Day 3: Dangers of Sugar I
Monday, September 9, 2013
8:45 am
I discuss the three main food types: carbohydrates, fats and proteins. I concentrate on carbohydrates and discuss the dangers of sugar and refined carbohydrates wrt spikes in blood sugar and insulin.
Video Summary:
Drinks now have 14 tsp. or 56 grams of sugar. Yesterday I did not eat any desserts and the drink was my primary sugar source, although I did supplement it with a little fruit. I think I’m probably consuming a little less sugar than I normally do, but still getting more sugar than I’m supposed to get (9 tsp. according to AHA). I did have a bit of an urge for a sugar hit this morning. Drink is still so sweet that I just take little sips of it throughout the day.
I’m not expecting to have any major withdrawal effects as I did in the caffeine program, but it remains to be seen. My digestions does seem to be a bit off the last few days, but not enough to discontinue program.
Today I’m going to talk about basics of nutrition. There are three main food groups: fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Proteins include meat, chicken, beef, fish, nuts. Fats include oils, certain fish and animals products, and junk food. Carbohydrates include fruits and vegetables, grains, breads and pastas. To have a healthy diet you should eat a certain amount of each of the three food groups. I personally don’t consciously think about it too much. I think I get enough of all of them, but simply eat too much.
Of the three main food groups this series concentrates on carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars by the digestive system and these sugars – primarily glucose – are a basic fuel of the body. Glucose gets into your bloodstream and feeds the cells of the body. When glucose enters the bloodstream, insulin is produced by the pancreas. Insulin is a hormone that allows glucose to be utilized by the cell. It unlocks the cells of the body so glucose can enter. It also stores any extra glucose in fat cells.
You typically want to have a stable level of glucose in your system. The way nature was designed the body typically had to work to convert carbohydrates (in fruits, vegetables and grains) into glucose and the glucose slowly and gradually entered your bloodstream after eating. One of the problems with sugars and refined carbohydrates is that mankind has figured out a way over the past several hundred years to strip away the work required to convert carbohydrates into glucose.
Refined sugars almost immediately get converted into glucose in your body. This causes a spike in your blood sugar. This makes you feel good as pleasure hormones are release in your body, as your body is excited to be getting all this energy all at once.
Over time, however, these blood sugar and insulin spikes are a bad thing for your body (according to some researchers). You tend to get a cycle where your blood sugar goes way up and then way down. This effects your mood and causes stress, but over time can lead to more serious problems like diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Current thinking is that you don’t want these spikes in blood sugar. Foods with a high glycemic index (such as sugar and refined carbs) get converted to glucose rapidly, so typically you want to eat foods with a low glycemic index.
This series is concentrating on a particular refined carbohydrate with a high glycemic index: sugar. I want to eliminate this refined carbohydrate because I don’t want those spikes in my blood sugar. So that’s one theory on why sugar is bad. There’s a whole new theory that’s been proposed in recent years.
The second theory is sugar and high fructose corn syrup contain another simple sugar called fructose, which is now considered by some researchers to be extremely dangerous – even toxic – to the body. This theory was brought forth about four years ago by a guy named Robert Lustig from California. I will devote tomorrow’s session to this second theory.