Where’s Your Sugar Hiding?
It’s a beautiful day here on Long Island, and I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine’s Days! My girlfriend and I had busy days yesterday, and decided to celebrate this weekend. She’s dragging me to see Fifty Shades Darker (kill me), but I will overcome. A lot of meditation and booze may help me on my quest…
Anyhoo, today I wanted to talk about something that came up this past week. I recently decided to do an initial week of dietary analysis for new clients. Basically, we sync up on MyFitnessPal, and I tell them to eat as normal for the first week we work together. Then, seven days later, I’ll review everything, and make specific recommendations for how they should handle their meals and snacks going forward.
Since I started with two new clients this week, I’ve done two of these analyses in the past three days. Since this is a new aspect of my service, I wasn’t sure this was going to come up, but it did — They ingested a ton of HIDDEN sugar!
What do I mean by ‘hidden sugar?’ Well, it’s not the obvious kinds like sugar in your coffee (yes, that counts!), cookies, ice cream and cupcakes…
Hidden sugar is just that — Sugar that’s in the foods that you eat without you even knowing. You know the two places it came up the most?
Processed foods and their various beverages!
For instance, did you know that a personal bottle of Vitamin Water has the same amount of sugar in it as a personal bottle of Apple Cider, which has the same amount of sugar in it as a Chai Latte? That’s 32 grams in each one of those drinks!!!
Did they have any idea? Absolutely not! Which then begs the question: Do YOU have any idea of how much hidden sugar you’re ingesting every day?
Here’s how you can go about finding out:
1. Start your day as you normally would. Carefully track the grams of sugar in what you eat and drink throughout the day. This can easily be done in a nutrition app like MyFitnessPal.
2. Look at the TOTAL amount of sugar you ingest. I’m willing to bet you it’s a lot higher than you originally thought.
3. Look at the biggest culprits for your sugar ingestion. Is it your latte in the morning? Maybe a bottle of iced tea in the afternoon?
4. Start cutting this stuff out! Sugar is an addictive, inflammatory substance. It’s THE most dangerous white powder in the world, and it’s legally sold at every grocery store! Cocaine hasn’t been legal since the early 1900s, and I can safely say that it’s killed far fewer people since the sugar industry blossomed and began lobbying government agencies in the 1950s.
Quick biology lesson: Sugar is among the most addictive substances in the world. It’s SEVEN times more addictive than heroin, and stimulates a process in our bodies called the Insulin Resistance Cycle.
Long story short, this cycle starts with the over-ingestion of sugar, leading to the over-secretion of the hormone insulin. Insulin’s main purpose is to regulate our blood sugar levels. So, the fuel we need right at that second gets distributed to our cells, muscles and tissue, but the rest? STORED AS FAT!
Additionally, after our sugar high, we hit that sugar low, or that 2:00 feeling. We’re groggy, tired and can’t even begin to formulate a rational thought…
When this cycle repeats itself enough over time, our cells begin to RESIST insulin. This makes us insulin-resistant, or Pre-Diabetic, a precursor to Type-2 Diabetes. While Type-2 Diabetes is a life-threatening disease in and of itself, it CAN be controlled or reversed, unlike many of the diseases that it’s a gateway to: Heart disease, various forms of cancer and Alzheimer’s just to name a few.
So, moral of the story? Find out where sugar’s sneaking into your diet, and get rid of it IMMEDIATELY! Waiting until it’s too late is definitely not the best decision…
Until tomorrow!
Sincerely,
Coach Pete
pete@weightlossbypete.com
P.S. HOW CAN I HELP YOU?
Like with the addition of the initial dietary analysis, I value your feedback, and am always looking for ways to serve you better. If you’d be so kind, please feel free to REPLY to this post in the comments below and drop me a line about a product or service I can provide you with that will make your health and weight loss journey that much easier.
Thanks :-)
