 By David Otto
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"Sugar Is BAD Isn't It?"
"Bad." It's a three letter word associated with many foods or other things related to food like Calories. The title of this article is what you would call an extreme oversimplification of a topic that not too many people understand but are quick to tell you it's "bad" for you.
"Sugar will make you fat." That's the most common statement you'll hear and you know what it's pretty darn accurate. But what I'd like to do is go a few steps further and leave you feeling pretty comfortable in your ability to explain to a friend how the intake of too much simple sugar can negatively impact fat loss. Prepare for a little physiology lesson.
I'll use a simple example to illustrate. Let's say you have a regular cola in your hand and drink it. It's full of sugar right so what happens to it when you ingest it? It gets rapidly converted to glucose within the body and then the result is high blood sugar or hyperglycemia. When your body senses elevated blood glucose levels it must do something with that glucose so it sends a signal down to the pancreas to secrete insulin; a storage hormone. Insulin is what shuttles glucose and amino acids into the cells of you body.
Since there was such a rapid rise in blood glucose levels due to that cola you drank the pancreas actually sends out more insulin than the body needs to dispose of all that glucose so the end result is reactive low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. That's why when you have a sugared cola by itself, a candy bar or any other sugar laden food you first get this boost in energy but then shortly thereafter your energy plummets causing you to crave more sugar to bring your blood glucose levels back up to par. For many people it becomes a vicious cycle commonly called the "sugar roller coaster" which believe it or not can easily be broken with three days of Supportive eating and minimization of simple sugars.
Okay, most of what I just said many of you probably know already. The part most people don't know about is the balancing act the pancreas plays with another hormone called Glucagon. Glucagon happens to be a release hormone with one of its primary functions being a liberator of fat from adipose cells so it can release fat and eventually be sent to the muscles to be burned. When the pancreas has to pump out tons of insulin due to the ingestion of simple sugars AND enriched carbohydrates like cakes, cookies and white bread, it has to back way off on its production of Glucagon. Fat cannot be released if you are in "insulin dominance mode" and you are putting your body in fat storage mode instead of fat release mode.
Another thing worth noting that many of you already know is that simple sugars and enriched carbs are rapidly converted to triglycerides and then fat. Did you know that an 8 oz serving of most fruit juices like orange juice has more sugar per serving than an 8 oz glass of regular cola? That's not to say O.J. is unhealthy but believing that O.J. and a bagel in the morning is a good breakfast is really a great way to shut off your body's fat burning ability especially if you have that before a morning exercise session. (See article "More Fat Loss First Thing In The Morning").
Let's face it, the over consumption of simple sugars and processed, enriched carbohydrates is wreaking havoc on our population. We are now seeing Type II Diabetes in young children which was almost exclusively seen in middle age adults. Did you know the average American consumes 168 pounds of sugar a year? Yes, I did say pounds! Also, if you haven't read "Deceptive Food Labels Part 2" then check it out because it will let you in on a few of the words that are used on food labels that represent sugar without actually saying the word sugar.
I find it funny that certain groups want to replace the soda machines that run rampant in schools with fruit juices when in fact all they would be doing is replacing sugar with sugar and those fruit juices wouldn't even be 100% fruit juice. Just get rid of the machines period and sell water or sugar free flavored water.
Now that leads me into the topic of fruit intake because when the subject of healthy eating comes up you'll always hear "fruits and veggies." Fruits are very healthy, full of vitamins and fiber but high in sugar. Yes, "it's the natural sugar" but where do you think table sugar comes from? I'm not saying eliminate or even avoid fruits; I want you to eat them but don't believe eating a bunch of fruit by itself as a meal or a snack is going to be very supportive of fat loss. If you choose to eat fruit, and which you should, make it a component of a meal that also contains a source of lean protein and a fibrous carbohydrate like vegetables. This will help slow the conversion to glucose thus avoiding the insulin spike. There is a difference between eating healthy and eating Supportive.
If fat loss is your goal then your best bet is to minimize the intake of simple sugars and enriched carbohydrates. By the way, you'll know if something has enriched carbohydrates in it by reading the ingredient label. It'll say something like enriched wheat flour. Basically a machine stripped what used to be a good grain of all its nutrients and then through processing they had to put back the B Vitamins to make it sellable as food. Don't try to eliminate sugar altogether because for one that's deprivation and number two, you'll set yourself up for failure. Recognize how sugar affects the body and if losing fat is important to you then be conscious of what you eat that may have sugar in it.
Balancing blood glucose levels and those two pancreatic hormones I mentioned will help keep your body in a state where it can literally release and burn fat all day long. So how do you do that? Try to consume a Lean Protein, A Natural Starchy Carbohydrate and a Fibrous Carbohydrate every 3 to 3 ½ hours, 5 to 6 times per day. Yeah, I know, that leaves A LOT of room for discussion but stay tuned…I'll be throwing in little bits and pieces f how to do that throughout my articles.
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