There are so many amazing health benefits that come from cutting out sugar. Not only does it reduce a person’s risk of developing diabetes or heart disease, it also helps them lose weight, improve mood and give them younger looking skin! It seems like a no-brainer, so why don’t more people do it? The reason for this is because sugar is extremely hard to avoid. It’s in a lot of the foods we eat on a daily basis. Yes it’s in those sugary treats we all indulge in from time to time, but it’s also in things like yogurt, pasta sauce, salad dressing, condiments, the list goes on and on.
In addition to that, because sugar is so prominent in our diet, we’ve become somewhat dependent on it or rather, “addicted” to it. Ever heard of sugar cravings? Because of this, when we stop eating sugar, our body goes through some alarming changes, both mentally and physically. Don’t worry, they don’t last forever.
Here’s a look at some of the symptoms of sugar withdrawal and a few tips on how to cope with them until it passes…
1. Physical Symptoms
Before we dive into the mental withdrawal symptoms, we’ll talk about the physical ones first. Headaches is one of the first symptoms to appear and the most common side effect of a sugar detox. However, it’s not the only one. In addition to the body feeling generally and overall just “worn down,” Healthline points out that a person will also experience light-headedness, dizziness, nausea, tingling, and fatigue.
While these symptoms sound pretty awful and quite frankly, a little scary! Don’t worry, it does get better. The length of how long it takes to feel “better” depends on how much sugar you were consuming before the detox, but according to the Cleveland Clinic, a person can break their sugar addiction is only 10 days.
