It’s no surprise we love sugar. The instant pleasure, calm and satisfaction it provides can be difficult to top. However, sugar is most definitely NOT so sweet. Sugar comes in various forms such as the most obvious white refined, biscuits, cakes and chocolate to the more difficult to spot such as alcohol, so-called low fat foods and even honey and fruit. I implore you to look past the pretty pink icing and recognise sugar for what it actually is a toxic, energy-dense, nutrient-poor addiction that makes you fat and miserable.
A major part of our issue with sugar is our bodies’ inability to process too much of it. Sugar will give you an instant high because it is absorbed very quickly into the bloodstream, once in the bloodstream, because of the stress that sugar puts on our body, the body will try to self regulate to maintain homeostasis and release the pancreatic hormone insulin. Insulin will diminish the effects of sugar and some, leaving your previously spiked blood sugar to plummeting low. In this low you will feel hungry and exhausted to such an extent that you will need another delicious, satisfying sugary treat to recover.
It is this rollacoaster that causes us so many problems. Once you get on it, it becomes very difficult to get off. The peaks and troughs lead to mindless eating and the consumption of unnecessary calories, that had you not had the sugary snack in the first place, you would not of needed. However, that’s not all folks, insulin is a fat-storing hormone meaning that with an increased presence in the bloodstream leads to an inability to metabolise fat. Hence the reason it would be true to say that sugar makes you fat, not fat.
Unfortunately the case against sugar doesn’t stop there. Sugar can actually be classified as an anti-nutrient because it actually draws nutrients out of the body. Along with physical, mental and emotional stress, sugar will drain your body of vitamin B, a vitamin responsible for supporting and increasing metabolism and enhancing immunity from illness and infection. All in all a kick in the nuts with regard fat-loss and fitness don’t you think? That’s without talking about its connection with diabetes and heart disease…
So what you gonna do about it?! The first thing you need to know is that cutting out sugar is the first step on your fat loss and fitness journey. You need to realise that if you continue eating sugar no amount of exercise will help you get that lean and toned look you are after. Even worse than that, sugar will quite literally kill you. Burning fat is more about controlling hormones than calories in and calories out, so balancing blood sugar is essential.
Giving up sugar is hard, it is kinda part of our survival instinct to crave it. So literally we are hardwired by evolution to want it. The good news is once you stop eating it completely for a few days you no longer crave it. So that’s what you got to do…
Cut out the delicious treats and exchange them for wholesome natural foods. You can make this easier on yourself by increasing the amount of protein slightly at each mealtime and even during snacks. By including snacks such as nuts with a piece of fruit you will keep you blood sugar fairly even and avoid those peaks and troughs that we now know lead you to store fat.
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