Is Sugar Really The Enemy?

If you’re fighting the battle to insure a healthy diet, you probably have already labeled sugar as the enemy or at least the primary suspect. You wouldn’t be wrong to think that a diet filled with sugary foods is unhealthy, but don’t overlook many of the other generals that join in the battle. Fried foods, trans fats and white flour have their own targets in your body and are just as vicious as sugar in many ways. Learning to eat healthy involves more than just identifying one of the bad foods, it’s about learning which foods are good for you too.

You can simplify it a bit.

The easiest way to simplify healthy eating is to remember a few rules. The closer the food is to its natural state, the healthier it normally is. That means raw fruits and veggies are healthiest, with steamed ones right behind it. Healthier meats include those that are raised in a natural environment, such as grass fed beef and free range chicken or eggs. One study showed that butter from grass fed cows actually was heart healthy. It makes sense that if the food we eat was healthier in life, it should be healthier for you.

White flour is a no-no!

You lose many of the nutrients when flour is refined, such as calcium, vitamin E, phosphorus, magnesium and vitamin B. The high speed process raises temperatures to destroy many of the nutrients in it. It’s made of only part of the wheat kernel, the endosperm, eliminating the most nutritious parts and is basically just starch with no nutritional value. The process of bleaching the flour creates a byproduct call alloxan, a substance that has a similar chemical structure to glucose, that is responsible for causing diabetes in healthy lab mice and rats by destroying pancreatic cells. It basically adds no nutrients to your diet, but increases its calorie count. That’s not good.

Stay away from foods with high fructose corn syrup and ingredients you can’t pronounce.

If you want to keep you body chemical free and lose weight in the process, eat foods that are what they say they are and skip the processed foods. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring, but it does mean steering clear of foods with high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients often found in processed foods. High fructose corn syrup is found in many products and causes problems with triglycerides, inflammation and blood pressure. A recent study at Princeton said rats fed high fructose corn syrup compared to those fed equal caloric amounts of sugar had a higher weight gain. One of the reasons for this found in another study is that fructose, unlike sugar, doesn’t suppress the hormone causing hunger—ghrelin, so you keep on eating. Even worse, this stuff is in everything because it’s cheaper.

Eating healthy takes some thought and new information, but once you learn how to do it, the rest is easy and means you’ll never have to diet again.

Adding a program of exercise not only boosts your health, it gives fat a double whammy and improves your metabolism.

You’ll build your energy and health when you workout regularly and combine it with a healthy diet. You’ll be amazed at how good the food tastes and that you’ll never feel deprived.

As a personal trainer, I can help you learn how to eat healthier, while also getting your body into shape with a program of exercise. Even if you’ve failed at losing weight before, I can assure you this works.