Is it bad to eat sugary foods, like chocolate or cake, once a week?
I am a sugar FIEND haha my belief is to start by limiting yourself to something that sounds sustainable and gradually increase the limit as the addiction dies down (if you are addicted to sugar like me). If I said no sugar except for once a week at the point I’m at right now I am pretty sure I would give in and get discouraged with myself
We store sugar in two primary ways. One is as fat, and the other is glycogen. Glycogen is the fuel for your muscles. Think of your liver and muscles as buckets stacked like a champagne glass tower on a table. As you pour the sugar in, it’s first place to go is your muscles and then the liver. If you move often and exercise, then most of the time when you eat sugar it will end up back in your muscles and liver. If you did a little bit of exercise and you eat a little bit of sugar, none of it ends up on the table. But imagine you live a sedentary lifestyle, and primarily only eat sugary/carbs. After a while, all of the buckets are already full, and now the sugar is spilling on the table. The table will be dissolved by sugar, so you sweep it up and mix it with a few other things to become ice cream and store that in the freezer.
TLDR: You can eat just as much sugar as is available in your muscles based off of your recent exercise. Your muscles can store 2000 to 5000 thousand calories and your liver anywhere between 2000 and 5000 as well. If you move then you make room for any sugar. If you sit on your ass and eat potato chips all day well we can guess what happens.
Gosh I hate thinking about this question, because if there’s sugar addiction - I got it. The things I’ve heard shows that sugar like that is the bad bad in the world; since everyone’s digestive systems are different, I believe everyone’s bodies will have a preferred amount to deal with though - plus, cutting it out completely is difficult for many reasons.
But yeah OP, once a week sounds great! I wish I could do that… As someone said, it’s totally all about context - if you’re already eating a balanced diet then I’m sure having a lil sugar every day would be fine! Have you kept track of how you feel after sugary foods? That’s also something to keep in mind when coming up with a sugar plan. If you feel sluggish after, then choose a day or event that it won’t become a problem! I don’t believe in cutting things out if it makes you happy, but you definitely gotta pay attention to your body to make it work :)
You can eat them every day if you like. It’s all about context (what does the rest of your lifestyle look like) and portions. I’d rather someone have a cookie every day while eating fruits and vegetables and whole grains and legumes, then try to be super strict all week and then on the weekend have 10 cookies.
Foods have a biological impact, but there’s also a social-emotional impact to consider.
Eating sugary food is bad, in almost all cases it will negatively affect your health, obviously there are certain exceptions such as hypoglycaemia, but, overall, cake is typically bad.
Chocolate depends as dark chocolate can be extremely low in sugar and healthy, whereas others are pure sugar.
At the end of the day, however, overall diet is more important, so just follow the 80/20 Rule.
It depends on your daily and weekly intake, sugar comes in different forms, without elaborating too much: starch (like in whole grain bread, whole wheat pasta…) and simple sugar (candies, things like milk and white chocolates, sweet pastries, sodas, fruit juice…).
No need to avoid it at all cost, because as human beings we need a certain amount of sugar, fat and proteins to function correctly. Hydrate yourself well and drink water if you’re just thirsty because juice is mostly liquid sugar. It’s better mostly to indulge your sweet cravings once in a while rather than frustrating yourself over it, try to reduce your simple sugar intake first (glucose and fructose) less than 50g/day (lactose and galactose don’t count) and eat healthy and satiating starchy food (source: WHO). Last, exercise regularly to keep your body healthy.
As some comments said sugar addiction is really tough, it’s a real thing that lots of people are struggling with, some don’t even notice since it’s became a part of them. I suggest to consult a professional in that case that may help you (dietician, psychologist, nutritionist doctor…)
Not if you’re not binging the foods. It’s the amount of sugar that becomes an issue. My husband and I each have a Ferrero Rocher each night after dinner. It’s the highlight of my day and makes me not want sugary snacks throughout the day knowing I’ll have a treat at night.