Sugar, Sugar!

Although I'm not a nutritionist, it's very difficult to be in the fitness field and NOT learn a thing or two about food and how it acts in the body. As a result of the research I have done, I no longer bring hydrogenated fats (trans fats) or high fructose corn syrup into my house (though a Peppermint Patty eaten in the car bends, but does not break the rules).

The newest information I'm seeing is all about sugar--sucrose, fructose, galactose, and all those other "oses" that have become so prevalent in our diet. Fitness guru Phil Kaplan says we each eat a "wheelbarrow full" of sugar each year. After tracking my consumption this week, I can see how. In the last seven days (while watching my food VERY carefully) I've taken in 1 3/4 cups of sugar. That will end up being a 50 pound bag at the end of a year. Ugh.

The problem with sugar (well, one of the problems, anyway) is the speed of delivery. When white sugar hits the blood stream, it's an immediate, dramatic jolt. The body reacts with an immediate, dramatic, flood of insulin--more than is necessary to counteract the sugar you ingested. Think of stomping on a spider--the first step killed it. The next six stomps are just to make you feel better.

Too much insulin means an excessive drop in the necessary blood sugar that should be flowing through your stream. The result--more panic. Instead of just releasing some fat calories (a slower process) to break down into sugars and use up, your hypoglycemic body yells "MORE SUGAR" to your brain. Without even thinking about it, you're eating three more cookies. The result--sugar rush (and the whole cycle begins again).

This sugar cycle undercuts fat metabolism and may undercut weight loss in MULTIPLE ways (not just because you are eating excess calories, but because they are simple sugar calories). And then--diabetes. Once we called it "Adult-Onset Diabetes." Now, so many children are getting the condition that we've dropped the "adult onset" label. Is it because this generation of kids has some kind of genetic defect? No. There is no evidence of that. The reasons for the change can be seen in waistlines and soda cans.

The thing is, sugar is not the enemy. Sugar doesn't control us. Sugar doesn't dance across our countertops in a crystalline stream and jump down our throats. It doesn't sneak into our tea in the middle of the night. Whether we choose to eat it consciously or slip our hand into the cookie jar while chatting on the phone, WE are in charge here.

This week I'm taking charge. I'm going to try to cut back from my 66g of sugar per day average. I'll report in how I do next week, I promise.

P.S. Debbie, you're the winner! Please e-mail me at keri@radiantfitness.com with your snail-mail addy so I can send your DVD. For other reader favorites, read the comments in the next post.