My sugar addiction

I’ve always been someone who liked a little sweet treat during the day, I’m not talking about an over-the-top way just that gentle ritual, just something after dinner. A little treat to round things off. It felt harmless. Whilst I typically eat a healthy diet with plenty of home-cooking, I also have a sweet tooth and tend to consume a dark chocolate treat or every day. So I wanted to discover what it would be like if I stopped eating foods with any sugar for as long as I could and I was surprised by how I felt. But also, if I’m being completely honest: I wanted to look and feel my best. Clear skin, balanced energy, no bacteria feeding off of yeast, strong digestion, deep sleep. Sugar wasn’t helping. So I stopped. Cold turkey. No refined sugar. No honey. No coconut sugar, maple syrup, or sneaky sweeteners in sauces or nut milks. Not even monk fruit or stevia. Just real food. I wanted to see what would happen when I took my body off autopilot.

Before I share the shifts, here’s what I didn’t fully understand: sugar even “natural” sugar does more than just spike the blood glucose level and after reading about the Glucose Goddess I had a much better understanding. Sugar feeds gut pathogens and parasites. It stresses the adrenals, it depletes minerals like magnesium and zinc and it disrupts the body’s natural pH, making it more acidic and inflamed. It’s not about being extreme. It’s about knowing what sugar is doing under the surface. I simultaneously thought i would do a parasite cleanse as well as this would be the perfect way to remove and disrupt the biofilm altogether. 

What is a biofilm?

Some pathogens such as candida and the bacteria responsible for diseases were found to live in film structures that hid and protected them from antibiotics and the human immune system. They were named “biofilms” and consisted of a matrix of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and iron as well as other bacteria. It could be considered a colony that derived much mutual benefit by living together in such an arrangement. Biofilms are a major reason why getting rid of candida is difficult to remove because they are so embedded. Antifungals are given and kill significant number of cells but after the antifungal moves on, the biofilm acts as a nursery supplying more baby candida cells to come out and re-infect the host.

To tackle the problem of biofilms it was found necessary to attack the matrix the biofilm is made of. The topic of biofilms is somewhat lengthy and so I just want to mention the salient points. If you have been harbouring candida for years and years, you most certainly have biofilm in your system. If you have been taking antifungals at least twice a day on an empty stomach in sufficient dose quantities and still have the same amount of die-off and seem “stuck” you either have biofilm or you aren’t being strict enough with your diet. If you don’t have the herbs to kick you start with the cleanse you can just start with the basics which is eating raw garlic, as garlic has shown some degree of effectiveness disrupting candida albicans biofilms. I am convinced biofilms formations are responsible for the resistance candida acquire to the antifungal treatments. Targeting the biofilms means that you may recover faster and completely. Biofilms are different. Because they cannot be detected by the immune system and not even reached by the blood or the lymphatics they cannot be eradicated easily. Killing the live critters is easy. The biofilms are a different story. Since the microbes hibernate in the biofilm they are able to launch their attack at a later date especially when the body ph is low enough for them to thrive. That is why keeping the ph neutral is so essential and also why these opportunistic parasites mostly show up when the ph is off kilter.

These parasites are also quite clever because they have a hit and run strategy that throws off the immune system. They can jump the tracks when they are directly confronted. They will actually jump from the intestine to the peritoneal cavity and hang out there until the coast is clear. That is why other strategies are required to kill parasites and why some are having limited success in the healing process. Physically this would be seen as bloateness and your body would feel like craving for something sweet in order for you to give in.

The right strategy needs to be employed to be effective in dealing with these critters and understanding the strategy of these highly sophisticated parasites is essential to be successful. This might be another piece of the puzzle in order to achieve quantum health. The easiest way is to take a biofilm buster also when taking natural antifungals it is critical that you rotate them every 2 weeks. It has been found that if you don’t rotate them, the yeast somehow adjusts and becomes somewhat immune to them over time. You will know if the biofilm is breaking up when you start spitting phlegm. Expecting to completely eradicate all yeast using antifungals is unrealistic. You will need to kill most of the yeast and when you do it is time to ramp up probiotics to replace the yeast and restore the gut flora to balance the gut. It is fine to take probiotics from day 1 of your treatment but don’t expect too much from probiotics until you get the yeast colonies under control.

How I cut out sugar

So with that being said, the first week of quitting sugar was eye-opening. Not because I felt deprived but because I realised how automatic it had become. After meals, while cooking, during a mid-afternoon nap I would instinctively reach for something sweet. Without it, I felt the space. I had to sit with it. I became tired and extremely moody as though it was playing with my hormones. Physically, I was extremely tired, not drained, but grounded and had several naps throughout the day. My nervous system felt quieter. No more little dopamine spikes every time I sipped something sweet.

After a week I started to feel somewhat clear my digestion felt lighter. I wasn’t bloated at night. I didn’t feel that subtle puffy inflammation in my cheeks and jaw that I used to normalise. My skin looked calmer. I replaced my sugar craving with avocado and coconut milk with blueberries with nuts and celtic salt. My blood sugar felt even. No dips. No anxiety that came out of nowhere. No post-lunch fatigue. My energy felt mine again.

After two weeks I didn’t crave sugar anymore. At all. What shocked me more was how sweet everything started to taste. Pineapples tasted very sweet. Roasted carrots were almost too sweet and so my taste buds had completely reset. Sleep became deeper. My eyes looked like they weren't blood shot red anymore. My moods were more stable. My skin started to glow. Truly glow. Less texture, fewer breakouts, and this hydrated, plump look that no skincare productor facial has ever given me. My appetite became intuitive no more grazing or overthinking meals because I had been eating the same meals every day at the same time. And I felt something I didn’t expect, calm. Like my body was just… functioning. I realised that because I had stopped bombarding my taste buds with hyper-sweet foods (even “healthy” ones), my sensitivity returned, my palate shifted. I stopped chasing sweetness and start craving balance literally. This is a nervous system and gut-brain axis reset in action. 

And emotionally? I felt steady. There’s something deeply regulating about not needing stimulation to feel okay. I had more space in my mind. More clarity. More trust in my body. Sugar messes with your skin by triggering glycation (a process that breaks down collagen) and fuelling inflammation through the gut-liver axis. When you remove it, your detox pathways finally get to work and your skin reflects that internal shift.

After four weeks I wasn’t relying on anything outside of myself to regulate how I felt. No cravings, no stimulation, no fatigue. Just energy. Clear skin. Deep sleep. A quiet gut. And honestly, peace, I wasn’t expecting it to feel like this. Not like restriction. Like freedom. I wasn’t thinking about food all day. I wasn’t negotiating with myself.

What has helped me quit sugar:

What made it doable:

- A Balanced plate. Lots of organic good quality protein, healthy fat, fibre, greens during the two meals I ate.

- I added minerals and electrolytes to water and drank herbal teas.

- Deep sleep. The better I slept, the less I craved and better I felt.

- Have satisfying alternatives. Cinnamon-roasted veggies, herbal teas, coconut milk with coconut shredding, nuts, seeds etc.

- Reframe the mindset. This wasn’t restriction. It was restoration.

-Being unemployed as my energy levels fluctuated.

-Deactivating social media as my feed was filled with food.

What I cut out completely:

- Refined sugar

- Honey

- Maple syrup

- Coconut sugar

- Dates & date syrup

- Agave

- Fruit juice

- Monk fruit, stevia, erythritol

What I still eat:

- Whole fruit

- Starchy vegetables

- Clean, balanced meals

- Home cooked satisfying food

Final thoughts…

Quitting sugar wasn’t about being perfect. It was about being present. It was hard at first because without the continuous intake of things that kept my dopamine artificially elevated, It showed me how much I was not actually present or appreciating so many of the little things in life that don’t release huge doses of dopamine, simply because my brain was used to such a high threshold of stimulation. I began to think about how the dopamine I got from sugar linked into the dopamine I got from being on my phone, or from online shopping because without the consistent intake of sugar and thus stimulating foods, I actually did not want to be on my phone or shop and browse as much!

Even with a strict diet you cannot “starve the yeast” the yeast will not proliferate on a strict diet but it will be put in a holding pattern. When I started the diet, I had cravings but gradually I began to feel really better and the cravings went away slowly or I should say became manageable. A hundred years ago individuals only got sugars in fruits and berries and they did not eat those in abundance, just occasionally. Eliminating grains and sugars is key to blood sugar and weight management. Even high fat diets have been shown to cause a reduction in weight and an increase in muscle mass. I know it is strange, but true. Watch the movie Cereal Killers it does against everything we’ve been taught by the medical establishment.

I wanted more clarity. More glow. More energy that felt stable and real. I wanted to support my gut, balance my hormones, and stop living in this cycle of subtle dependence on something sweet. And that’s exactly what happened. My skin changed. My digestion healed. My energy became consistent. I stopped reaching and started receiving. I’ve learned how much protein I need to feel satiated and no longer have that desire to indulge with sweet treats because I’m truly nourished and satisfied.

Will I reintroduce sugar at some point? Maybe. But for now, I don’t miss it. And I don’t need it. I am not the one to tell you that you should micromanage your sugar for the rest of your life, but I think a challenge for say a couple of months can be highly valuable to reset your dopamine levels, taste buds and learn about what your body actually needs.