ith, Roland Kreis, David Faeh, Murielle Bortolotti, Christel Tran, Chris Boesch, and
Curr Opin Lipidol. 2013 Jun;24(3):198-206. doi: 10.1097/MOL.0b013e3283613bca.
Adverse metabolic effects of dietary fructose: results from the recent epidemiological, clinical, and mechanistic studies. Stanhope KL1, Schwarz JM, Havel PJ.
When people eat a lot of sugar, it can cause resistance to the hormone insulin, which can contribute to many diseases.
The American Journal of Cardiology. Volume 83, Issue 9, Supplement 2, 13 May 1999, Pages 25-29. Symposium: Clinical Significance and Management of Hypertriglyceridemia, insulin resistance, and the metabolic syndrome. Author Scott MGrundyMD, PhDa.
Because of the harmful effects of sugar on the function of insulin, it is a leading driver of type II diabetes.
JAMA. 2004;292(8):927-934. doi:10.1001/jama.292.8.927. August 25, 2004. Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Weight Gain, and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Young and Middle-Aged Women
Matthias B. Schulze, DrPH; JoAnn E. Manson, MD; David S. Ludwig, MD; et alGraham A. Colditz, MD; Meir J. Stampfer, MD; Walter C. Willett, MD; Frank B. Hu, MD.
Plos, One, The Relationship of Sugar to Population-Level Diabetes Prevalence: An Econometric Analysis of Repeated CrossSectional Data Sanjay Basu1 *, Paula Yoffe2 , Nancy Hills3 , Robert H. Lustig4,5 : Basu S, Yoffe P, Hills N, Lustig RH (2013) The Relationship of Sugar to Population-Level Diabetes Prevalence: An Econometric Analysis of Repeated CrossSectional Data. PLoS ONE 8(2): e57873. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057873 Editor: Bridget Wagner, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, United States Of America Received November 8, 2012; Accepted January 29, 2013; Published February 27, 2013.
There is considerable evidence that sugar, due to its harmful effects on metabolism, can contribute to cancer.
Medical Hypotheses. Volume 11, Issue 3, July 1983, Pages 319-327. Diet and breast cancer: The possible connection with sugar consumption, https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-9877(83)90095-6.
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Dietary sugar and colon cancer.
M L Slattery, J Benson, T D Berry, D Duncan, S L Edwards, B J Caan and J D Potter
DOI: Published September 1997.
Because sugar causes a large release of dopamine in the brain, it can cause addiction in a lot of people.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. Volume 32, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 20-39. Evidence for sugar addiction: Behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake
Nicole M.AvenaPedroRadaBartley G.Hoebel, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.04.019.
Hi! I’m Robin, the founder of Healthy Nest Nutrition. I am a board-certified holistic nutritionist in Denver, Colorado. My passion is helping people find the right diet for their bodies and then showing them how to make healthy nutrition doable and delicious!
