The Truth About Sugar

Refined sugar has become a dietary staple in most developed nations. Sugar is found in virtually every processed food, typically in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.

High-sugar diets are fueling worldwide obesity, type 2 diabetes rates and other chronic health problems, which are all associated with insulin resistance.

According to recent research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2015, obese children as young as eight now display signs of heart disease. Excessive sugar consumption is beginning before the age of one.

Cutting out Sugar Is One of the Fastest Ways to Improve Your Health:

The Truth About Sugar, which aired on BBC One, aims to “demystify some of the myths about sugar, namely, what food products secretly contain it and demonstrate the impact it can make on your health if you reduce the amount you eat.”

Three of the individuals in the film managed to lose nearly 13 pounds each after going on a low-sugar diet. They cut their added sugar from an average of 23 to 39 teaspoons a day, down to 6 teaspoons a day, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Recent research has revealed that cutting out added sugars can improve biomarkers associated with health in as little as 10 days, even when overall calorie count and percentage of carbohydrates remains the same.

The study, led by Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist who has long argued that added sugar is toxic when consumed in too-high amounts, reduced the amount of added sugars from an average of 27% of daily calories down to about 10%.

Sugar Is Disguised Under Many Names:

Many are simply unaware of just how much sugar they’re consuming. Added sugar can hide under other less familiar names, such as dextrose, maltose, galactose, and maltodextrin. According to SugarScience.org, added sugars hide in 74% of processed foods under more than 60 different names.

Sugar Addiction Is Real:

The film also addresses the very real phenomenon of sugar addiction. Previous research has demonstrated that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.

Groundbreaking research into addiction has revealed that you will not feel pleasure or reward unless dopamine binds with its receptor, called the D2 receptor, which is located throughout the reward center in your brain. When dopamine links to this receptor, immediate changes take place in brain cells and then you experience a “hit” of pleasure and reward.

When you indulge in too much of these hyper-stimulators, your brain’s reward center notes that you’re overstimulated, which the brain perceives as adverse to survival and so it compensates by decreasing your sense of pleasure and reward. It does this by downregulating your D2 receptors, basically eliminating some of them.

This survival strategy creates another problem, because now you don’t feel anywhere near the pleasure and reward you once had when you began your addiction, no matter whether it’s food or drugs. As a result, you develop tolerance which means that you want more and more of your fix but never achieve the same “high” you once had, so, the cravings grow stronger.

Eating REAL Food Is the Answer:

The solution is to decrease the amount of processed foods that you eat and replace them with real foods, such as high-quality whole foods.
If non-vegetable carbs are replaced with healthy fats, you can trigger a metabolic switchover to burning fat as a primary fuel rather than carbs.

Intermittent fasting is one of the most effective ways to end junk food cravings, especially cravings for sugar and grains. Intermittent fasting reduces your eating window to 8 hours a day. This realistically will mean eating breakfast and lunch or eating lunch and dinner during this 8 hour window. Before you try this, discuss an intermittent fasting program with your doctor, since a slow transition may be required, especially if you have current health issues.

Spending about 90% or more of your food budget on whole foods, and 10% or less on processed foods is a huge step in the right direction. Unfortunately, most Americans currently do the opposite, which is why so many struggle with junk food cravings.

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Watch The Truth About Sugar