As if I have not researched and wrote enough on Sugar already. I just cannot stress enough about what the effects of it has on our bodies.

Not only is it addicting and the worst substance around (because it is legal), most of us do not have the facts about it, and the ones that do still seem to be so addicted to it, everything we hear goes in one ear and out the other...very concerning to me. I for one struggle with this issue...go figure.

I figure the more I learn about it and share with you the less likely I will crave it, & the less likely you will, till one day we will just say "NO"! 

A Sticky Sweet deceiving Substance...

The average American consumes more than 47 teaspoons of sugar each day (this shocking number was revealed by researchers at Colorado State University); That's about 189 grams a day.

About 200 years ago, daily consumption of sugar was under 15 grams...research has shown that before the Industrial Revolution, That's about how much the average person ate.

Guess what you did not see much of then?  Fat around the middle (belly fat). You also did not see a population severely overwhelmed by obesity; compare that to now, where two-thirds of our population is overweight and sick and facing crippling medical bills due to the consequences of poor health habits. 

I love sweets; but when we eat too much sugar, or what are technically called "caloric sweeteners" (sugar from cane or beet, corn syrup, fruit juice, or even milk), you develop fat in one primary way. Here's more on how it happens.

Consuming sugar and refined carbs affects one of the most critical hormones in your body: insulin. Insulin is produce by your pancreas to manage your blood sugar and control the accumulation of fat...especially around your waistline.

According to Nobel prize winning physicist Rosalyn Yalow, co-inventer of the first accurate test used to measure insulin in the blood stream, insulin is the "primary regulator of fat tissue. "Increased levels of insulin will make you fat and make sure you stay fat.

Research published in The European Molecular Biology Organizations JournalThe European Molecular Biology Organizations Journal determined that insulin is probably the most important hormonal factor influencing the creation of fat, or what is scientifically called lipogenesis. 

In the book Transcend, Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Terry Grossman used a scary visual to describe what happens to your blood when you consume too much sugar and it get converted to fat...they suggest that your blood actually turns into a "pink cream."

Imagine the most vital fluid in your body turning to a gooey glob that can barely get through your veins (yes, this can lead to problems other than fat...namely, high blood pressure and increased risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes).
 
If your a healthy person, this fat in your blood may filter out in a few a few hours, but if you have diabetes or are prediabetic, it could linger in your blood even longer or never go away.

Even in healthy individuals, this fat still has to go somewhere, and its most likely going to get deposited in abdominal fat cells. High levels of triglycerides have been connected to dangerous belly fat by researchers affiliated with the American Heart Association and the Mayo Clinic.

Once the fat in your blood (otherwise known as triglycerides) gets locked into your fat cells, they actually have to be broken down before they can move out and become usable energy. Insulin plays an important role here as well by preventing the triglycerides from breaking down...it wants to make sure that the fat stays put. And it does.

Only when insulin disappears for a while can this fat escape from the cell to be used. That's the primary way stored fat is released...your insulin levels absolutely have to be low.

What's vitally important to understand is that not all foods trigger the same type of insulin response. Fats and proteins, for example, don't ever significantly drive up your insulin level. Sugar and processed carbs, on the other hand, cause a rapid and dramatic increase in insulin levels, which by itself drives up insulin levels and keeps them up.

Various breakthrough studies done at Harvard University over the past decade have clearly shown that the main reason you have fat in the mid section, is that you have been eating too much "SUGAR"  and "Processed Carbohydrates", which keep your insulin levels chronically high...not because you have been eating too much fat or protein.

A former professor of medicine at Harvard and an expert on insulin George Cahill says "Carbohydrates (sugars) is driving insulin is driving fat. Does this mean you can eat a whole cow or ten sticks of butter because it won't trigger insulin production? No."

You need to use common sense, but the good news is that proteins and fats satiate your hunger fast, so it's almost impossible to overeat them. 

I hope you can see by now how important the hormone insulin is to regulating fat accumulation. Bottom line:  to lose fat, you must keep your insulin levels low.

"The only non-pharmaceutical remedy (to obesity) is to restrict or remove the cause...SUGAR and Refined Carbohydrates" Gary Taubes, author of Good calories, Bad calories.

So there you have it in a nutshell. If you really truly want to cut your risk of illness and obesity, eliminate the bad stuff...that simple!

On a different note; Outside my back door in good old Lenexa, Kansas today 2/5/2010. Another Winter Wonderland is performing! 




Other resources; The Belly Fat Cure, Discover the new Carb Swap System
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