Sugar Is Killing Your Productivity!

It shouldn’t be news to any of you that sugar is now a far bigger part of our diets than it ever has been in the past.

It has even been suggested that we eat as much as 19 teaspoons of sugar every single day! More than you realized, right?

It also shouldn't be news to you that this fact has health professionals very concerned; sugar consumption is increasingly linked to a number of very serious conditions, from diabetes and obesity to arthritis and even certain cancers.

These days it's difficult to watch TV, or visit a pharmacy, or talk to a health conscious friend without hearing about how sugar is killing you and everyone you know.

However, if you're anything like me, then you probably never take these warnings particularly seriously.
If you're a fit, healthy adult, then you might think you can afford to indulge in some sugary snacks now and again. For a lot of you (myself included), a spoonful of sugar or a shot of caramel syrup in your coffee is just what the doctor ordered on a long Thursday afternoon at the office.
But what if I told you that sugar is seriously inhibiting your mental performance on a daily basis?
What if I told you that sugar was not only undermining your learning and focus, but that your daily bag of M&Ms was putting your long-term memory function at risk?
Unfortunately, that's exactly what's happening.

Sugar & Focus

One of the reasons we love sugar so much (aside from the incredible taste of course) is the fact that it gives us a nice, quick, reliable energy boost.
I tend to schedule all of my meetings on a single day. It makes things very convenient, but by 3pm my concentration levels are low and my ability to focus on what is being said starts to ebb.
In my younger and more foolish days, this is when I would turn to sugar to keep me going. Yet as I am sure most of you know, this is the worst thing you can possibly do.
We are all familiar with the idea of the blood sugar crash.
Simple sugars (such as fructose and glucose) enter our bloodstream very rapidly, causing a huge insulin spike and an instant burst of physical energy.
As the brain's primary fuel source, glucose also gives the brain a sharp jolt of energy, allowing you to regain your focus very quickly.
Unfortunately though, that's not the end of the story.
Because they are processed so quickly, and because the insulin response is so great, simple sugars don't spend a lot of time in our blood. The sharp rise in energy levels is swiftly followed by a steep fall in energy levels. This is what we often call the "crash".
While most of us are familiar with the idea of a blood sugar surge and crash, few people realize just what profound and deep impact sugar consumption has on short-term brain function.
As explained in this article, experts now believe that sugar can block brain cell membranes, slowing down neural communication.
Sugar is also thought to interfere with chemical communication between synapses, leading to poor synaptic information transfer and ultimately, reduced cognitive capacity.
So for those of you who think you can manage a bit of a sugar crash, bare in mind the fact that the energy burst you get from your lunch time can of soda comes at a far greater cost to your brain function than a late afternoon slump.
Sugar negatively affects the physical architecture of your brain, making intense concentration and clear thinking very difficult. If your work relies on you being focused and attentive all day long, then a 4 pm energy slump might be the least of your worries.

Forget Sugar For A Better Memory

The relationship between a diet high in sugar and impaired memory function is incredibly well documented.
A study published in 2011 in Physiology and Behavior looked at how a typical Western diet affects cognitive function. The researchers found that "simple carbohydrate intake is correlated with microbiological changes"; changes which "impair cognitive function".

Interestingly, the effect that a high sugar diet has on memory function seems to be much more gradual than its effect on focus, but the damage seems to be significantly greater.

As Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, Professor of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, stated in an interview in 2012: "Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information."

So a few cans of soda per week isn't going to give you amnesia any time soon. But those cans of soda will add up over the years, and slowly but surely, your memory function will suffer.

The damage may not seem noticeable. You will probably never be able to say for definite that damage has been done.
All we can say is that the available scientific evidence tells us quite clearly that long-term sugar consumption will adversely affect our ability to learn and remember new information.
If your job relies on you being on top of your game and you're planning on having a long career, then it's time to ditch those extra few cans of soda!

Swap Out The Sugar & Unleash Your Potential

Changing your routine isn’t about dropping bad habits; it’s about replacing them with better ones. If you just try to cut out sugar from tomorrow morning, you probably aren’t going to get very far.
Instead, the best way to get sugar out of your daily routine is to start steadily replacing it with alternatives.

This can be in the form of actual sugar alternatives like Stevia.

Stevia is a plant-derived sweetener that replicates the taste of sugar without any of the caloric content. This means no energy spike, and no energy spike means no energy crash.

More importantly, Stevia does not interfere with brain cell or synapse function, unlike sugar.

So swapping a spoonful of Stevia in your morning coffee would be a good place to start.

There are lots of ways to gradually cut down the amount of sugar you consume on a daily basis, whether it’s consuming more complex carbs to reduce cravings, or loading up on water to stop you turning to the sodas in the vending machines.

The important thing is that you make a start and see what a difference it can make. Sugar is killing your productivity, your focus, and your memory. By killing sugar, you can unleash your full potential and really get the most out of every single working day.