7 Simple Steps To Control Your Sugar Cravings

Dr Manu Kaur (dentist)
June 22, 2017

While everyone seems aware that too much sugar is indeed a bad thing, most people don’t actually know what that means and we go merrily along consuming far too much of it.

While the human body does need some sugar to survive we know that, at the very least, “added” sugar (also called free sugar) provides NO benefits and at its worse, is detrimental in excess.

So what is excess? A teaspoon of sugar is approximately 4 grams. The World Health Organization recommends that daily intake of free sugar (added sugar) should be restricted to less than 12 teaspoons, and they recommend dropping that to 6 teaspoons to realise additional health benefits.

However, on the most recent 2011-2012 Australian Health Survey of more than 8000 participants, 55 per cent of participants were found to consume more added sugars than recommended. Worse, alarm-raising research by Sydney University, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found especially bad habits in children and adolescents, with 76 per cent of teenagers exceeding the guidelines for daily sugar intake.

At Glenroy Dental we take the over-consumption of sugar very seriously, and look forward to working with you on a comprehensive dental health plan that includes a reduction in sugar intake.

Sugar’s Effect on Health, Dental and Overall

Excess sugar becomes metabolized into body fat – leading to many debilitating diseases many people.

Here are some of the effects that consuming too much sugar has on your health:

It overloads and damages your liver. All the fructose you eat gets shuttled to the only organ that has the transporter for it: your liver. This can lead to liver damage.
It tricks your body into gaining weight by causing you to eat more and develop insulin resistance.
Eating too much sugar causes weight gain, abdominal obesity, decreased HDL and increased LDL, elevated blood sugar, elevated triglycerides, and high blood pressure.
It increases your uric acid levels. High uric acid levels are a risk factor for heart and kidney disease.
Studies indicate that sugar can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease as well as breast, endometrial, and colon cancer.
One study found that people who heavily consumed sugar doubled their risk of dying from heart disease even though they were within a healthy weight range.

How to Fight Back Against Sugar

Simple dietary advice to prevent tooth decay involves:

Reducing total sugar intake
Limiting sugar to meal times only
Ideally mainly drink water or milk (especially in-between meals)
Healthy snacks in-between meals
High sugar content fizzy drinks or cordials have no place in a healthy diet should only be drunk very occasionally if at all
If you do eat a sugary snack either brush your teeth or chew sugar free gum to promote saliva production)

Seven Steps Towards Dealing with Sugar

Step 1: Read Your Nutrition Labels. Read every labels and be aware of what it means. Learn to recognize sugar by recognizing the “-ose” suffix. If you see an ingredient that ends in -ose, there’s a good chance it is sugar.

Step 2: Beware Of Artificial Sweeteners. While artificial sweeteners don’t contain calories, they also don’t contain nutrition, so you’re left craving more and more sweets

Step 3: Identify Your Main Culprit. Many of us have one type of food or drink that contributes highly to our levels of sugar consumption. For many people this is soda – whatever it is, cut it out of your diet.

Step 4: Start To Remove Sugar From Your Home. It all needs to go. That means sugary cereals (and even many of the so-called healthy cereals you think you purchased), candy, cookies, granulated sugar, brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc. And, alas, this includes most fruit juices.

Step 5: Make It A Transition. Start small, take baby steps, and keep moving towards removing refined sugars from your diet. Each teaspoon of sugar you remove a day, the better off you’ll be.

Step 6: Get Started. The journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step, and so does your journey to quitting sugar. The sooner you start, the better your health will be

Step 7: Good Dental Care. Brush and floss twice a day and set regular appointments with your Glenroy Dental dentist.

Your Trusted Dentist in Glenroy

At The Glenroy Dental Group, your overall health and happiness are our ultimate dental goals. We use the most modern technology available and employ the latest dental techniques to ensure that your dental health and appearance are at the highest level.

Our offices are conveniently located in the Pascoe Vale Road shopping strip, Glenroy, with ample parking space, we are located within easy walking distance of the Glenroy train station.

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Dental Exam, Scale and Clean for $99 Only

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The Glenroy Dental Group offers interest-free payment plans – fortnightly or monthly payments, on treatments above $1000, over max term of 3 years.