Runner's World

HOW

SWEET

IT ISN’T

You can’t outrun a sugar

addiction. Kick it to the

kerb with these tips

SUGAR IS EVERYWHERE. It’s
in practically every food
we eat and though we
know it’s not good for us
in excess it’s also so hard to resist.
That’s because eating sugar lights
up our brains’ dopamine receptors
(the same ones that trigger drug
addiction) making us feel fantastic

• and eager for another hit. As
  runners our sugar problem is even stickier as we rely on gels and
  energy drinks (and sometimes just plain sweets) to fuel up for and
  recover from workouts.
  Sadly running doesn’t make you immune to the detrimental
  health efects of eating too much reined sugar. The nearly 30kg
  (66lb) of sugar that each UK adult consumes a year increases our
  risks of obesity diabetes heart disease depression and sleep
  disorders. That’s true whether you exercise or not.
  Reined sweeteners ‘go right from your lips into your
  bloodstream’ says Kristen Gradney a spokesperson for the

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. That forces your body to

quickly process huge levels of sugar. ‘We get less eicient at this

over time which is why we become more susceptible to problems

such as diabetes as we age’ says Gradney.

That means even healthy people – such as runners – should

trim their daily intake of added sugar to less than 25g per day

as recommended by the World Health Organization. (There’s

no need to avoid naturally sweet whole foods which have

water ibre and/or protein that slow the sugar’s path into your

system.) Runners can quell the sugar lood and help break a

not-so-sweet habit with these strategies.

SHOULD YOU

GO COLD

TURKEY?

Many of us are turning to ‘detox’ plans that eliminate all sugar for 30 days or more. Converts say cutting out refined

sugars improves sleep cures acne trims pounds and boosts mood and focus. Though definitely not a panacea

smoothing out fluctuations in blood sugar could improve your energy says Kelly Pritchett an assistant professor

in clinical nutrition at Central Washington University US. You also may break bad food habits and form new ones

that are less sugar-dependent. However ‘completely eliminating all added sugars from your diet may not be

sustainable in the long term’ she says.

GET THE POINT?

It’s all too easy to

get a lot of sugar

into your system

072 RUNNERSWORLD.CO.UK JUNE 2018

WORDS: KELLY BASTONE. PHOTOGRAPHS

: DAN SAELINGER/TRUNK ARCHIVE.COM

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