By Anita Nall Richesson, Olympian & Nutritionist
I was a sugar addict! I grew up with a sweet tooth for cereals, candies, pies and pastries. You name it, if it was sweet, I loved it. I paid a high price for my sugar addiction in my early teenage years. While I can’t say it’s THE THING that took me out of professional sports, I can tell you for a fact that my sugar addiction contributed greatly to my athletic career’s demise and my decade struggle with health.
Sugar comes in many forms. There’s sucrose, glucose, fructose, evaporated cane juice, molasses, brown rice syrup and the list goes on and on. There’s even a slew of chemical sweeteners these days like Sucralose, NutraSweet and Saccharin that come with a whole host of other issues aside from sugar.
Getting off the sugar train was the best thing I ever did for my health AND I had no idea, until I went to school for nutrition, just how much sugar I was actually eating. You might be in the dark about your sugary ways too. I was on a mission to kick the habit when one of my teachers told us about the direct correlation between illness and sugar consumption. I will tell you it wasn’t easy and it was a process that took a little time and commitment.
However, after years of teaching nutrition and honing my craft, I can give you some tips to fast track the elimination of your sugar addiction. First , I want you to know why it’s important. According to the Journal of The American Heart Association, the average American consumes about 22 teaspoons of sugar per day, compared to just 2 teaspoons 100 years ago. Sugar addiction and overconsumption is implicated in Cardiovascular Disease, Obesity, Alzheimer’s Disease, Hyperactivity & decreased learning as well as Immune System suppression. Sugar provides extra calories without any vital nutrients like vitamins, minerals or protein.
Just one teaspoon of sugar can impair the immune system for hours after consumption. One teaspoon of sugar equals 4 grams on nutrition labels and looks like 1 cube of sugar. Some coffee and sports drinks carry 48 grams of sugar alone- yikes, that 12 teaspoons! In my work with clients over the last 10 years, I have created simple steps to lowering your sugar intake over time. Following these steps will be a huge step towards increasing health, energy, mood and recovery time for athletes.
1- Read food labels and understand everything you are putting in your body. Become a sugar investigator, know what words mean sugar and exactly how much is in your food.
2- Eat your calories, don’t drink them! We have become a sugary-drink-consuming society. Be aware of how much sugar is in your drinks and how fast it adds up.
3- Simples switches are the fixes! I rarely meet someone who can go cold turkey overnight. You will need to find simple switches for the things you love and crave that contain less sugar or a better form of sugar than the originals.
Here are a few Simple Switches you can start with today:
| Instead of this… | Eat this… |
| Traditional Jelly | Fruit Sweetened Jelly |
| Soda | Flavored Seltzer w/ Stevia Drops |
| Milk Chocolate | The Darkest Chocolate you can stand |
| Traditional Fruit Snacks | 100% Fruit Leathers |
Making the simple switches will reduce your need for sugar over time. It will take some dedication and will power to resist the allure of sugars addictive ways but YOU CAN DO IT. The reward for reducing and/or eliminating sugar in your diet is high. I have seen and experienced health miracles like elimination of sinus infections, no more allergy medications, eczema and acne disappear and migraine headaches diminish for people who commit to this. I would love to hear about your sugar story at [email protected].
Anita Nall Richesson Biography
Olympian, Nutritionist, Life Coach & Wellness Expert
Setting the swimming world ablaze at the young age of fifteen with 2
Courtesy of Anita Nall Richesson
world records in one day propelled Anita into the fast lane of success. After swimming for the cycle (gold, silver, and bronze) in the 1992 Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona, many health challenges hampered her attempts at returning to an Olympic level.
Challenged by a series of “mystery illnesses” that lasted a decade after the Olympics, Anita rediscovered health through food. Traditional medicine’s failed healing attempts drove her towards a personal quest for wellness and a passionate understanding of the healing power of food. Her profound experiences with illness, healing and professional athletics have given her a unique perspective she shares with clients.
After completing her undergraduate degree in Communications and Spanish from Arizona State University she pursued holistic nutrition education at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe, Arizona. Anita is a Certified Holistic Nutrition Specialist, Life Coach and accomplished motivational speaker. Anita is also an elite member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. She completed 3 NFL seasons as Nutrition Consultant for the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL Football Team and works with various elite professional athletes including UFC fighters, boxers & world-class swimmers around the country. She writes nutrition & wellness articles for various groups and recently began an empowerment program for teenage female athletes that centers around motivation, nutrition & increased self-esteem. http://www.anitanall.com
Read the following articles to learn more about Anita:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/kelli_anderson/07/25/Vollmer-wins-first-US-gold/
About how many lollies would you have to eat to affect your swimming badly?
Hi-I believe the advice is sound and may apply to many people. As a therapist who works with athletes who have eating disorders, I do not recommend the advice to “get off of sugar”. I do agree that people who are not on the eating disorder spectrum can eliminate such sugars from their intake. However, evidence shows that those who struggle with eating disorders must not have an intake that views foods as either good or bad. Doing this often exacerbates eating disorder and food related thoughts. If you struggle with food issues, please consider viewing all foods are ok in moderation and recognition that eliminations often make food obsessions worse. With all due respect to the author, I am… Read more »
Remember the war on Salt? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/
Your body needs salt. It is fact, however, that consuming more sodium than you need will increase you water retention. It may not give you a heart attack, but I know that a heavy salt diet makes most people look like garbage.
I don’t trust any of it. Eat whatever you want and quit letting these quacks tell you what to eat.
For all I know it’s quackery – but seemingly well-researched quackery – but I listened to this book – https://smile.amazon.com/Case-Against-Sugar-Gary-Taubes/dp/0307701646?sa-no-redirect=1 – a few months ago and basically just consider sugar a poison now.
It links sugar consumption directly to heart disease, cancer and Alzheimers. (And many other things, those are just the big ones aside from diabetes, which everyone already knows.)
Every time I have a cookie now I assume I’m just giving myself all of the diseases.
It may be quackery but I changed my diet substantially after reading one of Gary Taubes’ books and I’m much healthier now.
Right? I feel way better not eating sugar / processed carbs.
Now, did that stop me from semi-gorging myself last night on Halloween candy? Only partially!
Thanks for taking the lead on this & in this forum, Anita. Bolsters what some of us coaches have said for decades, but now with social media far more out in the open. Much appreciated!
I eat 90% chocolate now. When I started to become nutrition-conscious, i would eat Hershey’s Special dark (about 30-40%). A few years later I switched to 70%. Then a year later I went to 85%. Now I am at 90%. I don’t like the taste of 70% any more.. It’s too sweet.
A diet of 90% chocolate must take a lot of self discipline. Seriously, no vegetables?!
Is the natural sugar that comes in fruit ok? And what about the sugar in chocolate milk? I thought those simple carbs in chocolate milk are supposed to be helpful in recovery.
Fruits contain fructose. Fructose in fruits is ok because fruits also contain many antioxidants that our body needs. The problem is the fructose syrup and the high fructose corn syrup that are used in the food industry today.
Eat a steak rather than drink chocolate milk. Best recovery ever.
best nutrition comment ever. EAT A STEAK
aw but cows.
Would save the planet…you know all the CO2 emissions of about 100kg per year.
Fructose is fructose no matter where it’s found.
What about dark chocolate milk? Yes, it exists.