Where`s the Sugar???
You remember the old lady in the Wendy`s commercial, “Where`s the Beef”????? Unfortunately, people are not having any trouble finding sugar these days, public enemy number one, of the flat belly and the healthy body. It evens destroys your skin. Yes, even wrinkles and age spots are caused by sugar! I could name another long list of side effects from eating sugar but it would take up this whole blog, so we will leave it there.
68% of the US population is now classified as morbidly obese. “Morbidly” means that what they are eating is killing them, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. This number has gone up from 47% in the last ten years.
Obese children are also suffering from sugar overload, at the hands of unknowing, uneducated parents. Most of these parents are eating badly themselves and keeping things in the house like coca cola (37 grams of sugar per can!!) and breakfast cereals targeted at children. When big tobacco companies were finally prohibited from marketing their poisons to children, they switched tactics and moved many of their assets to children`s breakfast cereal.
Big food companies follow the golden rule of marketing, sell more to your current customer rather than looking for a new customer. They hide high fructose corn syrup in almost everything, a processed sugar that causes people to crave more of it once they get it in their bodies. Try eating a whole tablespoon of raw honey sometime. You won`t be tempted to eat the rest of the jar. Your stomach sends a signal to the brain, hey stop eating, your blood sugar is way too high! High fructose corn syrup short-circuits this signal, allowing you to go thru a half a bag of Oreos before you even know what has happened.
How do you know you are eating too much sugar? You have excess fat, (a spare tire) between your armpit and your hip bones. This is a health disaster. Your hips should be ten inches smaller than your waist for good health. Not many people fit into this category.
How do you stop eating so much sugar? Learn what sugar is and where it is hidden. Realize that your blood does not know the difference from a baked potato or piece of bread and sugar. Starch quickly enters your blood and creates an insulin response in the pancreas. Insulin tells the body to store the excess sugar as fat right around your middle.
Rigorously read labels and look for sugar. Try to keep your intake under 15 grams per day. Switch from processed starches to whole grains like quinoa and sprouted wheat breads. If you make sure to eat some protein and fiber every time you put something in your body, you will lose the spare tire.
If you would like to learn more, visit the Flat Belly Fitness Seminars held Sundays at the Villa del Arco in Cabo from 4-5 pm.
E-mail: robynlittlewood@yahoo.com for more info.