Sweet, sweet sugar, making us fat!

We all love sugar. It makes everything taste better. But as we look at the obesity epidemic in North America, more and more research is pointing to sugar consumption as a major contributing factor. In the '80's everyone was convinced that fat was the culprit, after all it makes sense... fat makes us fat. However, that actually isn't true. A healthy fat feeds our brains, increases our immunity and keeps our joints lubed. Our body knows how to use real naturally sourced fat. To help fight obesity, food manufacturers took out all of the fat (& flavour) from our food and replaced everything with sugar. And we ballooned, and ballooned, and ballooned, also helping were large portion sizes and a feeling of entitlement to eat whatever we wanted, whenever we could.

So how does sugar make us fat?

The first thing you need to know is that excess sugar is stored as fat. I always struggle with how to make this complicated bodily process clear but here goes..

Imagine that in your body there is a small cup full of energy. This cup is very useful. When you need to run to the bus or catch your escaping toddler, the cup uses that energy to give your body the get up and go that it needs.

To fill the cup, your body uses sugar from your food. Whenever you eat a piece of cake or a piece of fruit, the sugar from that food goes into the cup.

It doesn't take much to fill the cup, and some things, like refined (white) carbohydrates fill it quickly, while whole grains, whole fruit and vegetables fill it slowly.

If the cup is full, but you are still eating and filling it with refined foods, the cup overflows. Also if you are eating refined foods, the cup fills faster and is more likely to overflow. Not one to waste anything, the body takes this overflow and turns it into fat and stores it for later (on the thighs perhaps?).

It takes about 25 minutes of intense exercise to empty the cup. When the cup is empty your body starts burning fat from other storage places on your body (hopefully your thighs!!!).

If you skip meals and the cup gets empty you might find that you become shaky, unable to concentrate, irritable and you crave something sweet and sugary. And you find if you eat something sweet, you feel much better. These are the symptoms of Hypoglycemia, an early indicator of Type 2 diabetes.

It is important to keep the cup full, but not overfill it. You can do this by eating small meals frequently. Make sure that your carbohydrates choices are from whole grains, real fruit (not juice) and vegetables. Try to avoid refined 'white' food, like white bread, muffins and cookies. Even white rice and white potatoes are culprits.

The moral of this story is that you need energy from whole carbohydrates to give your body the energy it needs. However, if you overeat or eat too many refined, sugary foods the excess sugar is stored as fat. To get rid of this fat you need to eat less and exercise more.

Get my recipe for Grilled Beet Salad here! It's a delicious summer recipe!

Here are my tips for avoiding excess sugar in your diet

• Always choose foods that are as close to nature as possible. Once it is put into a box or bag, it loses nutrients. Usually extra sugar and other preservatives are added to make the food last longer.
• Eat small meals frequently (every 3 hours).
• Pair a protein with a carbohydrate to slow the absorption of the sugar in the carb.
  
• Try and stay away from juice. When juice is made the fiber is removed, which speeds up the sugar absorption.
  
• Choose whole grains like whole wheat, brown rice, whole rye and whole spelt.
• Make sure your portion sizes are appropriate.
• Remember that things like maple syrup, honey, raw sugar and sucanat are still sugar. They have a higher degree of minerals, but still are sugar and are recognized by the body as such.
  
• Look for these words on your food labels... they mean sugar...!!!
  
• Corn sweetener, corn syrup, or corn syrup solids, Dehydrated Cane Juice, Dextrose, Fructose, Fruit juice concentrate, Glucose, High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), Honey, Invert sugar, Lactose, Maltodextrin, Malt syrup, Maltose, Maple syrup, Molasses, Raw sugar, Rice Syrup, Sucrose, Syrup, Turbinado Sugar

Hey Doctors, physiologists and nutritionists out there. I know this is an oversimplification of how sugar is stored as fat, but I was hoping this would explain it well enough to make people think about their sugary food habits. I'd love your thoughts!