Veronica Nabizadeh
As a health coach, I have some things to say about how to best handle a sugar hangover, especially during Halloween. For those unfamiliar with this concept, a sugar hangover occurs when your body is inundated by significant sugar intake. Sugar, as whole, is increasingly recognized as toxic to the system. It’s like gasoline. It only belongs in the gas tank or combusting in the engine and nowhere else inside the car. A sugar hangover is akin to dousing your car with gasoline.
Indulging in sugar may send you into a tailspin of body inflammation, joint pain, anxiety, depression and weight gain. Therefore, sugar addicts need to put steps in place prior to and after the sugar indulgence so that he can increase his chances of recovering physically and mentally. In this column, I will outline a specific recovery plan and then the science behind sugar consumption.
First, tell a supportive person that you plan to indulge, and commit to that person that you will stop and rid your home, car and office of any remaining sugar immediately following the sugar binge. Make sure that this person has authority over you, like a pastor, sponsor, or someone with whom you’ll be honest. Second, stock your fridge with healthy proteins (wild-caught fish, free-range chicken & turkey, beef from grass-fed cows) and healthy fats (ghee, olive oil, avocado, butter from grass-fed cows) organic vegetables and fruits. Third, make meals in advance of Halloween. Wash fruit, roast veggies. Commit to eating only and exactly these meals. Fourth, hydrate before and after eating sugar, and take some specific nutraceuticals which I’ll discuss later. Finally, plan to take a walk and sweat.
Now, lets learn what sugar does to the body. Typically, calories are metabolized in our intestines, but when they become overloaded as happens with refined sugars, our livers step in to help process. Unlike normal metabolic pathways which turn calories into cellular energy, the sugar calories shunted to the liver are converted directly into fat. This raises the risk of obesity, type-two diabetes, cardiovascular and fatty-liver disease. Sugar also accelerates the normal oxidation process in our cells, causing damage to our vital organs. Sugar reduces the body’s ability to detoxify itself. Sugar brings additional inflammation and reduces the body’s capacity to be clean and free from toxins.
On to the nutraceuticals! The best way to fight the hangover is:
1) Improve cellular metabolism, cellular metabolic efficiency and support mitochondrial function by taking vitamin B12 and Folate. A 5000 mg dose in a day during sugar indulgences significantly helps the body cope with the sugar loading. Folic acid needs to be in the form of folate/tetrahydrofolate for it to be effective in supporting the mitochondrial function. The same applies to vitamin B12. The typical over-the-counter cyanocobalamin is not effective, rather methylcobalamin is the true antioxidant and internal cellular metabolic amplifier.
2) The body uses methylation and sulfurynation as a means of tagging elements to be detoxified. These vitamins chemically tag the toxins to be taken out of circulation, which leads to their excretion and removal from the body. When the body runs out of methyl groups, it’s because there were too many enemy troops to handle. Therefore, an additional source of methylation, in the form of SAMe TMG will provide extra man-power. It will simply guide the toxic elements to the right metabolic detoxification/excretion path, already in progress, via tagging them. SAMe TMG is a great Methyl donor group.
With these steps in place, the consequences of over-eating sugar can be diminished. Here’s to a happier, healthier Halloween!
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