Sugar. It is everywhere. It is undeniably a part of both our lives and our culture, so deeply dissolved into our daily diets that often we don’t even recognize it. Heaped into ketchup and peanut butter and granola bars and juices, things we often consider either “healthy” or “neutral” in the food pyramid, sugar is piled into almost everything these days.

The daily amount of added sugar consumed by an average American is 19 teaspoons or more, stated by WebMD. However, according to the American Heart Association, the max amount of sugar consumed by a man and woman daily is 9 and 6 teaspoons. This shocking number, well….shocked me. No wonder the obesity rates are so high. We are literally eating two to three times the amount of sugar that our bodies need.

So, I decided to go on a sugar detox, vowing to not eat sugar (processed, not natural), for one week. Normally, I inhale all things sugar and have an enormous sweet tooth, but after reading up on how unhealthy my eating habits were, I decided to give it a go. Cold turkey. It would be healthy and invigorating, and give me more energy. Fun, right?

Eh…wrong. Not realizing it, I had just sentenced myself to eating….what? What else was there to eat? My first day was fraught with a growling stomach and a desperate yearning for an A La Carte brownie. I stood in the lunch line, wondering which foods would be acceptable to eat, and hoping they would taste good.

I had to do some research and find out what I could eat. Always, fresh fruits and vegetables were the way to go, along with rich protein sources like nuts and lean meats. When I was craving that special sweet taste, dark chocolate, 70% cacao or more, was an excellent source of chocolaty goodness and fantastic antioxidants, and fruits like pears and bananas, always sweet and tasty, could substitute for a cookie.

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Honestly, being so mindful of what I was eating, I ended up eating much less than I normally would have, because when I was only eating “healthy”, non sugary foods, I didn’t feel the need to stuff myself into regret. I ate till I was full, and no more. But don’t think I wasn’t tempted. Between Milano cookies at home, chocolate-cherry cake at my Grandma’s house, and brownies at school, I was sorely wishing to end my detox early. But, I persevered.

Kind of.

Not really.

I only lasted four days. That sounds sad, and it is, but sugar is genuinely addictive. And don’t take that lightly. According to WebMD, sugar can be compared to an addiction, in that eating it gives your brain a quick, temporary high. But, as it is a fast-burning carbohydrate, the high goes away quickly, leaving the consumer to crave more. This leads to binge eating sweets and becoming dependent on the taste.

But this begs the question: Is all sugar bad?

No, some sugar is necessary to one’s health. Natural sugars in fresh fruits and vegetables are better for you, as they are accompanied with enriching nutrients like vitamin A and C, and more hearty proteins. However, sugar is still sugar, and whether or not it’s eaten it in a candy bar or a freshly picked apple, it is still a fast burning carb that has little nutritional value.

The best way to cut it out is to do what I tried: cut it out. Our taste buds are trained to crave sugar, but a study done by CNN shows that this craving can be eliminated. They had 20 people cut sugar from their diets for a week, and the results were encouraging. An impressive 95% experienced a taste change, where all the sweet sugary things they normally loved now tasted almost too sweet, and another half of them said they no longer had the craving for it.

Another way to curb the craving is to exercise. Keeping active is essential to feeling energized and healthy, and can change eating habits in general. Also, watching out for those sneaky sugars, labeled as agave nectar, high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, and sucrose.

So, if you want to kick the high-calorie habit, give it a try. Sugar detoxes, as I found, are hard stay faithful too, but they also are amazing for your health. I had more energy, felt more healthy, and felt more inclined to exercise and be active when I wasn’t eating sugar. But don’t just take my word for it.