We focus on exercise at Iron Fit in San Antonio, Texas, but also realize that what you eat makes a huge difference in your health, your weight loss and your overall fitness. That’s one reason I like to take time to provide nutritional information that you can use to improve weight loss and get into shape faster. One of the biggest offenders in many people’s diets is the sugar they consume. Not only will added sugar slow or reverse weight loss, it’s bad for you.
All types of extra sugar are bad, even natural types.
That sounds pretty bad for fruit that contains sugar, but it’s not. Fruit is naturally occurring in fruit and not added. Fruit is high in fiber, which also contains a lot of fiber and water, which slows digestion and there’s far less sugar in fruit, such as an apple, than there is in a soft drink. An apple not only fills you up, it satisfies your desire for sweets with 23 grams of sugar and has many nutrients. A 16-ounce container of cola has 52 grams of sugar and no nutritional benefit. While the added sugar in cola may be mostly fructose, a natural sugar that’s also in apples, it’s definitely not healthy for you.
Added sugar triggers health risks.
If you sprinkle a spoon of sugar in your coffee or on your cereal, you’re adding sugar. Baked goods or any product man-made also qualify as having added sugar. That extra sugar increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes, adds to the potential for obesity. Most people already realize it can cause tooth decay, but they don’t realize how it can impair their immune system or even accelerate the aging process.
HFCS—high fructose corn syrup—is even worse than regular table sugar.
You’ve probably heard those commercials about high fructose corn syrup, saying it’s healthy because it’s natural. Nothing could be further from the truth. Remember, tobacco is natural and that doesn’t make it healthy. High fructose corn syrup comes from the stalks of the corn. In order to release it from the stalks, the manufacturers use a chemical process that creates a Frankenstein sugar. Your body even has to metabolize it differently from fructose. It isn’t converted to glucose in the intestines, like most sugar. Instead, it goes to the liver. Unlike other sugars, it’s not converted to glucose, so your blood sugar doesn’t raise. That means it doesn’t trigger the release of leptin that tells you that you’re full, no matter how many calories you’ve eaten.
- Besides the fiber that fruit contains, which slows down the processing of sugar, there’s very little sugar in a piece of fruit, so you don’t have the same effect as you do when you choose added sugar.
- Added sugar increases your risk of dementia, heart disease and damage to the stomach lining. It can upset the microbiome, which not only aids digestion, helps boost immunity among many other things.
- Sugar is highly addictive. It triggers the same receptors in the brain as cocaine does. It can alter your sense of taste, making you want sweeter and sweeter food.
- Sugar plays a major role in raising blood pressure. Cutting out sugar is just as important as cutting out salt if you’re trying to control your blood pressure.
For more information, contact us today at IronFit San Antonio