2011-11-08

Sugar


Well this has been a hectic week for me so far, and it's only Tuesday!  I'm going to keep this post short by directing you to an interesting video on youtube called Sugar: The Bitter Truth.  It's a little bogged down by biochemistry... which I'm going to pretend I understand slightly.  Overall it gives a logical reason why sugar is so unforgiving in our body, especially over a long period of sugar addiction abuse.  Definitely worth the time to take a listen, but maybe fast-forward through the chemical reaction breakdown to get the nitty-gritty info.  When he is talking about sugar in the diet he is meaning added sugars such as white sugar and high fructose corn syrup, not the natural sugars found in fresh and dried, unprocessed fruits.  Hope you enjoy!

Another interesting thing to take a look at is this article talking about how fatty foods could be neurologically as addicting as drugs such as cocaine: 

Fatty Foods Addictive Like Cocaine in Growing Body of Scientific Research


What is your opinion of added processed sugar in the diet?  Do any of the processed or convenience foods you own NOT contain some form of added sugar?

3 comments:

  1. So are the natural sugars in things such as fruit 100% good for the body or just not as bad as unprocessed?

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  2. Thanks for reading Joy, and good question! I am by no means an authority on this subject, I only know how I eat and feel about the food I eat. As far as I understand it, sugars naturally found in fruits are not flat out bad for you, granted, you don't want to eat only fruit all day every day. I know that my eating philosophy focuses on the nutrient density of food, and fruits, along with vegetables, are the most nutrient dense. That is, they "pack the most nutrient punch per calorie" out of all foods on the planet.

    A very important difference between the sugars found in things like cookies, cakes, and processed foods, and sugars found in natural whole fruits is that fiber is absent or extremely scarce in processed foods. Fiber found in fruit is essential for those trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy body weight. It helps slow the digestion of sugars, which helps our body use that energy rather than directly converting a percentage of those sugars to fat. Fiber also helps our bodies better gage when we are nutritionally full and satisfied. By giving your body the same amounts of sugars, but denying it the fiber sugar should be packaged in, you are setting yourself up to overeat and add fat to your body mass.
    So my advice to you, Joy, is to limit or eliminate the process sugar you eat, and instead go for fresh and dried fruits to itch that sweet scratch we all get. You'll be getting more fiber and more micronutrients at the same time! Thanks for you question! -ANK :)

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  3. Thank you very much. You're answer was very cleared and helps a lot.

    -Joy

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