Why Sugar is Nasty!

If you're doing the BUF Bikini program, you'll know that this week is all about sugar! This is a really important topic so we wanted to make sure every single one of our BUF Girls understands the basics. You see, we still get so many questions about sugar - after all, it’s a ‘natural’ product and hasn’t got any fat in it… and isn’t it fat that makes you, well, fat!?There are so many studies out there on the sugar/health connection but one man who sums it all up pretty well is Doctor Robert Lustig, a Professor in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, who has been a real pioneer in decoding the way sugar is metabolised in the body. According to Lustig, “It’s not about the calories. It has nothing to do with the calories. It (sugar) is a poison by itself”. 

Here are a few reasons why

• Eating too many dietary carbohydrates, especially from sugars, causes fat to become fixed in fat tissue (rather than used as energy, or moved out of the body).
• Sugar intake raises your insulin levels, which can prevent fat from being released and ‘flushed’ from the body.
• Eating too much sugar directly causes free fatty acids to turn into triglycerides that get stored as fat (this is particularly true of fructose, a kind of sugar found in just about any processed food, baked item or sweetened drink, including fruit juice. Also found in high levels in dried fruit)
• Sugars can directly interfere with your brain’s communication with leptin, the hormone that suppresses your appetite. So your likelihood of overeating and obsessively craving not-so-wholesome foods increases.

So how much is too much?

According to Dr Joseph Mercola, a renowned expert in natural health, you should stick to these few guidelines:

• Limit sugar intake to less than 25 grams per day. At least 15 grams of this should come from fruit, which doesn’t leave a lot of wriggle room for other, more processed foods. An apple alone has between 5-10 grams of fructose, so imagine the damage a single can of Coke would do!
• Limit or eliminate processed foods, which contain hidden sugars – the worst kind!

A good way to visualise it is a teaspoon of sugar is about 4g and we can process about 2 teaspoons at any one time - anything you don't process (generally speaking) gets stored as fat. 

Need more of a visual?

Need more of a visual of what sugars and processed foods are doing to your insides? Here we go…Imagine for a moment that you’ve just sprained your ankle. In order to repair itself, your body releases inflammatory hormones at levels well above the norm, so the ankle swells up, heats up and eventually begins to heal. In a few weeks’ time, your ankle seems good as new but each time you sprain it again, it gets weaker and sustains more long-term damage.This is what happens when you eat sugars and processed foods... your body gets inflamed. Because this kind of inflammation is low grade, it would practically go unnoticed for a long time but if it happens often enough, could progressively destroy the body and lead to metabolic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, etc.This would also explain why some people, who seem to be able to ‘get away with eating anything’ early on in life often find they gain a significant amount of weight all at once a few years down the track and then struggle to lose it, as their metabolic systems have sustained significant damage over time and struggle to recover. Very interesting stuff!Luckily, research shows that the metaflammation process can be counteracted by making sure you have a tiptop diet made up of predominantly plant foods, lean proteins and good fats and by exercising regularly; consistency is key, which is even more motivation to keep moving! 

How can you kick those sugar cravings to the curb?

Well, there are a few little tricks of the trade that seem to work pretty well, for example when all you can think is “chocolate!” try picturing something else, like a strawberry or a mango and soon enough, you’ll be craving that instead. OR you could try imagining that you’ve indulged in far too much of the food you’re craving (1kg of chocolate should do it!) and think about how sick you’d feel if you actually did eat that much! I know this sounds strange but it’s a great tip I got from a well known nutritionist and it works!