Sugar, Sugar, Sugar .. Gimme some sugar, baby means one thing - consuming sugar all day long means another ! Does Sugar Make Us Fat? Sugar tastes oh so sweet, but do we really need it? Is that spare tire around our waist, our neck jowls and upper arm flab caused by eating too much sugar? Research in recent years has shown that our sugar intake can, over time, have a definite effect on our body weight. So, how much is too much and just exactly how does sugar make us fat? Lets take that second question first. Sugar, as well as high fructose corn syrup, is made up of glucose and fructose. We need glucose to live. Our body produces it naturally and it is used to give our cells energy. But fructose is not natural and our body does not produce it. Of all the cells in our body, only our liver cells can process fructose. When we eat a lot of sugar, the majority of fructose gets metabolized by our liver. It is processed and turned into fat which, in turn, is then pushed out into our blood. Fructose also changes the way we react to a hormone called leptin. Every time we eat, some of our food is stored in our fat cells. Leptin levels are increased and our brain notices this higher leptin level. It senses that we have enough fat stored and tells us to stop eating. But fructose disguises our true leptin levels. Our brain does not realize we have enough fat, so we eat more sweet and sugary things because our mind believes we need to produce fat to store away for a rainy day. Fructose is the real culprit in sugar here, making us fat in a couple of different ways. Some recent research out of New Zealand shows that even small increases or decreases in our sugar intake can dramatically affect how much fat and extra weight we pack on. In a study which lasted up to 6 months, test subjects who ate less sugar lost an average of 1.8 pounds. In as few as 8 weeks, those subjects who increased their sugar intake by even a small amount, saw a weight gain of 1.7 pounds on average. And that is just one of many studies which show the real world results of eating sugar that take place because of the natural process we just discussed. The bottom line? Eat less sugar and we gain less fat. So, how much sugar is too much? Studies say that men should limit themselves to 150 sugar calories per day, women to 100 sugar calories. Many people are consuming 10 x these amounts, especially children, without even realizing it. Healthy fats like olive or coconut oil are needed in our body, but the unnatural fructose in sugar produces the kind of unhealthy fat that nobody wants or needs. What can we do to help our families and ourselves cut the sugar habit? (to be continued)
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 07:46:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015