I’m not going back.

Photo byPhoto by Yves Scheuber on Unsplash

White bread for breakfast. Pasta for lunch. A treat around 4 pm. Ice cream after dinner. Refined carbs are often hidden in the foods we crave. The ones we call “comfort foods.” They were part of my daily diet and although I was not overweight, I was bothered by the small amount of fat that has accumulated on my hips.

When you start to examine what the foods you eat are made of, you understand tons of things. And you can’t keep eating the way you used to. It would make no sense. You don’t even want to.

Over the past few years, I have slowly but surely eliminated almost all refined sugars from my diet. One by one. I no longer eat white bread, white pasta, or white rice. I no longer consume sweets or sugary drinks. My diet is built around whole, natural, nutritious foods.

And I’ve noticed several very interesting changes. Here they are.

What exactly did I cut out of my diet?

All white flour products, white rice, white pasta, sweetened yogurt, cakes, pastries, candies, sodas, juices, breakfast cereals… The list could go on and on. It all comes down to one change: no more refined sugars.

There are two types of carbs. Simple versus complex. Refined or complete.

“Refined carbs provide very few vitamins and minerals. The body processes refined carbs quickly, so they do not provide lasting energy, and they can cause a person’s blood sugar to spike.” — Medical News Today

Your body uses refined carbohydrates much faster than complex carbohydrates. This is because complex carbohydrates are made up of long chains of molecules, which forces your body to “work harder” to access the nutrients, which is not the case with simple carbohydrates.

“As a result, refined carbs create a short burst of energy, whereas unrefined carbs release energy more slowly throughout the day. Once the short burst of energy is over, a person may need to eat more food to gain more energy,” explains Medical News Today.

The other consequence of refined carbs can be summed up in one word: insulin.

“Insulin is a hormone made in your pancreas, a gland located behind your stomach. It allows your body to use glucose for energy.” — Healthline

When we digest carbohydrates, the pancreas immediately produces insulin to allow the cells to use the glucose contained in them, and prevent too much of it from remaining in the blood. When blood sugar levels rise a little too high after eating sugar-rich foods, insulin takes over and transports the excess sugar to the stores, where it is stored.

There are 3 reserves:

• Muscle tissue
• Liver
• Adipose tissue (fat)

The first two reserves are quickly saturated. Insulin, therefore, transports excess carbohydrates, already converted to glucose at this stage, to the adipose tissue, where they are stored as fat.

Fruits, vegetables and dairy products also have sugar in their composition. But these contain fiber and protein that slow down the process.

In addition to diabetes and other health problems, regular consumption of refined carbs leads to weight gain, as well as spikes and drops in energy levels. It also deregulates your body in its response to sugar.

Cassie Bjork, RD, LD, and founder of Healthy Simple Life, states that sugar can be even more addicting than cocaine: (Source: Healthline)

“Sugar activates the opiate receptors in our brain and affects the reward center, which leads to compulsive behavior, despite the negative consequences like weight gain, headaches, hormone imbalances, and more. Every time we eat sweets, we are reinforcing those neuropathways, causing the brain to become increasingly hardwired to crave sugar, building up a tolerance like any other drug.”

Keeping a 5% tolerance

When I learned all this, I realized that I could no longer turn a blind eye and continue to feed my body with sugar. The fact is: it’s hidden everywhere, in every pre-packaged food you can buy at the supermarket. Even in canned vegetables.

So I started checking the nutritional information before I put any item in my cart. I started choosing whole-grain granola with less than 10g of added sugars per 100g — which is not easy to find. I bought whole-wheat bread instead of white, while making sure it also had no added sugar. For my post-meal sugar cravings, I bought dark chocolate.

Occasionally, I still indulge in pizza or ice cream. Life is short, after all. I haven’t completely banned sugars from my diet. I just avoid sugar or choose whole carbs 95% of the time. It all comes down to making more conscious choices.

In the beginning, as I focused on eating whole grains and reducing my sugar intake, I didn’t feel much of a change besides noticing that I was feeling satiated quicker and for longer. It wasn’t until I cut sugar out of my diet more radically that I felt the effects.

I felt weak while my body got used to a new diet

When I’m alone, I tend to follow stricter rules than when I’m around people. Indeed, it’s hard to resist my mother’s cakes or my father’s invitation to have ice cream with him.

Traveling the world on my own, as I am doing now, I tend to stick to my good habits better. My fridge is stocked with healthy, unprocessed foods, and all my carbs are complex.

It was only then that I started to feel the effects. When there were no more treats or sweet yogurt in my fridge, nor ice cream. When I (almost) banned all refined sugars from my diet.

What happened is that I felt weak.

Right now, I’m even feeling it. An hour and a half ago, I ate my breakfast, which consisted of a banana, a slice of whole-wheat bread, and an egg. With a black coffee. Now I feel weak. Slightly dizzy.

The reason is: my body was used to getting its usual dose of sugar. It’s therefore resistant to this new, more drastic diet. And it’s letting me know. But I take this as a good sign. I am slowly but surely getting rid of this addiction.

And the best part is that I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself at all. When you understand the impact of the foods you put into your body, the changes take care of themselves.

Final thoughts

Breaking the addiction to simple carbs is not easy. We are used to eating them every day. When I indulge in some dessert, like those Pop Tarts I found in Mexico that we don’t have in France, I clearly notice that after eating one, I want more. This is the effect of sugar.

The more you eat it, the more you want it.

But the less I eat it, the less I want it. I feel full longer, I have fewer cravings and I feel more balanced. For me, that’s reason enough to maintain my efforts.

While still indulging in the occasional comfort food treat, because we are human and no one is asking us to be perfect all the time.