Azucar

I feel like peoples knowledge on it is almost nill. To me it's very frustrating, all the consumer products, to diets, to replacement sweeteners. We're getting ourselves in a lot of trouble. I touched on sugar in a previous blog post and now I'll go in a little more extensive into this sticky subject.

#1 we need sugar in some form and in fact our body makes sugar every time you eat something. Food is broken down into a sugar called glucose. It's what fuels the cells in our body. It's energy.

#2 If you have too much sugar whether from some pasta converting to sugar or from say high fructose corn syrup it'll eventually end up converted to fat. So even those fat free fruit snacks can cause trouble if you're watching your weight.

That's the pretty simple, maybe common knowledge about sugar. Where I find more people are lost is in the difference between refined sugar and unrefined sugar. Basically refined sugars are sugars without help. Your body needs vitamins and minerals to break down sugar already in food.

So lets say we eat an apple. The apple has lots of sugar in it but God also package the apple perfectly with vitamins and minerals that help you break down and use the sugar stored in it. Fine, the body knows what to do with the sugar when it is equip with all the vitamins and minerals, fiber, and enzymes and are gladly are gobbled up.

But now whats happened is people have isolated, extracted, or refined the sugar out of an apple(or corn) to make fructose. It's just the sugar and since it's only sugar you can put it in other things like gelatin and make a snack you can keep on a shelf for months without it going bad and then sell it. Cha-Ching! Well the problem is that all the great stuff that helps break down and convert the sugar into something good which it was previously made with the apple doesn't exist in the new snack. So what does the sugar do to get metabolized? It takes from your body's store of vitamins and minerals! A big thing sugar needs to break down??.. Calcium. Calcium however is also needed for your bones. Refinded sugar doesn't know this so it starts takin' the calcium that is rightfully your bones and your poor bones suffer. Kind of bad. And really there is a lot of other stuff it uses that could be needed elsewhere, that's just one. It can really overall deprive your whole body.

Refined sugar ..what makes it sticky? It really kind of fools your body or at least starts a bad cycle. If you notice when you eat a candy bar you may get what one calls a sugar high and in fact that's basically what it is. A lot of sugar in the blood. Refined sugar get metabolized faster and effects your energy level quickly. What then happens when it's used up(probably with 40 mins if not coupled with other whole foods or complex carbs) is low blood sugar. The glucose is burned up quickly and then there is nothing to digest. No glucose, no energy. Your body "freaks" and tells you it's uncomfortable with this change and prods you with a little thing called hunger. If there is a bowl of M&M's close by your body, remembering this food produces quick release sugar, will tell you to indulge. You then grab for the M&Ms, and the cycle starts again. What your body wants is glucose but in the throes of a low blood sugar spell doesn't care how. What it would be happier with is a whole food or real meal. A meal that includes starches, protein, fiber, and more vitamins.

And has this ever happened?... You start munchin on a bag of cookies and 10mins later it's all gone?! You haven't even realized and it certainly didn't bother you(yet) that you had eaten so much junk??? Now think how much that happens with fruit or veggies. Not that it wouldn't happen but it does considerably less. Your body recognizes whole foods and knows when to say "OK that'll be enough for now" a little better. I find that the exception to that rule comes when I haven't had a certain type of fruit(i.e. Pineapple) for a long time. And I reason that my body just probably needs something in it that I haven't been getting enough of in my diet.

MSG, not directly related to sugar, but a lot of time you can find them in the same box of processed foods, actually goes a step further and blocks off the part of the brain that signals that you're full. Otherwise I don't think you could eat that much Mickey-D's or sour cream and onion chips.

Remember it like this. Imagine that food is like guests at a pot luck. Generally everyone will bring a portion that will cover the amount of food they'll consume or more. Extra refined sugar foods are the kids, they keeps things fun but show up empty handed. Not only do they partake in the potluck but start to plunder you fridge and cabinet. If you invite too many of these children you'll be left in very bad shape. Invited the foods that have been around for at least as long as human kind, and invite them often.