10 February 2012

Step One: Cut it out!

One quick update: Giving you all full disclosure, I have made available to you, my food logs online; so go ahead and feel free to see what M eats. Please note that I have digestive diseases and allergies that prevent me from a multitude of foods. That said, I try to be very methodical about what I am consuming, while always experimenting to find what works best for me. If you have questions about what I am doing, do not hesitate to ask. Click here to access my foods logs.


Now, on to the point at issue. It should not come as a surprise to you that sugar and all products that pretense to be [namely, High Fructose Corn Syrup and sucrose, our main offenders, but also, dextrose, cane sugar, beet sugar, corn syrup solids, etc] are more than a sinful indulgence and not only toxic, but chronically harmful. 


I will be honest with you - it was not long ago that I had a terrible diet. I was very fortunate, at that time, to be very sensitive to insulin, thus I was able to control weight easily. However, as I aged, I realized that our bodies change and we may not always be able to keep the habits we once had. 
For example, while in high school, I had a very high carb diet, moderate in fat and low in protein. (And by high carb, I really mean high sugar... so what! I had a sweet tooth... I don't think I was alone). It was not until I was 18 that sugary habits started to become a problem: I was gaining weight and it was not muscle (yes, fat baby). I wasn't overweight, nor have I ever been. However, I went from a slender 123 lbs to a whopping 135 lbs, which was the heaviest I'd been in my life. Now you're thinking: "Morgan, 135 is skinny! You weren't overweight!" This is true, but was I healthy? Definitely not. My lean mass was only 95 lbs, so I was carrying 40 pounds of fat, YUCK! I only need 20, so I was lugging around an extra 20 pounds of fat I didn't need. Something had to change; however, you'd have to kill first before taking away my precious sugar ;-) Thus, I took the "skinny" way out: I kept eating the same things, just less. I was hungry, tired, irritable, sickly, but I lost weight! I could not, however, easily maintain my old weight and the five of the pounds I did lose was my lean mass, and I already did not have much! It was at this point that my passionately curious nature emerged in biochemistry and nutritional sciences. I wanted to know how to gain muscle, lose weight, feel good, without being hungry or tired. "Don't hold your breath!" was a phrase I often heard; but you bet I did. In fact, for the last several years, I have been researching and experimenting (encountering a few medical obstacles along the way) with my diet to find the right combination of nutrients to accomplish the goals I set out achieve. It has not been as simple as I hoped, in fact I have foremost learned that the fields of nutritional and public health sciences have a long way to go. However, in my research, I can say with steadfast faith that sugar is the #1 enemy! CUT IT OUT and your overall health, fitness and physique will be much better for it. I will not go into scientific detail as to why, rather, I will let the front running expert in the field, Dr. Robert Lustig, of UCSF, explain it to you in the video below - it may be 90 minutes - but is well worth the time. Dr. Lustig is a very engaging speaker - not to mention how fascinating the subject is as well. Enjoy viewing :) 



Also, for those more interested in supplementing this video with additional information, may I direct you to a blog post by a favorite doctor, author, and researcher of mine, Peter Attia, called Sugar 101. 




All that being said and learned - your first step is to CUT SUGAR OUT. Be careful, it is everywhere; start reading those nutritional labels, and get interested or get fat and sick! Up to you. 


With all my love....M.

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