When you quit sugar with your family, you’ll start to notice a few changes – from suspiciously civil family dinners to fewer midnight snack-attacks – here are the 6 ways you’ll know your family has quit sugar.

You’re arguing less

When you’re overloaded on sugar, you tend to be more irritable, with unpredictable mood swings which can cause frequent inter-family spats to break out. After you quit sugar, you may start to notice dinner time gets a lot more peaceful. With balanced blood sugars and a healthier gut, your mood, sleep and hunger cycles will all correct themselves, leaving you and your family feeling calmer and more emotionally stable. You’ll also reduce your risk for the development of mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. After all, studies have shown rates of depression to be greater in those who eat a high-sugar diet and another study shows the same diet increases the risk of developing anxiety. One study found people who drank 2 soft drinks a day had stress hormone levels 22% higher than those who did not, showing a pretty scary link between sugar and stress.

You're having fewer cravings

You may notice your family relying on after-dinner desserts becomes a thing of the past, and those midnight fridge raids come to a halt too. The reason is, after quitting sugar your hunger cues have a chance to recalibrate. If you’re eating nutritious foods like healthy fats and fibre, you’ll enjoy feeling fuller for longer. Fibre slows the metabolisation of sugar, with studies showing it reduces hunger frequency – meaning we’ll be less likely to reach for the chocolate after a stressful day. Plus, when you prioritise healthy fats like those found in avocados, olive oil and walnuts, those intense sugar cravings will lose their power, this is because they help balance blood sugar levels, according to studies.

You need new clothes

You’ll probably be feeling a few kilos lighter after ditching the sweet stuff, and this is because the fructose in sugar goes straight to your liver. The result of excess sugar can then cause the development of visceral fat – this stuff is hard to get rid of and is a great threat to our health. It can lead to anything from fatty liver disease to diabetes and, of course, obesity. Part of the reason for this is that fructose makes us insatiable – in fact, researchers have found it dysregulates our hunger signals and drives us to keep eating. Another study found that fructose stimulates our appetite instead of satisfying it, making us – yet again – eat more food. So, when you rein in your sweet tooth, you may start to notice you and your family are swimming in your jeans. When you realise it’s time to schedule a shopping trip for clothes that actually fit, this is definitely one of the times where you’ll see how far you’ve come on your sugar-free journey.

There’s less strain on the plumbing

The family toilet will thank you when you quit sugar – this is because of the improvements to your gut health, and by extension; your bowel movements. Diets high in sugar can lead to changes to our gut microbiome, with research finding it lowers microbial diversity and increases levels of Proteobacteria. This bacterium is an indicator of an unbalanced microbiome, known as dysbiosis, which leads to all those digestive and gut issues like bloating, constipation and diarrhoea. Cutting out sugar therefore improves regularity, giving the plumbing a well-deserved break.

Your fridge and pantry look a little different

After you quit sugar, you'll start to notice something a little different about the contents of your kitchen cupboards, fridge and pantry. Instead of highly-processed cereals, breads, muesli bars and flavoured yoghurts, you might start to see more whole foods and home-prepped meals. Things like fresh fruit and veg, heart-healthy seeds, nuts and fermented foods like kimchi, kefir and kombucha. Plus, you'll find a lot more aromatic ingredients like herbs and spices – this is because, with your taste buds free from the hold of sugar, you'll find the whole family is more open to expand their tastes and experiment with new ingredients that bring your dishes to life. When you notice how the cloying taste of sugar takes the flavour intensity away from your food, you'll know you've made it. So, open those cupboard doors and take a look around – what do you see?

You enjoy healthy food

Many people fear that eating healthy will feel like a chore, but you may be surprised to learn that your tastebuds recalibrate and you start to seek out those nutritious foods. That’s why the 8-Week Program is so useful – we provide those tasty, sugar-free recipes that turn you away from the addictive stuff and on to the healthy stuff. We’re talking brownies, pancakes, pasta bakes and smoothies – we’ve got it all. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Quitting sugar isn’t about losing something – it’s about gaining something: your health, your zest for life and a love of good food. So, if you’re ready to ditch sugar and the host of maladies that come with it, JOIN NOW!