Back to Basics Healthy Habit #4: SUGAR

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For the past 9 weeks, we have been working on developing
lifelong healthy habits.

 . For the first three weeks we worked on
drinking water (find those posts here, here, and here), then we spent three weeks working on moving our
bodies (find those posts here, here, and here) and then finally we began working on Sleep. Read
those posts here and here. And here.

Today, I’m introducing a new habit. This habit is CRITICAL to your long-term
health and may be a challenging one as it involves a product most of us are
highly addicted to: SUGAR.

For the next 3 weeks, I want you to work on reducing sugar from your diet.
Notice I didn’t say eliminating (although that would be best), but reducing.

 So that you
understand how critical this habit is, let me teach you a little bit about
SUGAR.

Currently, two out of every three people are overweight or obese. If we keep
growing at our current rate, 95% of all Americans will be considered overweight
within 2 decades. We aren’t just physically overweight, but we’re also getting
sicker. For example, since 1980 we have gone from having ZERO documented cases
of Type II diabetes in Adolescents to having almost 60,000 by 2010. And for the
first time In history, your children have a shorter life expectancy than you
did when you were born.

Many attribute these scary statistics to one product: SUGAR.

In the year 1800, the average person consumed around 5 lbs of sugar per year.
Today, that number is over 152 lbs per person per year. From 5 lbs to 152 pbs PER
YEAR! Now multiple that number over the typical 80 years you may live. That is
a lot of sugar!

In the last 35 years alone, Americans have DOUBLED their intake of daily sugar.
Much of this came about at the same time as the low-fat food craze began. Companies
removed the fat from products (thinking IT was the problem) and began pumping
in sugar to make it taste better. In fact 600,000 food products on our shelves
right now have added sugar. This includes items such as taco seasoning, pasta
sauce, saltine crackers, and even over the counter medications!

80% of every product made today has added sugar.

And this crazy sugar consumption is linked to a huge list of conditions,
symptoms, and diseases including heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol problems,
stroke, cancer and Alzheimer’s. Yes, Alzheimer’s. In fact, a diet high in sugar
and carbohydrates increases your risk of this terrible disease FOUR TIMES. Some
even as now calling Alzheimer’s Diabetes Type III.

And as we all are beginning to realize, cancer thrives on a diet high in sugar.
An article I read recently had this headline in large print: “What is Cancer’s
Favorite Food? SUGAR!”

Your tasks for this week:
1). Begin learning how to read your labels.
Look for the word SUGAR and then the number listed beside it. Every 4 g of
sugar is equal to 1 tsp, so if you’re drinking a softdrink that has 36g per
serving, you just ingested NINE TEASPOONS of sugar.

The recommended daily limit for men is 36g PER DAY and for women is 24g PER
DAY.

2). Watch this video I made a couple years back. Good info that may surprise
you about your foods and the sugar they contain.


3). Begin learning other names for sugar such as: Some of the more common ones
are in bold.
Barley malt
Beet sugar
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Cane juice crystals
Caramel
Corn syrup
Corn syrup solids
Carob syrup
Castor sugar
Demerara sugar
Dextran
Dextrose
Diastatic malt
Diatase
Ethyl maltol
Fructose
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Galactose
Glucose
Glucose solids
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Grape sugar
**High Fructose Corn Syrup
Icing sugar
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Malt syrup
Panocha
Rice syrup
Sorbitol
Sucrose
Treacle
Turbinado sugar


Aim to decrease the amount of sugar you are choosing to
consume each day. Realize that artificial sweeteners are NOT the answer and
will cause a whole host of other issues (we will discuss these more next week).
Also, even natural sources of sugar such as HONEY can cause the same insulin
spike which leads to the same problems down the road. Technically, simple carbs
such as bread, pasta, fruit juice, tortillas, etc. all break down the same way
as sugar in your body, but for this week, let’s just look at ADDED sugar to
your food products.

Start to be aware of the amount of sugar in your food products and then make
the best choices you can. We’ll learn more next week.

YOU CAN DO THIS.

And you’ll be amazed at how much better you will feel once you’ve broken your
sugar addiction- you’ll have more energy, less cravings, better skin, and even
more regulated emotions!

You’ve got this, friends!

Keep using your other habits also: WATER, MOVEMENT, and SLEEP!




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Comments

  1. I went to a workshop at the end of January and the topic was on sugar, it's impact on the body, weight loss, diseases, etc. Some of the information given was from Dr. J.J. Virgin – listing common foods that have high, medium, and low sugar impact. This list has been very helpful to me in learning where hidden sugars lurk and in making better food choices.

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