Today’ Re-Powering information. I know I tend to keep coming back to the topic of sugar, however it’s one that a lot of people struggle with. Sugar fatigues you, keeps you fat and breaks your body down. I have not tried either of the suggestions that Dr. Mercola recommend, but they both stand to reason as options. If sugar is something you battle, you may consider one of these two options. Read the article and Dr. Mercola’s comments.
When Unhealthy Foods Hijack Your Brain
junk foodsIn a book being published next week, former FDA chief Dr. David Kessler brings to consumers the disturbing conclusion of numerous brain studies -- some people really do have a harder time resisting bad foods.
At issue is how the brain becomes primed by different stimuli. Neuroscientists increasingly report that fat-and-sugar combinations in particular light up the brain's dopamine pathway -- its pleasure-sensing spot. This is the same pathway that conditions people to alcohol or drugs.
The culprits foods are "layered and loaded" with combinations of fat, sugar and salt, and they are often so processed that you don't even have to chew much.
Overeaters must take responsibility, too, and basically retrain their brains to resist the lure, says Kessler.
Sources:
Washington Post April 23, 2009
Dr. Mercola''s Comments
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Many people can relate to what David Kessler, the former FDA chief, calls “conditioned hypereating” -- a drive to eat sugary, greasy processed foods that has nothing to do with hunger.
It can happen when you walk by a vending machine, drive by one of your favorite restaurants or bakeries, or even when you’re sitting at home watching TV. Suddenly you get a craving for something you know isn’t good for you -- cookies, French fries, ice cream, potato chips, that sort of thing -- and your willpower seems to crumble.
This is an epidemic problem, as in the United States 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is for processed food, and junk food is available just about everywhere, including in hospitals and schools.
It’s clear that something about these foods is able to wield an incredibly strong force over many of us, to the point that obesity has been named the fastest growing health threat in the United States, and two-thirds of adults are already overweight or obese.
So what is going on here? What about these foods compel people to overeat them at the expense of their waistline, and more importantly their health?
Why It’s So Easy to Be Addicted to Junk Food and Fast Food
Taste, convenience and cost certainly play a role in making junk foods appealing, but there’s more to it than that. The large amounts of sugar, salt and grease in junk foods are clearly addictive.
In one study, rats fed a diet containing 25 percent sugar became anxious when the sugar was removed -- displaying symptoms similar to people going through drug withdrawals, such as chattering teeth and the shakes.
A link was found between opioids, or your brain’s 'pleasure chemicals,' and a craving for sweet, salty and fatty foods. It is thought that high-fat foods stimulate the opioids, as when researchers stimulated rats’ brains with a synthetic version of the natural opioid enkephalin, the rats ate up to six times their normal intake of fat.
Further, long-lasting changes in rats' brain chemistry, similar to those caused by morphine or heroin use, were also noted. According to researchers, this means that even simple exposure to pleasurable foods is enough to change gene expression, which suggests an addiction to the food.
Your Genes Remember When You Eat Sugar
When you eat sugar, not only do your genes turn off controls designed to protect you from heart disease and diabetes, but the impact lasts for two weeks!
Even more concerning, if you eat poorly for a long time your DNA may become permanently altered and the effects could be passed on to your children and grandchildren.
In other words, you are born with a set of genes, but the expression of those genes is not set in stone. Your genes can be either activated or silenced by various factors including your diet and even your mind. It is not your genes that dictate your future health, but rather the expression of those genes that matter.
So in the case of eating sugar, it’s now known that this switches off good genes that protect your body from disease. This is just one of many reasons why you may want to seriously limit or eliminate sugar from your diet.
Sugar is Incredibly Addictive
Another reason we know that people’s love for sugar goes far beyond taste is because of its addictive properties.
Refined sugar is far more addictive than cocaine -- it is one of the most addictive and harmful substances currently known. In fact, an astonishing 94 percent of rats who were allowed to choose between sugar, water and cocaine, chose sugar.
Even rats who were addicted to cocaine quickly switched their preference to sugar, once it was offered as a choice.
The researchers speculate that the sweet receptors (two protein receptors located on your tongue), which evolved in ancestral times when diets were very low in sugar, have not adapted to modern times’ high sugar consumption.
Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward signals in your brain, which have the potential to override normal self-control mechanisms, and thus lead to addiction.
Your Emotions Play a Major Role, Too
As Kessler said, "Once you know what's driving your behavior, you can put steps into place" to change it.
What this means is whenever you feel the desire to binge on junk foods, it’s necessary that you have a system in place to help curb those cravings.
The system that I personally use and most highly recommend is called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over 5,000 years, but without the invasiveness of needles.
When your body's energy system is disrupted, you are more likely to experience distractions and discomforts related to food, and more likely to engage in emotional eating. Instead, if you engage your body's subtle energy system with EFT, the distracting discomforts like food cravings often subside.
The other major factor that will help you to break an addiction to junk food is tailoring your diet to your nutritional type. Nutritional Typing will teach you which foods you are designed to eat and the ideal proportions of the types of nutrients you require, whether you are a 'Carb', a 'Protein', or a 'Mixed' type.
When you eat the foods that are right for your biochemistry, it will push your body toward its ideal weight and you’ll notice that food cravings largely subside. This is because you’re giving your body the fuel it needs, so you’ll feel satiated throughout the day and be far less tempted by the sugary and greasy foods that once had a hold over you.
End.
Have an uncomfortable day!
Showing posts with label Sugar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sugar. Show all posts
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
More ammunition to avoid sugar in your diet!
Today’s Re-Powering information – More ammunition to avoid sugar in your diet!
Soft Drinks and Energy Drinks: Too Sweet for Your Own Good
April 21, 2009 01:39 PM ET | Katherine Hobson | Permanent Link | Print
Sugary soft drinks and energy drinks are taking it on the chin these days. First, two public-health experts floated the idea of a specific tax on sodas and energy drinks, and now, two other researchers are saying the drinks contribute to obesity and need an extreme makeover.
Walter Willett, who chairs the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, argues that there is a "direct causal link" between sugar-sweetened soft drinks and energy drinks and obesity, which is in turn linked to heart disease, some types of cancer, arthritis, and type 2 diabetes. So he and a colleague, Lilian Cheung, a lecturer in the nutrition department, are suggesting that we all start focusing on drinks with a far lower sugar and calorie content: things like water, tea, seltzer with a splash of juice, and coffee with one lump of sugar.
They call on beverage makers to create reduced-calorie beverages with no more than 1 gram of sugar per ounce, without using noncaloric sweeteners like aspartame and stevia. [See why VitaminWater is a poster child for the importance of reading food and drink labels.]
That kind of beverage would have about 3 teaspoons of sugar per 12 ounces and about 50 calories. Look at Harvard's chart to see how soft drinks, juices, and sports drinks stack up next to that standard-the worst offender, cranberry juice cocktail, has 200 calories and 12 teaspoons of sugar in a 12-ounce serving. (No word yet on how the beverage industry trade group has received this suggestion, but I will write a post if it does respond.)
[Here's the skinny on caloric sweeteners like agave and corn syrup.]
Why the fuss over sugary beverages rather than, say, candy bars? Willett and Cheung say that these drinks are the largest source of added sugar in the diet of young Americans, with teen boys drinking more than a quart per day. In addition, other researchers, such as Barry Popkin, have suggested that liquid calories don't prompt our bodies to feel full the way calories in solid form do. The Harvard folks say we need to retrain our bodies away from intense sweetness, which is why their hypothesized beverages don't include low-calorie sweeteners like stevia, either. "When adults get conditioned to everything being sweet, it's hard to appreciate the gentle sweetness of a carrot or an apple," says Willett. That means using even low-calorie sweeteners may lead to weight gain, he says. A study published last year suggesting low-calorie sweeteners led to overeating.
End
Realize that every choice is a work in progress. Do your best to make the better bad choices until you are making the healthiest choices 80% of the time.
Success is a process!
Have an ultrawell day!
Soft Drinks and Energy Drinks: Too Sweet for Your Own Good
April 21, 2009 01:39 PM ET | Katherine Hobson | Permanent Link | Print
Sugary soft drinks and energy drinks are taking it on the chin these days. First, two public-health experts floated the idea of a specific tax on sodas and energy drinks, and now, two other researchers are saying the drinks contribute to obesity and need an extreme makeover.
Walter Willett, who chairs the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, argues that there is a "direct causal link" between sugar-sweetened soft drinks and energy drinks and obesity, which is in turn linked to heart disease, some types of cancer, arthritis, and type 2 diabetes. So he and a colleague, Lilian Cheung, a lecturer in the nutrition department, are suggesting that we all start focusing on drinks with a far lower sugar and calorie content: things like water, tea, seltzer with a splash of juice, and coffee with one lump of sugar.
They call on beverage makers to create reduced-calorie beverages with no more than 1 gram of sugar per ounce, without using noncaloric sweeteners like aspartame and stevia. [See why VitaminWater is a poster child for the importance of reading food and drink labels.]
That kind of beverage would have about 3 teaspoons of sugar per 12 ounces and about 50 calories. Look at Harvard's chart to see how soft drinks, juices, and sports drinks stack up next to that standard-the worst offender, cranberry juice cocktail, has 200 calories and 12 teaspoons of sugar in a 12-ounce serving. (No word yet on how the beverage industry trade group has received this suggestion, but I will write a post if it does respond.)
[Here's the skinny on caloric sweeteners like agave and corn syrup.]
Why the fuss over sugary beverages rather than, say, candy bars? Willett and Cheung say that these drinks are the largest source of added sugar in the diet of young Americans, with teen boys drinking more than a quart per day. In addition, other researchers, such as Barry Popkin, have suggested that liquid calories don't prompt our bodies to feel full the way calories in solid form do. The Harvard folks say we need to retrain our bodies away from intense sweetness, which is why their hypothesized beverages don't include low-calorie sweeteners like stevia, either. "When adults get conditioned to everything being sweet, it's hard to appreciate the gentle sweetness of a carrot or an apple," says Willett. That means using even low-calorie sweeteners may lead to weight gain, he says. A study published last year suggesting low-calorie sweeteners led to overeating.
End
Realize that every choice is a work in progress. Do your best to make the better bad choices until you are making the healthiest choices 80% of the time.
Success is a process!
Have an ultrawell day!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Cereals are 50% Sugar
Today’s Re-Powering Information –Obesity rates and diabetes in our children is on the rise like never before in history. When children start their day out with a cereal that is 50% or more sugar, it sets the tone for the day which includes no nutrition to nourish their bodies and to crave more sugar throughout the day. Read the article below to see how much sugar is in your favorite cereals, the ones we grew up on and the ones we are feeding our kids. In addition to their suggestions I also like Kashi, Mothers, Natures Way, Circadian Farms, Annies and Barbara’s. Breakfast does what it says – breaks the fast and you want to choose a balanced breakfast that is LOW in sugar. Milk also has sugar especially if you use a flavored milk such as vanilla. Soy milk also may have added sugar.
This is from www.Reuters.com
Some cereals more than half sugar: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some breakfast cereals marketed to U.S. children are more than half sugar by weight and many get only fair scores on nutritional value, Consumer Reports said on Wednesday.
A serving of 11 popular cereals, including Kellogg's Honey Smacks, carries as much sugar as a glazed doughnut, the consumer group found.
And some brands have more sugar and sodium when formulated for the U.S. market than the same brands have when sold in other countries.
Post Golden Crisp made by Kraft Foods Inc and Kellogg's Honey Smacks are more than 50 percent sugar by weight, the group said, while nine brands are at least 40 percent sugar.
The most healthful brands are Cheerios with three grams of fiber per serving and one gram of sugar, Kix and Honey Nut Cheerios, all made by General Mills, and Life, made by Pepsico Inc's Quaker Oats unit.
"Be sure to read the product labels, and choose cereals that are high in fiber and low in sugar and sodium," Gayle Williams, deputy editor of Consumer Reports Health, said in a statement.
Honey Smacks has 15 grams of sugar and just one gram of fiber per serving while Kellogg's Corn Pops has 12 grams of sugar and no fiber.
Consumer Reports studied how 91 children aged 6 to 16 poured their cereal and found they served themselves about 50 to 65 percent more on average than the suggested serving size for three of the four tested cereals.
Consumers International, which publishes Consumer Reports, said it would ask the World Health Organization to develop international guidelines restricting advertising and marketing of foods high in sugar, fat or sodium to children.
However, the group noted that breakfast cereal can be a healthful meal and said adults and children alike who eat breakfast have better overall nutrition, fewer weight problems, and better cognitive performance throughout the day.
Kellogg said it was working to make its food more nutritious.
"Kellogg recently reformulated a number of our cereals including Froot Loops, Corn Pops, Rice Krispies, Cocoa Krispies and Apple Jacks in the U.S. with improved nutritional profiles," a company spokeswoman said by e-mail.
"To put Consumer Reports' information in perspective, yogurt contains more sugar and sodium than a serving of Honey Smacks cereal (25 grams of sugar vs. 15 grams of sugar in Honey Smacks)."
Consumer Reports, like other groups, compares the sugar content of food with its fiber, mineral and vitamin content. Many cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals.
End
Today, take one step to move you closer to where you want to be.
Your friend in fitness,
This is from www.Reuters.com
Some cereals more than half sugar: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some breakfast cereals marketed to U.S. children are more than half sugar by weight and many get only fair scores on nutritional value, Consumer Reports said on Wednesday.
A serving of 11 popular cereals, including Kellogg's Honey Smacks, carries as much sugar as a glazed doughnut, the consumer group found.
And some brands have more sugar and sodium when formulated for the U.S. market than the same brands have when sold in other countries.
Post Golden Crisp made by Kraft Foods Inc and Kellogg's Honey Smacks are more than 50 percent sugar by weight, the group said, while nine brands are at least 40 percent sugar.
The most healthful brands are Cheerios with three grams of fiber per serving and one gram of sugar, Kix and Honey Nut Cheerios, all made by General Mills, and Life, made by Pepsico Inc's Quaker Oats unit.
"Be sure to read the product labels, and choose cereals that are high in fiber and low in sugar and sodium," Gayle Williams, deputy editor of Consumer Reports Health, said in a statement.
Honey Smacks has 15 grams of sugar and just one gram of fiber per serving while Kellogg's Corn Pops has 12 grams of sugar and no fiber.
Consumer Reports studied how 91 children aged 6 to 16 poured their cereal and found they served themselves about 50 to 65 percent more on average than the suggested serving size for three of the four tested cereals.
Consumers International, which publishes Consumer Reports, said it would ask the World Health Organization to develop international guidelines restricting advertising and marketing of foods high in sugar, fat or sodium to children.
However, the group noted that breakfast cereal can be a healthful meal and said adults and children alike who eat breakfast have better overall nutrition, fewer weight problems, and better cognitive performance throughout the day.
Kellogg said it was working to make its food more nutritious.
"Kellogg recently reformulated a number of our cereals including Froot Loops, Corn Pops, Rice Krispies, Cocoa Krispies and Apple Jacks in the U.S. with improved nutritional profiles," a company spokeswoman said by e-mail.
"To put Consumer Reports' information in perspective, yogurt contains more sugar and sodium than a serving of Honey Smacks cereal (25 grams of sugar vs. 15 grams of sugar in Honey Smacks)."
Consumer Reports, like other groups, compares the sugar content of food with its fiber, mineral and vitamin content. Many cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals.
End
Today, take one step to move you closer to where you want to be.
Your friend in fitness,
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Today’s Re-Powering Information: - Today’s information is about carbs in the diet. Dr. Atkins did a great thing when he brout to the attention of Americans that we were over consuming carbs. The mistake he made is that all carbs were lumped together and the truth is that all carbs are not created equal. You want to have some of the whole grain lower glycemic carbs such as steel cut oats, quinoa, brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc. We want to avoid the processed carbs found in baked goods, white breads, white pasta, cereal, etc. Below is some new research on the effects of fructose on putting fat onto our body as well as Dr. Mercola’s take on the article. Remember these are Dr. Mercola’s opinions. I happen to agree with most of what he says and he goes against most conventional medicine.
Some Carbs Turn to Fat Fast in Your Body
According to new research, people on low-carb diets lose weight in part because they get less fructose, a type of sugar that can be made into body fat quickly.
The study shows that the type of carbs someone eats can be as important as the amount. Although fructose is naturally found in high levels in fruit, it is also added to many processed foods, especially in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.
For the study, six healthy people performed three different tests involving drinking various mixes of glucose and fructose. Researchers found that fructose turned into body fat much more quickly, and that having it for breakfast changed how the body handled fats at lunch.
Sources:
• NBC5 July 25, 2008
• Journal of Nutrition June 2008, 138:1039-1046
How Women Can Use This Simple Fat Tweak to Improve Their Health
Find Out More
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
It’s great to find this study is bringing some attention to the dangers of fructose. So often it’s mistakenly labeled as a “healthy” form of sugar, when in reality too much fructose will pack on the pounds faster than a buffet of French fries and Krispy Cremes.
If you need to lose weight, fructose is one type of sugar you’ll want to avoid, particularly in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Actually, even if you don’t need to lose weight, you should still avoid excess fructose if you want to stay healthy.
Eating + Fructose = Fat
Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar.
"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose," said Dr. Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center and lead author of the study in Science Daily.
“Once you start the process of fat synthesis from fructose, it's hard to slow it down," she said. “ … The bottom line of this study is that fructose very quickly gets made into fat in the body."
How does this happen?
Well, most fats are formed in your liver, and when sugar enters your liver, it decides whether to store it, burn it or turn it into fat. Fructose, however, bypasses this process and turns full speed ahead into fat.
"It's basically sneaking into the rock concert through the fence," Dr. Parks told Science Daily. "It's a less-controlled movement of fructose through these pathways that causes it to contribute to greater triglyceride [i.e. fat] synthesis.”
Ironically, the very products that most people rely on to lose weight -- low-fat diet foods -- are often those that contain the most fructose! Even “natural” diet foods often contain fructose as a sweetener.
Fat is Not the Only Downside to Fructose
Aside from the weight gain, eating too much fructose is linked to increases in triglyceride levels. In one study, eating fructose raised triglyceride levels by 32 percent in men!
Triglycerides, the chemical form of fat found in foods and in your body, are not something you want in excess amounts. Intense research over the past 40 years has confirmed that elevated blood levels of triglycerides, known as hypertriglyceridemia, puts you at an increased risk of heart disease.
Meanwhile, one of the most thorough scientific analyses published to date on this topic found that fructose consumption leads to “decreased signaling to the central nervous system from 2 hormones (leptin and insulin).”
Leptin is responsible for controlling your appetite and fat storage, as well as telling your liver what to do with its stored glucose. When your body can no longer “hear” leptin’s signals, weight gain, diabetes and a host of related conditions may occur.
“The long-term consumption of diets high in … fructose is likely to lead to increased energy intake, weight gain, and obesity,” the analysis concluded. “The potential for weight gain from increased fructose consumption may only represent one aspect of its metabolic consequences.”
Are You Eating More Fructose Than You Realize?
Since the 1970s the consumption of HFCS in the United States has skyrocketed. The largest contributor is easily soda (The number one source of calories in America!), for which HFCS is the primary sweetener. But HFCS is not only in sugary drinks. It’s in the vast majority of processed foods, even those you wouldn’t think of as sweet, such as ketchup, soup, salad dressing, bread and crackers.
So even if you don’t drink soda, if you eat processed foods you’re likely consuming fructose -- and a lot of it.
Beware of HFCS Propaganda
To further complicate matters, the Corn Refiners Association recently launched a major advertising and PR campaign designed to rehabilitate HFCS’ reputation. The group is spending $20 million to $30 million on the campaign, including running full-page ads in more than a dozen major newspapers, claiming that the product is no worse for you than sugar.
This, of course, is not true.
The Corn Growers Association wants you to believe that HFCS has the "same natural sweeteners as table sugar and honey." But don’t fall for it. HFCS is highly processed and does not exist anywhere in nature.
The Safest Sweeteners Around?
Ideally I recommend that you avoid sugar, in all forms. This is especially important for people who are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure.
But if you’re looking for the occasional sweet treat, I recommend, in this order:
1. The herb stevia (this is the best and safest sweetener, although illegal to use according to the FDA)
2. Raw, organic honey
3. Organic cane sugar
I recommend avoiding all other types of sugar, including fructose, HFCS, and any type of artificial sweeteners. The easiest way to do this is to stop drinking soda and stop eating processed foods.
Small amounts of whole fruit, which do contain fructose, are not a problem. If you’re healthy, you can enjoy fruit in moderation according to your nutritional type.
End
Again I agree with Dr. Mercola’s comments regarding sugar. Alcohol is a sugar and like alcohol, sugar must be weaned off. Like alcohol, the more you have the more you want. When giving up sugar or alcohol you may have headaches, cravings and be grumpy initially, but then something incredible happens when you are without sugar . . . you feel great, your energy soars, you crave healthy things! Than if you have sugar when you are not used to it you feel like you are drugged b/c of the effects. – brain fog, lethargic, no energy, headache, etc.
Your friend in fitness,
Kelli Calabrese
www.KelliCalabrese.com
www.ArgyleBootCamp.com
Kelli@KelliCalabrese.com
Some Carbs Turn to Fat Fast in Your Body
According to new research, people on low-carb diets lose weight in part because they get less fructose, a type of sugar that can be made into body fat quickly.
The study shows that the type of carbs someone eats can be as important as the amount. Although fructose is naturally found in high levels in fruit, it is also added to many processed foods, especially in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.
For the study, six healthy people performed three different tests involving drinking various mixes of glucose and fructose. Researchers found that fructose turned into body fat much more quickly, and that having it for breakfast changed how the body handled fats at lunch.
Sources:
• NBC5 July 25, 2008
• Journal of Nutrition June 2008, 138:1039-1046
How Women Can Use This Simple Fat Tweak to Improve Their Health
Find Out More
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
It’s great to find this study is bringing some attention to the dangers of fructose. So often it’s mistakenly labeled as a “healthy” form of sugar, when in reality too much fructose will pack on the pounds faster than a buffet of French fries and Krispy Cremes.
If you need to lose weight, fructose is one type of sugar you’ll want to avoid, particularly in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Actually, even if you don’t need to lose weight, you should still avoid excess fructose if you want to stay healthy.
Eating + Fructose = Fat
Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar.
"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose," said Dr. Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center and lead author of the study in Science Daily.
“Once you start the process of fat synthesis from fructose, it's hard to slow it down," she said. “ … The bottom line of this study is that fructose very quickly gets made into fat in the body."
How does this happen?
Well, most fats are formed in your liver, and when sugar enters your liver, it decides whether to store it, burn it or turn it into fat. Fructose, however, bypasses this process and turns full speed ahead into fat.
"It's basically sneaking into the rock concert through the fence," Dr. Parks told Science Daily. "It's a less-controlled movement of fructose through these pathways that causes it to contribute to greater triglyceride [i.e. fat] synthesis.”
Ironically, the very products that most people rely on to lose weight -- low-fat diet foods -- are often those that contain the most fructose! Even “natural” diet foods often contain fructose as a sweetener.
Fat is Not the Only Downside to Fructose
Aside from the weight gain, eating too much fructose is linked to increases in triglyceride levels. In one study, eating fructose raised triglyceride levels by 32 percent in men!
Triglycerides, the chemical form of fat found in foods and in your body, are not something you want in excess amounts. Intense research over the past 40 years has confirmed that elevated blood levels of triglycerides, known as hypertriglyceridemia, puts you at an increased risk of heart disease.
Meanwhile, one of the most thorough scientific analyses published to date on this topic found that fructose consumption leads to “decreased signaling to the central nervous system from 2 hormones (leptin and insulin).”
Leptin is responsible for controlling your appetite and fat storage, as well as telling your liver what to do with its stored glucose. When your body can no longer “hear” leptin’s signals, weight gain, diabetes and a host of related conditions may occur.
“The long-term consumption of diets high in … fructose is likely to lead to increased energy intake, weight gain, and obesity,” the analysis concluded. “The potential for weight gain from increased fructose consumption may only represent one aspect of its metabolic consequences.”
Are You Eating More Fructose Than You Realize?
Since the 1970s the consumption of HFCS in the United States has skyrocketed. The largest contributor is easily soda (The number one source of calories in America!), for which HFCS is the primary sweetener. But HFCS is not only in sugary drinks. It’s in the vast majority of processed foods, even those you wouldn’t think of as sweet, such as ketchup, soup, salad dressing, bread and crackers.
So even if you don’t drink soda, if you eat processed foods you’re likely consuming fructose -- and a lot of it.
Beware of HFCS Propaganda
To further complicate matters, the Corn Refiners Association recently launched a major advertising and PR campaign designed to rehabilitate HFCS’ reputation. The group is spending $20 million to $30 million on the campaign, including running full-page ads in more than a dozen major newspapers, claiming that the product is no worse for you than sugar.
This, of course, is not true.
The Corn Growers Association wants you to believe that HFCS has the "same natural sweeteners as table sugar and honey." But don’t fall for it. HFCS is highly processed and does not exist anywhere in nature.
The Safest Sweeteners Around?
Ideally I recommend that you avoid sugar, in all forms. This is especially important for people who are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure.
But if you’re looking for the occasional sweet treat, I recommend, in this order:
1. The herb stevia (this is the best and safest sweetener, although illegal to use according to the FDA)
2. Raw, organic honey
3. Organic cane sugar
I recommend avoiding all other types of sugar, including fructose, HFCS, and any type of artificial sweeteners. The easiest way to do this is to stop drinking soda and stop eating processed foods.
Small amounts of whole fruit, which do contain fructose, are not a problem. If you’re healthy, you can enjoy fruit in moderation according to your nutritional type.
End
Again I agree with Dr. Mercola’s comments regarding sugar. Alcohol is a sugar and like alcohol, sugar must be weaned off. Like alcohol, the more you have the more you want. When giving up sugar or alcohol you may have headaches, cravings and be grumpy initially, but then something incredible happens when you are without sugar . . . you feel great, your energy soars, you crave healthy things! Than if you have sugar when you are not used to it you feel like you are drugged b/c of the effects. – brain fog, lethargic, no energy, headache, etc.
Your friend in fitness,
Kelli Calabrese
www.KelliCalabrese.com
www.ArgyleBootCamp.com
Kelli@KelliCalabrese.com
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