Explaining your body and brain on sugar...

Sugar is the leading food additive in the U.S. food supply and is making us sugar junkies. Sugar, not fat, is the leading cause of obesity in the United States.

Sugar isn't just bad nutrition; it's health damaging nutrition. The body actually has to borrow from its stores of nutrients in order to process it. Sugar literally eats up the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy. This depresses your immune system, and that's way sugar can make you sick.

Your brain on sugar...

When you eat refined sugar, it goes straight to your intestines, bypassing any chemical breakdown in your body. From the intestines, it's absorbed right into the bloodstream. Your blood glucose level spikes fast. Your brain registers this sugar hit with a drug-like reaction. Sugar triggers the release of the same natural brain opioids released when shooting heroin, which are associated with positive feelings as pleasure, energy, and euphoria. That release makes most people feel good, but it makes sugar addicted people feel absolutely high. And when sugar is taken away, you get the same withdrawal signs and changes in brain chemistry. When you are addicted to sugar, you need more to feel better. And I don't just mean candy and cookies, also carbohydrates that are quickly converted to sugar, such as bagels, breads, croutons, rolls, cracker, cereals, and more! 

Your body on sugar... 
Their rapid conversion to sugar causes a corresponding hike in insulin. High insulin prevents the breakdown of body fat. Excess sugar wreaks havoc on every organ in the body. Initially it's stored in the liver in the form of glycogen. When the liver's storage capacity gets maxed out, glycogen is expelled in the forms of fatty acids. These travel to every part of the body and lodge themselves into our fatty areas, the belly, hips, butt, breasts and thighs. After these areas are filled, the remaining fatty acids get dealt out to the major organs, including the heart and kidneys. Fat nestles there, releasing toxic chemicals that damage the arteries, blood vessels, and organs. Sugar also causes a sluggish metabolism and adds worthless calories. Sugar is quickly metabolized as fat and prevents the body from knowing it's full. This is why you can sit down with a box of cookies or chips and eat them until they're gone. And guess what else? It ages your skin and causes wrinkles. Eating sugar attacks collagen and elastin, that make your skin look young. Sugar actively ages you. Ditching sugar will make you look and feel years younger!

Refined sugar is technically sucrose, or common table sugar. The other sugars to be aware of include dextrose (corn sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), maltose (malt sugar), and lactose (milk sugar).

A quick tip before you go: A key to weight loss: 5 grams of sugar or less in foods does not register in the body, meaning this amount does not cause insulin spikes and drops. Also most fruits release their sugar relatively slowly into the bloodstream, meaning that they are less likely to disrupt the blood sugar balance. Although the sugars in fruit juice are released more quickly because they are the concentrated forms of fruit sugars like those in dried fruits, so they do have the potential to impact blood sugar levels.

I hope this clears up any questions you have about sugar. 

To stay healthy is to stay informed! 

Have a great day! Amy 

www.facebook.com/amyfitnesstips

 reference: "This Is Why You're Fat (And How to Get Thin Forever)" book by Jackie Warner

 

For those frustrated in calorie land...

 

This is for anybody who is frustrated about counting calories for fat loss. If counting calories works for you, then keep counting. But if you are frustrated with the counting, the weighing, and the measuring, let me give you some reasons to stop counting. 

• Calorie counting is treating your body like it's a checkbook! It's not just calories in, calories out, that determines your weight. That's not how it's meant to be! Your body is a body! Your body is not a checking account!
• Counting calories limits not only bad food, but also limits healthy food. For example, I don't feel that fruit and vegetables should be limited at all. They are already very low calorie and there you are measuring and weighing every little thing, every strawberry, cucumber, carrot, or piece of celery...really?!... But if you are eating bad food or fast food, then yes, I would count those calories.
• Calorie counting does not take into account quality food. It is so important to eat quality food. Quality food determines your energy level, how hormones react, insulin levels, how your skin looks, muscle toning or building muscle, your thyroid, liver functioning, to name a few. If you are eating low quality food, and are eating toxins that your liver has to detoxify, it will cause metabolic issues. Low quality food will make you hungrier and you get tired and your hormones are all screwed up.
• In calorie land, you don't eat when your body tells you to because you have reached your calorie limit. When you eat quality foods, you body is centered and balanced and nature gives your body the ability to know when it needs food and how much. Your tastes buds for example, when you eat a piece of fruit, it tastes very sweet and your body knows you don't need too much, but some.
• Calorie counting disconnects you from awareness of how your body feels when you eat. You get calorie tunnel vision! Instead, you should be paying attention to the way foods make you feel, for example, do you feel energized, groggy, bloated, satisfied or hungrier after you eat a certain food? Have more physical awareness!

The way I do it, I don't completely ignore calories, but I don't count calories.  If you eat quality 'clean" foods, you probably won't need to either. I hope this is helpful!  
Remember, your body is not a checkbook. I promise!

Have a great day! ~ Amy

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