Sugar Ah Honey Honey

Some time last year I heard a lot about people 'quitting sugar' I never paid too much attention to it because, well, one thing at a time. I'd taken up crossfit and clean eating which were HUGE changes for me and I was busy embracing them. Had I cut out sugar at that point I'm not sure my eating habits would have been sustainable. But a seed was planted.

This year I've been hearing and reading more and more about the obesity pandemic (lets be honest it's not an epidemic anymore, this shits gone Global). Did you know there are now 30% more obese people on the planet then there are undernourished people?
I decided to do some further reading to try and educate myself on the supposed dangers of sugar (and to take a break from my insane Game of Thrones marathon).

I didn't think the findings of this book would have such an effect on me and thought it would mostly be stuff I already knew. I thought  didn't eat very much sugar - I have a bit of honey and maple syrup here and there but thought they were OK as they are a 'natural source'.

I purchased a copy of Dr Lustig's book (available on amazon) 'fat chance, the hidden truth about sugar' and it's been a total game changer for me.

I can't recommend this book enough - though it's not the easiest book to read. Dr Lustig has decades of experience in endocrinology (medicine concerned with hormones) and has argued his case well. Though you might not understand the sciency jargon at first, the author simplifies his point in a way that everyone can understand. Some of the stuff I already knew, and other stuff has completely changed my attitude towards food, and particularly sugar.

You might be thinking now, everything in moderation is fine (which it is but ever wondered about how your moderation differs to so someone else perception of moderation?). Why would anyone choose to give up sugar?

Well here's a couple of bits to chew on... And I'm trying to use scare tactics here, I'm just trying to be informative. At the end of the day you body is yours to do with as you please and see fit and I'm ok with that.

So where does it all begin? We haven't always had an obesity problem, so where did it start? One theory is that in the 80's the media taught us to be afraid of fat (much like it is doing with sugar right now). Fat was removed from food and new foods were invented providing low fat options for those desperately trying to lose weight. Removing fat, removes the flavour and in comes sugar to sweeten the taste and make your low fat diet easy to stick to.

The problem with sugar (and this means ALL kinds of sugar by all names available for it, honey and all) is the effect it has on your insulin production, subsequently making it difficult for you to stop eating when your full (because your brain can't register that your stomach has had enough). It makes us feel good whilst we're eating it so we don't feel the need to stop and this leads to a series of knock on effects in our bodies. Including making it very hard to shift fat and burn energy efficiently.

Also at this point I'd like to point out that if you're not overweight, this doesn't mean you're in 'good health'. You might be familiar with the term TOFI? Thin outside, fat inside? Well sugar has a lovely way of making that energy we don't burn turn into visceral fat. The dangerous kind which is unseen and clings to our organs. Basically, unless you have a high percentage of body muscle, you may not exempt.

The author of this book goes on the premise that 'a calorie is not just a calorie'. 200 calories from a slice of cake might make you gain fat whereas 200 calories of fruit might not. I'm a firm believer of this theory after seeing such positive effects from clean eating - essentially I had already experienced and believed this was the care without knowing the science behind it.

A lot of the contents of this book hit home with me. Now I have a real sweet tooth. As I child I would pop sugar cubes endlessly into my mouth until I was told off. When trying to eat healthy I ate endless amounts of fruit, nutri-grain bars, muller light yoghurts and juice - all the while thinking I was doing myself a favour. I never lost weight, and if I did it was short lived. Weight has also been a concern for me as I've always worried about being predisposed to gaining weight as I age. From what I've read I'm pretty sure I am, but from what I've learnt, I know I can manage it.

Unfortunately it's not easy to tell whether you have visceral fat or not

The problem with foods which are low in fat, or high in sugar (pretty much all processed food) is that they hold little to no nutritional value and therefore our bodies don't process them well. Hmm... This sounds a lot like the theory behind clean eating doesn't it?

Let us look at orange juice. How often do you have a glass of OJ in the morning? You might want to rethink that...

So here is a 250ml bottle of OJ, vs a 330ml can of coke. Note that the side of the can says 'no added sugar' well that's lucky because there's a whopping 35g of sugar in this can. But there are 25g of sugar in the orange juice. If we do the math - 35g / 330 = 0.106 * 100 = 10.6g * 2.5 (to make it equal to 250ml) = 26.5g.

Yup. There is approximately 1.5g more sugar in a can of coke than in a glass of orange juice. And how much orange juice are you drinking? From what I see people are pouring glasses much much bugger than 250ml.

But wait. These are naturally occurring sugars from fruit aren't they? Well yes,you're right, they are. And lucky for you the manufactures have taken away any fibre that was in that delicious orange they juiced so the sugar in the drink will be absorbed just as quickly as the can of coke and promote a rise in insulin.

Let's explain that further so you can all save your money (and your liver) from the extensive juice and smoothie industry which is continuously growing whilst or waistlines continuously expand.

Fibre is key. We should all aim to eat more fibre. Fibre can reduce the pace at which food is absorbed, thus slowing the rate at which sugar is absorbed by the body and letting us use our energy slowly over time. Fruit contains fibre. Juices contain a lot less fibre. Fruit good, juice bad. And a calorie isn't just a calorie.

The book mentioned above has made a convincing argument about the detriments of sugar and the effect it's having globally in more ways than you could ever imagine. My mind is made up and I will continue to avoid this supposed 'toxin' where possible. Unfortunately, it might be harder to avoid than you think. After months of clean eating my progress began to stagnate, even with the introduction of crossfit and today I put it down to the inability to avoid honey on my Greek Yoghurt and Maple Syrup on my banana pancakes.

As you can probably tell, I could talk about this subject endlessly so I will leave it for you to decide whether to ignore the above, take note or even maybe do you're own research into this.

If you're interested, take a look through the below at some of the huge amounts of sugar you might not be expecting to consume in everyday products.

Until next time,

Peace

x Minnie x

Here's your average stir fry sauce for that healthy stir fry your making. This packet is 120g so that's more than 17.5g in this packet for 2 people

Muller Light Greek style yoghurt with sugar AND sweetener (yay) more than 10g of sugar in here and our old friend 'aspartame' has shown up too! Not just in diet coke then...

This is Dorset Cereal and with milk contains 16g per serving. Setting you up for a day full of sugary cravings.

I chose the above 3 because they struck me as items people would typically buy when trying to eat healthy - but we need to remember that skinny doesn't = healthy and skinny can also be TOFI.

Check your labels!