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.

Fitness minus the Sugar with Jennifer Fugo

Check out my interview with fellow health coach Jennifer Fugo about how to work out and train, without relying on sugar in her piece Fitness minus the Sugar. Jennifer lead a 10 day sugar cleanse and wanted to share with her group that it is possible to train without sugar. Thanks for the opportunity to share!

Balancing Paleo

How long have you been eating a Paleo or Primal Diet?  How strict do you adhere to it?  Lately many people around me - friends, colleagues, and family - are experimenting with "going Paleo." I think its awesome that they are trying to Paleo and are changing to eating more whole foods, vegetables, high quality meats, seafood, nuts, and seeds.   

One thing that people need to be careful of when they change their diet and "go Paleo" is eating too much fruit and Paleo-friendly treats.  Paleo treats are a crutch that help you to get you through your Paleo experiment.  Things like larabars are good when you have no other options or for an occasional snack, but they shouldn't be added to your diet as a new food group.  Enjoy Paleo friendly treats occasionally too, but realize that most of them are still high in natural sugar (dried fruits) or contain a large amount of nuts (which are Paleo but again, shouldn't make up a large part of your food every day).  The key here is to find balance with your Paleo foods, your chosen "cheats", and Paleo treats.  It's ok to eat Paleo treats, but be careful NOT to overdo it - like Cookie Monster says, Paleo treats are a sometimes food.

 A strict Paleo lifestyle is not for everyone long term.  After you do a Paleo challenge, and see how good you feel eating that way, you'll integrate Paleo food choices into your normal routine.  When you experiment with adding things back into your diet, you'll start to decide what is sustainable for you, what foods you will continue to exclude and what foods you will allow once in awhile. One thing that I need to work on is balancing and not being so strict all the time.  I like being strict because I feel better when I eat that way.  Large amounts of sugar give me a headache, and not for a few hours but for days!  As referenced in my last post, after going Paleo I've confirmed that I am senstive to gluten.  When I eat things that contain gluten, I can feel it, and it doesn't make me feel good.  Every once in awhile it is a good idea to kick up your heels and have a treat, espeically if it was made specifically for you, and even if you lead a Paleo life.  This is something I'm working on incorporating into my food choices and need to experiment with having a bite of something - remembering that a small amount won't impact me too much and it could go a long way with others.

Those of you that are doing a Paleo or Primal diet, how are you doing, what are your challenges, where do you need help or need to learn how to flex?

Attention Walmart Shoppers

Attention Walmart Shoppers, Walmart has partnered with the First Lady, Michelle Obama and is announcing a campaign to cut the amount of sodium, sugar and trans fats from thousands of its store brand products and encourage its suppliers to do the same.  So what does that mean for Walmart's suppliers that produce similar packaged goods without "healthier" versions?  Well Walmart is hoping that it positively encourages other company's to follow suit and also look to reduce sodium, added sugar, and trans fats from their product lines too.  If you want to sell you product to Walmart you need to meet their qualifications, so Walmart publicly announcing its commitment to reduce sodium, sugar, and trans fats from thousands of products has to be a win for all Walmart Shoppers, and that effects a lot of shoppers!  So in this case, I'm excited to hear about Walmart's commitment to creating healthier products and am encouraged that their actions will encourage healthier changes to all its suppliers products.

Why is this a good thing?  Lots of people shop at Walmart, so now lots of normal, everyday people will have more healthy choices to select from.  This change will affect many of the packaged and boxed products that line Walmarts shelves and refrigerated sections - and Walmart's commitment is to reduce sodium but 25% and added sugars by 10%.  Their plan sounds like its off to a good start, tackling lunch meats, salad dressings, and fruit juices that are high in added sugar or sodium but not realized by most consumers.  In addition to trying to have more healthy packaged food options, Walmart has made a commitment to sell more fresh fruits and vegetables and make them cheaper for consumers. 

This is one example of how a large company can make a big impact on what people are eating, encouraging packaged foods to be made healthier.  Those who are still eating packaged foods will have slightly healthier options, but maybe the big win here is really in increasing awareness of the amount of added sugar, sodium, and trans fats that are in many foods in the Standard American Diet.  Don't get me wrong, I'm  not claiming that I think packaged foods are healthy, but its good to raise awareness of what you are really eating when you are consuming packaged foods.   It will be interesting to see how companies respond to this, also to see how their products evolve.  The general industry trend is when you take something out e.g., sodium or fat, you have to add something else back in e.g., sugar.  So by committing to tackle trans fats, sodium, and sugar the food companies may actually create healthier products.

I am really interested in the commitment to having more fresh fruits and vegetables available for lower prices in the store - I don't believe that eating healthy has to be "expensive." If you compare the price of a box of sugary cereal to a dozen eggs, eating healthy seems like it could be less expensive if you stopped buying all the packaged stuff that food companies are trying to sell you and stick to the whole foods that are not advertised like eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts, meat and seafood.  In my opinion flashy packages, TV commercials, magazine ads and celebrity endorsements are trying to sell a sub par product at too expensive a price. And if you think about it, do you really want to eat something that has a 6 month to 1 year shelf life?  Personally, I'd rather stick with fresh foods.

Fructose, the not so innocent sugar

I've talked previously on the blog about sugar and how your body processes it.  Now I want to cover why Fructose, a specific type of sugar is particularly bad for you.  This all stems from the principal that all calories are not created equal when we are trying to fuel our body.  If you already subscribe to a Paleo/Primal lifesyle this concept probably makes sense to you.  If not you may assume that the key to weight loss and overall health related to Calories In - Calories Out , if you take in more calories than you burn you get fat, if you take in less calories or burn more calories than you take in, you lose fat.  A few "experts" on the all calories are not created equal subject are Gary Taubes who wrote "Good Calories, Bad Calories" and just released a new book which is a sequel to Good Calories, Bad Calories that is more digestible "Why we get Fat, and what to do about it" along with Dr. Robert Lustig whose lecture, Sugar: The Bitter Truth which was published on YouTube made a huge splash.

So losing fat isn't as easy as calories in being lower than calories out.  You need to take a look at what you're eating as well as how much.  As a nation Americans are getting fatter - on average we Americans weigh 25 more pounds than we did 25 years ago (~1985).  How are we gaining all this extra weight, beacause we're eating more and too much of the wrong stuff.  And the reason why we are eating more than we need, its because we are increastingly Leptin resistant. Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain that you are full and you don't need anymore food to fuel your body. When you are Leptin resistant, that means that your brain doesn't respond as well to the leptin signals, meaning that even though you have enough food for fuel your brain doesn't register that I'm full signal and you still feel hungry, so you eat more than you need. What causes the letpin resistance in your body - one thing is the processing of fructose in the liver. If you look at what the extra calories are in today's diet, it is generally in the form of added carbohydrates.  In the 1990s when the nation started following the high carbohydrate and low fat diet have essentially doomed ourselves to a diet that will make us fat through the increase in carbohydrates in our diets.

   Did you know that 1 soda a day (additional 150 calories) is an additoinal 15 pounds of fat per year that is added to your body.

Americans today eat/consume a whopping 141 pounds of sugar per year!

Did you know...

Did you know that sugar is proven to be as addictive as crack? And that as native populations are westrnized the increase of western diseases rises (cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes) along with the consumption of modern foods, like sugar and grains?

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.