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Need a way to detox from all those chocolate candies and sweets your valentine gave you on Monday? Ali Shapiro, author of The Roots of Going Green, was on NBC 10’s The 10 Show Tuesday with five easy tips to cut down on our sugar intake.
Step 1: Get Support! Shapiro advises that sugar should be viewed as a drug in the sense that it can be addicting when people turn to it for solutions to boredom, tiredness or emotional comfort. If you find a “buddy” who will work with you, it will be easier to avoid that half-eaten box of chocolates sitting on your counter.
Step 2: Integrate more leafy green vegetables into your diet. Shapiro explains that one of the reasons that people crave sugar so much is because they are hungry. Not only are they just hungry, they eat foods with lots of calories to fill them up, but there is little nutrition in these types of foods. If you eat more leafy vegetables, not only will you not be as hungry, but you will be increasing your nutrition intake.
Step 3: Make sure to have naturally sweet foods on hand. Even though you may have a productive method toward completely eliminating from your diet, you still can get cravings for sugar. Shapiro says that if you give your body naturally sweetened foods, like oranges and dates, they can serve as a stand-in for artificial sugar just like a nicotine patch for cigarettes.
Step 4: Sleep! Shapiro explains that one of the reasons we turn to sugar is because we are so exhausted. She also cautions that we need a couple more hours of sleep a night in the wintertime. (8-10 hours)
Step 5: Be Creative! Shapiro says a lot of times we feel stressed because we have little or no relaxation so if we are more creative, it could give us the relief we need. She specifically suggests creative cooking in a healthy manner.
For Shapiro’s Video Interview with NBC click here.
