Do you have brain fog?
That muzzy headed, lack of clarity, forgetfulness can be linked to processed carbs and sugar and often when we are starting our sugar-free journey this can feel worse for a while.
Our brain is the part of the body that is most affected by body sugar. Studies have shown that when our blood sugar falls we can experience anxiety, low mood, fogginess and lack of mental agility, this feeling can make memorising things, concentration and creativity almost impossible.
Blood sugar is most affected by processed carbohydrates and sugar, eating these foods floods our body with sugars which send our blood sugar rocketing up. This gives us a quick burst of energy and the body having to work really hard producing insulin to deal with any excess sugar left over after immediate energy requirements, packing it away into the muscles or as fat. This euphoria or burst of energy is soon followed by the crash and for many of us who have a sugar 'habit' this means we start craving another sugar 'fix' and so the cycle begins again. This up and down cycle really 'does our head in' so to speak as our brain goes from wired to deprivation and because our insulin levels never really drop this blocks us being able to access the energy stored as fat in our body.
What our brains thrive on is having a continual glucose available. This does not mean eating all the time, it means creating hormonal balance so that the body is always able to access energy stores (fat) 24/7. If we eat a 'low and slow' diet, meaning low in sugar and slow in burning, our need to produce insulin is minimised. When this happens we move form fat storage mode to fat burning mode meaning if we are unable to eat for any reasons our body just dips into our fat stores for energy, thus keeping our brain and body continually suppled with glucose.