Sugar addiction is basically a relentless sugar craving that is triggered in the brain due to mental hunger or an inherent sweet tooth. Yet, excessive sugar is not a good thing in the long run. It can lead to diabetes and various other issues like high cholesterol, hypertension, and obesity. Also, people whose grandparents have suffered from diabetes need to be especially careful of such sweet cravings as it may trigger the same problem in them too. So how can you cut sugar out of your life? Here's a list of tips.

- Detox or Gradual Scaling Down: While many people are in favour of gradually scaling down your sugar intake and slowly cutting it out of your life in a matter of weeks and months, there are experts who believe in stopping intake of it. A clean break from sugar is said to have a beneficial detox like effect on the brain and body. Many experts recommend cutting sugar out of your life in one clean swipe.
- Replacements: Using other substances like honey or even extracts from the Stevia plant are known to be a good replacement plan for cutting down your sugar addiction. You can start by introducing your system to these replacements in your daily beverages like tea, coffee or lemonade, before moving on to the use of organic honey for desserts and baking, as well as other sugar-free desserts and puddings.
- Fruits: The best way to get your sugar indulgence fixed is to have a good dose of fruit. This can help in giving you a good amount of dietary sugars which are natural and do not harm the body in the long run. Also, fruits are a healthy way of ingesting sugar even as you get valuable nutrients, vitamins and mineral - one arrow, many targets!
- Clean Up: Take a walk around your home and find all those secret candy stashes. Also, look for your dessert and pudding trays in the fridge. Now take all this out and give them away or trash them. Once you remove the option of snacking on sugary treats, you will be in a better place to avoid it altogether.
- Magnesium: Your chocolate craving might actually be a call for magnesium that your body is missing out on. Similarly, a mental hunger pang may actually be a need for water or some solid food. Avoid the sugary rush and take the healthy route instead, with the help of nuts and dairy.

Controlling your sugar addiction can save you from various ailments even as it gives you a healthier lifestyle.

How to Deal with Sugar Addiction

Diabetes is a lifestyle disease that can easily be managed by controlling our diet. Along with being aware of your sugar intake, your diet should help you lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. However, this does not mean you have to resign yourself to a lifetime of tasteless food.

Here are a few diet tips that can help manage diabetes: 

Choose high fiber carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are an essential element of the daily diet but have a huge impact on blood sugar levels. Hence, it is important to pick the right carbohydrates. Your diet should have a limited amount of refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta, soda etc. and should be focused more on high fiber carbohydrates such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, rolled oats and bran flakes that are digested slowly. This prevents your body from producing excessive insulin.
Be sweet smart: The key to indulge your sweet tooth and controlling diabetes is moderation. Abruptly, removing sugar from your diet can make you crave for it. Instead, gradually lower your sugar intake. If you can't miss out on the dessert at the end of a meal, reduce the amount of carbohydrates in your meal. Adding healthy fats like peanut butter, yogurt or nuts to your dessert can also slow down the digestive process and thus control blood sugar level.
Keep a food diary: When you are diabetic, it is very important to eat at regular intervals. Eating frequent, small meals are often better than fewer large meals. Try and maintain a food diary to keep track of your calorie intake. This helps identify problem areas of where your body is getting excessive calories from. When you are aware of the calories associated with things you eat, it is easier to cut down on snacks and replace unhealthy snacks with healthier options.
Choose fats wisely: It is impossible to completely cut out fats from your diet. While some fats such as liquid vegetable oils and commercial baked goods are unhealthy, others have important health benefits. Unsaturated fats are the healthiest and safest. Replacing your vegetable cooking oil for olive oil and biscuits with nuts are easy ways to make smart choices with your fat intake.
Go green: Green leafy vegetables are low on carbohydrates and high on nutrients. Thus, make them an integral part of your meal. Vegetables like kale, spinach, lettuce, etc. can be eaten raw or cooked. Along with being nutritious, they also add texture and color to your meals, thus making them more visually appealing.
If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor and ask a free question.

5 Tips To Control Diabetes Through A Diet!

Hypertension or High Blood Pressure can trigger as well as worsen complications related to diabetes. Most people suffering from diabetes tend to develop hypertension later in their lives. Diabetes tends to increase one s blood pressure, making him/her even more vulnerable to other heart diseases and cardio-vascular disorders. Diabetes often leads to a condition known as atherosclerosis, which is the hardening of the arteries. A combination of diabetes and hypertension drastically increases the risk of suffering from a heart disease. The risks of kidney diseases and retinopathy (damage to the tiny blood vessels present in the retina) also go up, resulting in blindness. With age, chronic hypertension can also result in numerous cognitive disorders such as dementia or Alzheimer s disease (degenerative mental disorder).

How to prevent Diabetes and Hypertension?
1. Walking for about 40 minutes each day or engaging in any type of aerobic exercise can better one s heart health. Chalk out an exercise plan upon consulting the doctor
2. Limit drinking and abstain from smoking
3. Go for regular kidney check-ups
4. Eat food rich in fiber such as vegetables, fruits, breads or whole grain cereals
5. Examine blood pressure as well as blood sugar levels regularly at home
6. Practice relaxation techniques such as meditation or yoga to cut down on stress level; as stress is one of the major contributors to diabetes and the subsequent hypertension
7. Shed off your extra pounds as blood pressure escalates with weight

Hypertension and Diabetes - How They are Related?

Gestational diabetes is also known as gestational mellitus diabetes (gdm). It is a prevalent disorder which affects pregnant women and the main cause of this condition is the imbalance in the functioning of the insulin, which mainly happens due to the presence of human placental lactogen. Expecting mothers show a raise in their blood sugar level, especially during the last trimester of their pregnancy. Women who do not have a medical history of diabetes can also be affected with this condition.

Prominent symptoms of gestational pregnancy include:
Gestational diabetes does not have any prominent symptoms; it can only be diagnosed through proper and professional screening of blood sugar level. You should immediately consult a doctor if you have any of the following symptoms:
1. Increased level of blood sugar
2. Trouble to concentrate
3. Recurrent headaches
4. Increased thirst
5. Blurry vision
6. Sudden weight loss
7. Decrease in low blood sugar level
8. Anxiety
9. Dizziness
10. Pangs of hunger
11. Pale skin and dry skin
12. Excessive sweating
13. Persistent weakness

How can you manage gestational diabetes?
Modification of lifestyle pattern, healthy food habits and moderate physical exercise can help minimize the risk of gestational diabetes in expecting mothers.
In order to manage gestational diabetes, the following things should be followed:
1. The treatment when accompanied with balanced diet and routine exercises, reduces the occurrence of health problems in both mother and child.
2. A routine screening for type ii diabetes should be conducted throughout the pregnancy, to ensure early detection and treatment of the same.
3. A diet rich in fiber and whole grains minimizes the risk of diabetes in pregnancy, fresh fruits and vegetables are also known to check the blood sugar level in expecting mother, minimizing the occurrence of health problem in both mother and child.
4. Giving up the use of cigarettes and other forms of tobacco may reduce the chances of gestational diabetes in female smokers.

How does gestational diabetes affect pregnancy?
Gestational diabetes is harmful for both the expecting mother and the child. It increases the risk of complications in pregnancy that can prove to be fatal.
Potential risks of gestational pregnancy include:
1. Increased risk of needing a c-section
2. Miscarriage
3. Preeclampsia and high blood pressure
4. Preterm chance of birth.

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes where the blood sugar levels of the body increase during pregnancy. When you are expecting, your body is more repellent to insulin so that a larger amount of glucose is manufactured for the baby s nourishment. However, this excess blood glucose can build up within the body which causes gestational diabetes. This can lead to health problems for both the mother and the baby. At the end of the gestational period i.e. once the baby is delivered, blood sugar reduces to normal.

When are you at a risk for gestational diabetes?

Gestational diabetes can also be hereditary. If a family member or a relative has diabetes, you are more likely to develop gestational diabetes.

If you are overweight, you are more susceptible to developing gestational diabetes.

What causes gestational diabetes?

During pregnancy, the placenta connects your baby to the blood supply. This produces other hormones which reduce the levels of insulin. This increases the level of blood sugar in your blood. As your baby develops, your body manufactures more of such hormones which block your insulin levels leading to gestational diabetes. This usually occurs from the 20th week of your pregnancy.

Complications:

Increase in Birth Weight   Extra glucose crosses through the placenta which instigates the baby s pancreas to manufacture more insulin. This can make your baby very large. Sometimes, it becomes difficult for the baby to pass through the birth canal during childbirth as a result.

Premature Birth and Respiratory Diseases   High blood sugar may increase the risk of an early labor. It may make the baby due before the 37th week of pregnancy. This also makes the baby more susceptible to respiratory disorders.

High Blood Pressure   Gestational diabetes also raises your risks for high blood pressure. This can be fatal for you as well as your baby s health.

Treatment:

Book an appointment with a dietitian and follow a healthy eating schedule. Limit the amount of carbohydrates and ensure you have a healthy and balanced meal.

Do light exercises regularly during pregnancy. This helps you to control your blood sugar level. Physical activities which require low levels of energy utilization such as swimming and walking will control your blood sugar level without exerting you too much.

Taking insulin shots and medicine for diabetes will also control your blood sugar levels if you have a pre-existing condition.

Causes and Treatment of Gestational Diabetes

If you are suffering from hypothyroidism, it is important for you to deal with the condition so that your daily life and activities do not get affected. Hypothyroidism occurs when your thyroid gland becomes under active and does not produces sufficient amount of hormones. This affects the metabolism rate of your body. Hypothyroidism has several symptoms which include fatigue, constipation, dry skin, muscle cramping, hoarse voice, depression, sudden gain of weight and brittle hair and fingernails.

Here are some important tips which you should follow in order to deal with hypothyroidism and for its treatment:

Go Gluten and A1 Casein free: Common allergies and food intolerance, which occur today are because of wheat and dairy products because of the hybridized proteins of A1 casein and gluten. These may lead to a leaky gut, as a result of which inflammation of the thyroid gland takes place. This affects the thyroid s functioning. You should avoid grain and gluten in your diet. Try to consume dairy products coming from A2 cow s milk.
Avoid BPA: Bisphenol A or BPA is present in plastic bottles. These are capable of disrupting the endocrine system and also affect the thyroid gland. You should avoid drinking from plastic bottles and drink water from glass, stainless steel and plastic bottles which are BPA free.
Check your iodine levels: In case your iodine levels are low, you should use an organic liquid supplement. Kelp is ideal for this purpose.
Heavy metal detox: You need to detoxify your body and eliminate traces of harmful metals from your organs and cells. For this, you may use a combination of milk, turmeric, chlorella, cilantro and thistle, which are ideal for a metal detox.
Increase your selenium intake: It is important for you to consume sufficient amounts of selenium in your everyday diet, but you should not consume them in excess. You should eat food items containing selenium in good amount such as salmon, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, mushrooms, onions and beef.
Take adaptogen supplements: You should lower your cortisol levels and improve thyroid functioning by taking supplements such as tulsi and ashwaganda.
Remove silver fillings: If you have amalgam fillings, you should consult a dentist and get the fillings removed.
Lower your carbohydrate intake: You also need to reduce the amount of sugar and grains in your regular diet. Instead, take healthy fats. Consuming too much carbohydrates leads to increased estrogen, which affects thyroid negatively. Choose healthy fats like coconut oils, avocado, wild salmon, hemp seeds and flax seeds. These will help in balancing your hormone levels.
Hypothyroidism usually occurs from common causes such as toxicity due to radiation and metal exposure, deficiency of iodine and selenium, food intolerance and hormonal imbalance due to stress and excess carbohydrates.

Hypothyroidism - 8 Tips To Help You Deal With It!

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