This Blog Is For Women

Making the transition from sugar burning to fat burning isn’t an easy one.  The carb cravings that go along with transitioning to a low-carb diet can be overwhelming.   The good news is that they only take place during the transition.  The faster you can get from Sugar Burner to Fat Burner the sooner the cravings will die away!

photo credit: flickr.com/istolethetv

Why do we crave sugar?

All carbohydrates essentially become sugar in our bloodstream once our digestive enzymes get their way.  Starches and complex carbs are broken down to simple sugar and then they make their way into our bloodstream.

On a daily basis, most of us can perform all of our daily functions and activities on about 100-150 grams of carbohydrates.  Anything above that is excess and will be stored as fat.  Below about 100 grams of carbs, we will naturally begin to burn fat as fuel.  For those of us who wish to trim our figures or convert to fat-burning, consuming under 100 grams of carbs is ideal.  The trouble is that if we are “Sugar Burners” our bodies want more, we crave it.

Once sugar enters our blood stream, insulin is launched to eliminate it from the blood as quickly as possible.  Our bodies are designed to eradicate sugar from our bloodstream and to keep blood sugar levels at the lowest functional levels possible. Over time, we create a physiological expectation that there will be sugar present in our bloodstream in regular intervals, and we’ve got the tools to remove it at the ready. When we stop providing the sugar, the cravings begin.  Our bodies are ready for sugar, and we haven’t provided any.    Over time, a low-carb diet will reprogram our system to become fat-adapted.  The cravings will recede and appetite will normalize. But during the period of adaptation there will be a serious withdrawal period when our bodies are driving us to eat carbohydrates.

Other factors that can contribute to carbohydrate cravings include the serotonin effect that carbs can have on our mood.  Eating carbohydrates can mimic the effects of serotonin  and elevate our mood temporarily.  The trouble is, that this effect is temporary and, in fact, deplete serotonin in the long-run making cravings worse!   A better approach is to avoid carbohydrates and work to improve our body’s serotonin production and receptors.

What can we do about it?

The faster we can re-adapt our metabolism to be ketogenic or “Fat Adapted”  the faster we will eliminate our cravings.  For most people this can be achieved in 3 to 6 weeks.  

1. Not cheating will make the  cravings go away faster.  Withdrawal must take its complete course and any setbacks you have along the way will only prolong your eventual success.

2. Understanding this process can help us in the short-term to mentally navigate the sugar craving demons that urge us to eat sugar and complex carbohydrates.  In the long-term, being successful in the short-term will get us there one day at a time.   Know that,  if you don’t cheat, in about 21 days the cravings will be gone.  In the short term distraction can help.  Craving sugar? drink some hot water, do 3 sets of 10 push-ups, go outside for a  20-minute walk.

3. Proper diet, or supplementation of key nutrients.  Low light in winter, low vitamin D, low Omega 3, Low B6, low iron, poor protein absorption and poor hormonal function can also all cause inadequate serotonin function.   To assist healthy serotonin cycles we can get more natural light, use a full spectrum lamp, ensure adequate amounts of vitamins B and D,iron and Omega-3, and eat frequent small servings of protein (chewed thoroughly.)   These won’t cure the problem or be a miracle solution but they will assist serotonin function and give you a leg up at battling sugar cravings while you work at becoming a Fat Burning Beast.

Read more about carb cravings at PrimalBody-PrimalMind.com

Read about Mark Sisson’s take on Fat Burning metabolism at MarksDailyApple.com

For a while, I thought that people were exaggerating when they compared sugar to a drug.  But then came the studies which compare the similarities in brain stimulation between drug users and people who had eaten foods containing refined sugar.  These are quite remarkable, and they do make a good case for the similarity.

Recently I’ve gained a new appreciation for the similarity between sugar and drugs.  It came from this quote from William Dufty’s 1975 book Sugar Blues:

“In about fortyeight hours, I was in total agony, overcome with nausea, with a crashing migraine. If pain was a message, this was a long one, very involved, intense but in code. It took hours to break the code. I knew enough about junkies to recognize reluctantly my kinship with them. I was kicking cold turkey, the thing they talked about with such terror. After all, heroin is nothing but a chemical. They take the juice of the poppy and they refine it into opium and then they refine it to morphine and finally to heroin. Sugar is nothing but a chemical. They take the juice of the cane or the beet and they refine it to molasses and then they refine it to brown sugar and finally to strange white crystals. It’s no wonder dope pushers dilute pure heroin with milk sugar —lactose—in order to make their glassine packages a treat to the eye. I was kicking all kinds of chemicals cold turkey—sugar , aspirin, cocaine, caffeine, chlorine, fluorine, sodium, monosodium glutamate, and all those other multisyllabic horrors listed in fine print on the tins and boxes I had just thrown in the trash. I had it very rough for about twenty-four hours, but the morning after was a revelation. I went to sleep with exhaustion, sweating and tremors. I woke up feeling reborn.”

—–Sugar Blues, William Dufty, 1975, Warner Books, Inc, p. 22–3

Right, heroin and sugar.  Cousins.

I don’t use heroine.  Why should I ‘use’ sugar?  The problem is that it’s very hard to kick the sugar habit.  It’s found in almost every processed food, and is so easily obtainable.  And it’s highly addictive.  The best solution is to work hard, stop consuming it and never look back.

Have you seen the new slim Alec Baldwin?  He has embarked upon a sugar free diet, and he looks phenomenal. If Alec Baldwin can do it you can, too!  In an interview done earlier this month he reveals how he did it, and he also exposes the dangers of eating sugar  Hear him speak about healthy eating in this interview with Dr. Robert Lustig. Transcript here.

Sugar, it’s found its way into an alarming number of the foods that we consume on a daily basis.  We’re often completely unaware of how much sugar we’re eating.  If you’re eating food that is packaged, or prepared by someone else, you can bet that it’s high in sugar.

Recent changes to the recommended daily intake of sugar have resulted in a much lower upper limit for dietary “added sugars.” We’re not talking about the sugars found naturally occurring in most fruits and vegetables, we’re talking about the kind that are added to foods to make them sweeter, sugars like glucose, fructose,  sucrose — beet and cane sugar, whether white or brown — and high-fructose corn syrup.  It’s all sugar, and it’s all bad – if not consumed in moderation.

Moderation is the key.  But, it is also the problem.  As a society, we have lost the ability to gauge moderation in sugar consumption.

The American Heart Association recommended sugar intake for adult women is  20 grams of sugar per day, for adult men, it’s  36 grams daily, and for children 12 grams a day. Wow.   Let’s see how that might work.

• 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar:  4 grams of sugar
• Multigrain Bagel from Dunkin Donuts:  9 grams of sugar
• Newman’s Own Tomato & Basil spaghetti sauce, 1/2 cup = 12 grams of sugar
• Bull’s Eye Brown Sugar & Hickory BBQ sauce, 2 tablespoons: 14 grams of sugar
• Kellogg’s Smart Start Strong Heart Cereal, Toasted Oat: 17 grams of sugar
• Delmonte diced pears in light syrup, single serving cup: 17 grams of sugar
• Weight Watchers Blueberry Muffins: 18 grams of sugar
• 1 6oz serving of fruit on the bottom yogurt:  25 grams.  Oops!  That’s the whole day’s allotment!
• V8 Fusion Vegetable Fruit 100% juice, 8 ounces: 26 grams of sugar!
• Minute Maid lemonade, 8oz: 29 grams of sugar!
• 18 jelly beans:  32 grams of sugar!
• Glaceau Vitamin Water, 20 ounce bottle:32 grams of sugar
• 1 can of Barq’s Old Time Rootbeer: 39 grams of sugar
• A small Dairy Queen chocolate sundae:  41 grams of sugar

Some of the most surprising sources of added sugar are items like spaghetti sauce, and yogurt:  foods that we have come to think of as healthy.

Low sugar options

• plain or Greek style yogurt:  2-5 grams of sugar
• water:  0 grams of sugar
• home made spaghetti sauce: limited added sugar
• home juiced vegetables: 0 grams of sugar
• avoid muffins, ice cream, pop, bagels, and packaged fruit.

Eliminating added sugar from your diet really boils down to one thing:  Eat natural foods, in their whole state, prepared by yourself with little added sugar.  If it’s got a package, read the lable, chances are it also has more sugar than you’re willing to add to your diet.

Notice that we are not counting the naturally occurring sugar found in fruits and vegetables.  These bring fibre, minerals and vitamins into your diet that are essential for good health, and they also supply an adequate amount of sugar for healthy body function when eaten as part of a healty diet.  Fruits and vegetables are sweeter than they have ever been in history due to being selectively grown for taste appeal.  Consuming these natural foods will provide us with all the sugar we need to be healthy.

Want more information about sugar and it’s effects try the following:

Sugar- Are You Addicted?

60 minutes, Is Sugar Toxic?

Rodale:  Report Provides New Sugar Recommendations for Adults

FitWatch: Signs that you may be addicted to Sugar