You've Got Questions....I've Got Answers

Thank you all for the questions that you submitted, here is the first round of answers - please feel free to continue to post more and I'll pull them through into a future post.

Laura - Hey, I've got a question for ya! I have been doing a 21 day challenge of strict paleo and while it's been going really well, I have found that I am craving gum. I can't seem to shake this and have been giving in to it. I am chewing like 6 to 8 pieces of gum a day. I am assuming it's because I am craving sugar? Thoughts?? -- Melinda

Healthy Living Principle #4 - Kick the Sugar

Sugar is everywhere in the Standard American Diet, pretty much anything that comes in a package has sugar added to it somewhere.  Do you check nutrition labels before you buy things, I advise you start doing it immediately if you don't.  You'd be surprised where sugar is hidden - in your favorite jar of tomato sauce, most salad dressings and marinades, that quick go-to meal from Trader Joe's that you just have to saute... the list goes on and on, and the sugar isn't only in things that you think of as sweet like cakes and cookies. 

What's so bad about sugar anyway? I've done a few in-depth posts on sugar which you can read here: Sugar, It's not that sweet and Fructose, the not so innocent sugar.  Here are some highlights from those posts, and some facts about sugar to help you understand how you process sugar when you eat it, in any form.

Sugar, its not that sweet...

The average sugar consumption of an American has been steadily rising; the average American consumes 20 teaspoons of added sugar EVERY DAY and 120 pounds of sugar a year, approximately 25% of total calories consumed.

Going Paleo means changing your food and eliminating processed foods as well as other food categories primarily grains, legumes, and dairy from your diet - which to a person eating the typical American diet can seem pretty extreme. I didn't change my diet overnight to Paleo, and actually started with a No Sugar challenge. I'm urging you to try a No Sugar challenge on your own and by excluding sugar from your diet I'm not just talking about sugar that you add into things like coffee and rice crispy cereal or switching from Coke to Diet Coke, I'm talking about cutting out ALL added sugar that isn't found naturally in food. So don't worry about the sugar that occurs naturally in the apple that you're eating, as long as you're eating the whole apple or the lactose content of the glass of whole milk you just drank - the sugars in those foods are not the sugars that I'm worried about you over consuming since its hard to eat 15 apples in one sitting or to drink an entire gallon of whole milk in a day (Warnek excluded).

Sugar is pretty sneaky, especially added sugar. It goes by many names like our friend High Fructose Corn Syrup, Honey, Agave, Cane Sugar, Cane Syrup, Tapioca Syrup, Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar, and Sugar Alcohols: sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol, and mannitol.