Sneaky Sugar: What you don’t know might Be Hurting You
Why talk about sugar?
This is a big subject, and it’s something that effects every one us in ways that most people do not realize.
Let’s cover some basics about WHAT you should know about sugar, WHY you should know that … AND a few simple tips to help you drop unwanted weight and keep your energy steady all day long.
First, WHAT do we mean by Sneaky Sugar?
When we eat a cookie for example, we know we’re eating sugar … vs. eating a turkey sandwich and not realizing that the sandwich probably has more sugar in it than the cookie!
Truth #1: Different forms of sugar are being added to the majority of our packaged and processed foods. They are just called different things … sometimes it’s obvious when we read the ingredients, sometimes it’s not.
Why is this happening? Because most people find a sweet taste pleasing, and it’s very easy to get used to it, crave it, and over-eat because of it. Food manufacturers understand this, and would like very much to sell more of their packaged products.
Truth #2: Sugar in its various forms is highly addictive. The more we have, the more we want. For most companies who provide packaged food, this has been very profitable.
So WHY is it important to know how much sugar we are consuming? Haven’t people been using forms of sugar for a long time?
In our grandparents or great parents day, people only had sugar occasionally … maybe on Christmas or as a treat. Now, they say the average American consumes about 152 lbs. a year, or 3 lbs. a week. Sugar is not evil or bad … we’re just consuming too much of it!
Important to note: When we think about sugar, we also need to think about high sugar-impact foods … which are the processed, refined versions of food such as: Wheat flour, fruit juice … where the fiber been removed.
Over-consumption of sugar and high sugar impact foods can l lead to a host of chronic disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, inflammation, heart disease, fatty liver and many more.
Get off of this ride …
Ok, now we get to talk about the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster! This is a ride we have probably all taken whether we knew it or not.
Here’s an example: You skip breakfast. At mid-morning you want an extra coffee or something sweet. By lunch time you are ravenous, and tend to eat too much, too fast. In the afternoon you may feel sleepy and need a caffeinated drink and/or something sweet again. You may eat tend to eat too much at dinner, or not eat much but are snacking late at night. The next day, you tend to start the cycle all over again.
Does this sound familiar?
All of these crazy highs and lows we put ourselves through are not only making us feel awful, but this can lead to a cascade of health issues such as weight gain (especially around the belly) and insulin resistance. Eventually it can lead to those other chronic conditions that I mentioned earlier.
Don’t panic! There is help
Tip #1: Read the ingredients label. Sometimes sugar is obvious in the labeling, sometimes not! Any word that ends with -OSE is a sugar, as well as any fruit juice concentrates. Also, avoid refined and packaged foods whenever possible. Your healthiest choice is whole food, without any refining … whole fruit or vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats.
Let me know if you have any questions about this or would like a list of examples.
Tip #2: Eat a healthy breakfast, even if it’s a little later in the morning. Eat less at night, try not to snack after dinner.
I hope you got some useful information about how high sugar impact foods and how to hopefully get off the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster. We just barely scratched the surface. There is so many other things we can do to really improve the quality of our lives.
Just remember, if you feel like you might be on that Blood Sugar Roller Coaster or just want to stop craving sugar … you don’t have to or go cold turkey on your own.
Here’s Truth #3: Trying to grit your teeth and gut it out on your own is probably going to be very rough and will not be sustainable over time.
Let me know if you need help.
