| Keeping Life Sweet - the truth about sugar |
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In the battle against weight loss, it is generally thought that the most important area to consider is the fats we eat, and indeed, this is highlighted by one massively profitable ‘slimming club’ where fat intake is taboo! Whilst dietary fats are a subject that warrants due consideration - by any standard, let alone that of weight loss, I want to suggest that the arena of sugar, is a greater priority in need of attention. Here’s why…. Back in the 1970’s (for those of you old enough to remember!) fit looking, athletic types flashed across our screens in true American Dream style whilst the background music wooed us as it promoted the‘benefits’ of eating Mars bars – the catch line stating….. “A Mars a day, helps you work, rest and play”… In my view, this concept steered that generation toward a collision course with ill health and sold the lie that sugar was needed for energy, to live life well. Forty years on from then we have worldwide obesity statistics reaching near epidemic proportions; diabetes and other sugar related diseases continuing to increase in huge numbers – but sadly consumers pay little heed to these figures as they feast on a daily intake of refined carbohydrates and sugar. Health problems related to sugar intake ,including and especially weight gain, now surpass those from eating fats or excess calories. Obesity has just overtaken smoking as the leading cause of preventable death! The fact is that our bodies do require glucose for energy. It obtains this glucose from the starch and sugar that we consume; collectively these are called carbohydrates. Ultimately, regardless of the form you eat them in, the body eventually breaks them down to glucose but the speed at which it does this depends on the kind of carbohydrates you eat – broadly speaking they can be broken down into two categories: fast releasing (which have a high glycemic load and in the sweet or refined food category) or slow releasing (which have a low glycemic load and consist of wholegrains, fresh vegetables and fruit). Eating fast releasing carbohydrates gives you a sudden burst of sugar(because they very quickly enter the blood stream). Glycosylation is the corrosive damage that glucose does to the arteries and cells and it is the major cause of all symptoms associated with diabetes Type II, which is the result of eating too much sweet or refined carbohydrate food. In an attempt to cope with the high level of glucose in your blood the body attempts to protect you by releasing a hormone called insulin. Insulin’s role is to remove the glucose from the blood stream, by taking it to the cells for use as energy - when this is not required, the cells are able to shut down from receiving it and insulin then has to take the glucose to your liver, where it attempts to store it it as fat (often causing a fatty liver) and when the liver can no longer cope with the volume, it gets stored as fat elsewhere - especially around the abdominal area. Repeated, long term high blood sugar levels can cause your body to become insulin resistance, meaning that glucose removal from the body is not happening efficiently and this is a forerunner to more serious diseases such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease. A simple home test can be done to measure your blood sugar levels which optimally should be 5.0. Anything over 6.5 and you are strongly at risk of developing diabetes. If you would like more information on the home test kit please feel free to contact me. Alternatively you could ask your GP to test your blood sugar levels.
Establishing and maintaining a balance in your blood sugar levels is essential to have energy and losing weight. Once you have achieved it weight loss will be easy and cravings for sugar and stimulants will cease, added to which you will not feel so tired and lethargic but have renewed energy levels. So here are 10 steps necessary to help you achieve it. Say goodbye to sweet nothings…… 1. Cut out stimulants (tea, coffee, alcohol, fizzy drinks) 2. Eat non-sugary snacks in between meals to keep blood sugar stable eg small piece fruit with 6 almonds (if you have a constant trickle of fuel you will be less likely to have urgent cravings – sending you hurtling towards the biscuit tin!) 3. Eat carbohydrate and protein together as protein helps to slow down the speed at which carbohydrate is broken down. eg rye bread and boiled egg no-sugar museli + seeds and probiotic plain yoghurt. 4. Don’t skip breakfast – EVER – you wake every morning with low blood sugar (unless you ate all night!!) and it will only weaken your resolve not to eat junk if you skip breakfast, as your blood sugar level continues to fall and your cravings kick in. Also before eating squeeze half a lemon into boiled water and drink when luke warm – this will stimulate your digestive system. 5. Eat low GL (glycemic load) - the ones that produce only small fluctuations in our blood glucose and insulin levels – amajor key to sustainable weight loss. 6. Take 30minutes exercise every day because this helps to stimulate your metabolism 7. Take a high strength multivitamin daily* 8. Take 2g Vitamin C daily (with bioflavanoids)* 9. Take200mcg – 600mcg Chromium daily* 10. Take 2 teaspoons cinnamon or supplement with 1g cinnulin (cinnamon extract)* *Many, many supplements are poor quality, have huge amounts of powder fillers, contain additives or have poor bioavailability (not well absorbed) – it is best to seek the advice of a nutritional therapist about professional grade supplements. Please feel free to contact me if you would like advice about this. Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise,while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A GI of 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low but the lower the better – for those looking to lose weight! The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn'ta lot to it other than water, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.
Foods that have a low GL almost always have a low Gi but a list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values can be seen at www. glycemic index.com – if necessary use the chart above to roughly convert Gi into GL values. Table shows the difference in 2 different types of breakfasts and the effect on the blood sugar. More balanced is provided by the granola. 
As with everything that is worth having you have to pay a price – good health will come at the expense of you ditching the sugar – this is not all bad news – look out for next month’s article on “The Alternatives To Sugar – the good the bad and the ugly!” |
To recap - glucose is transported from the intestines or liver via the bloodstream to the cells where it is used for energy with the help of the hormone insulin. If you don’t eat anything for a while your blood sugar levels (the glucose in your blood) drops and you feel the sensation of hunger.
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