26th
April 2012
Never talk
defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory. Norman Vincent Peale
It’s
only rain ‘-) keep reminding yourself we wouldn’t survive long without it! My members were amazing yesterday coming to
get weighed regardless of the rain, and they were rewarded for their efforts
over 240lb lost and two achieved their goals, WOW, well worth getting a bit
wet.
Oone
of my members told me yesterday that she’s addicted to coca cola, she’s trying
to do cold turkey from 3 litres a day, at one time I would have laughed and said
no your not, it isn’t addictive but now I know differently, so can sugar be an
addiction or is it just a habit?
Did
you know that sugar could be addictive apparently, a 2008 study by Princeton
University showed that when rats ingested large quantities of sugar, the
changes to their brains were similar to those seen with drugs such as heroin
and cocaine. It’s immediately gratifying,
an instant energy boost. We all know it
helps towards your weight problems, possibly even more so that fat, everyone
looks on the label at the fat content but who looks at the sugar content! Did you know apple juice is used as an
ingredient because it sounds healthy, but realistically it’s mostly sugar! I’ve seen members eyes light up when I
mention the word chocolate, it’s sweet, sugary and delicious – everything that
gets your juices going. Brits are
collectively eating 2.25 million tonnes of sugar a year, that’s an average of
58lb of sugar each, the equivalent of 27 bags, if you want an instant visual
it’s a little more than a large sack of potatoes! Unfortunately a lot of it is hidden in foods
such as bread, soup and salad dressings, I bet you didn’t realise that.
Yeah
sugar is called lots of different names to fool you if you are looking at
ingredients, they are;
Concentrated
fruit juice
Corn
sugar/syrup
Dextrose
Dextrin
Evaporated
cane juice
Fructose
Galactose
(that sounds like a planet!)
Honey
High-fructose
glucose syrup
Hydrolysed
starch
Invert
sugar syrup
Isoglucose
Lactose
Levulose
Maltose
Maltodextrin
Molasses
Sucrose
/ sucrose syrup
Treacle
We
all know it’s difficult to give something up if you really enjoy it, and also
if you’re a little addicted to it. You
can’t go to a rehab centre for doughnut addiction, well I’m guessing you
actually probably could if you’d got enough money. But in reality it’s very difficult to go cold
turkey; going from a 3 spoon sugar tea drinker to no sugar overnight is
hell. The best way to do it is to wean
yourself off it slowly, or stop drinking tea ;). If a food label shows that sugar is in the
top three ingredients – stop buying it.
If
you decide to cut back on sugar, and get a sugar craving in the afternoon have
a banana and a glass of milk, it may not be the same as a mars bar, but you’re
body will appreciate it.
Switch
to sweeteners, it’ll help, we humans are built with an innate desire for sweet
foods apparently, so if you really can’t live without, use sweeteners. To help balance out your blood sugar levels,
up your protein. A handful of walnuts
would be great, and before you say OMG they’ve got so many ProPoints in them –
so has chocolate!
Boosting
your vitamin C intake can help lower blood sugar levels, oranges, kiwi fruits
are both good examples.
So
who’s up for a bit of cold turkey, I’m doing the alcohol version, do you need
to do it with the sweet stuff?
Beware
the hidden sugar, this is how much is lurking in some of the things you don’t
realise;
Orange
juice = 4 ½ tsp
200g
tomato soup = 2 ½ tsp
15g
ketchup = 1 tsp
30g
cornflakes with 125ml milk = 2tsp
3
slices wholemeal bread = 1 ½ tsp
Half
a jar of pasta sauce = 1 tsp
1
milk chocolate digestive = 1 1/3 tsp
Can
of cola = 8 ¾ tsp
Can
of baked beans = 5 tsp
Fat-free
vanilla yogurt = 2 ½ tsp
So
there’s some food for thought, are you consuming too much sugar, is that the
reason you feel sluggish, or have a sugar slump in the afternoon.
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