There is one truly evil food that humans consume that harms us more than all others – refined sugars. The biggest culprit is high-fructose corn syrup, which is totally unnatural and is added to more of our processed food products than most people are aware of.
Today we are experiencing levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease like never before. We are consuming so much sugar in everything we eat and fully two-thirds of us are overweight or obese. Companies are still cramming as much sugar as they can get away with into our processed foods and drinks. They know from human and animal studies that sugar can be as addictive to us as cocaine.
Sugar and fructose are added to so many products now that it’s nearly impossible to cut it out completely. Without sugar you couldn’t eat ketchup, salad dressing, butter, cured meat, or nearly every other pre-packaged food – the list goes on.
Start With the Obvious
It is difficult to cut out every product with added sugar. The big culprits though, are easiest to identify. Avoid sugary beverages like sodas, fruit juices, and our favorite flavored coffees. It’s also easy to identify and cut out candies, chocolate, pastries, ice cream and other sweet treats.
Sugar and Kids
A study was done by Dr. Robert Lustig of the University of San Francisco, on sugar in children’s diets. For the study, kids were taken off sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. The calories from sugar that were taken off were replaced with starch, so the kids were eating the same number of calories as they were consuming before the diet. The goal of the diet was not for the kids to lose weight. Researchers wanted to see how other health markers would improve without sugar.
The study showed that the kids were much healthier after only 9 days of not eating sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. They reduced the fat on their livers and went from being insulin resistant to being insulin sensitive and their triglyceride and LDL levels also went down.
The study was not about eating healthy and losing weight. The study was about keeping weight and calories the same. By cutting out sugars by 90% the children’s markers of health improved in a very short period of time.
It is difficult to cut all sugars and high-fructose corn syrup out of your diet, but here are some easy pointers to put you on the right path:
- Start with beverages first, like your morning glass of orange juice or coffee with whipped cream drizzled with chocolate, then cut out sodas.
- Next cut out candy, ice cream, cakes and other sweet treats.
- If you want to go further, cut out processed foods that you find in the middle aisles of the grocery store. Shop around the edges of the grocery store where you find meat and produce and other fresh foods.
- Look for unsweetened dairy products.
- Bread and grains can be reduced as well because they typically contain refined sugar. Stick to whole grain bread and pasta.
- Buy nuts for treats, they are packed with the healthy fats.
- Check here and online for healthier sweet alternatives to sugary foods, like these “popsicles” made from real fruit.
Reducing sugars and high fructose corn syrup in your diet is easy once you get the hang of it. Simply find healthier foods as a replacement. Remember that there are other delicious foods available. You will still get to eat grass-fed steak, grass-fed dairy, sandwiches, vegetables covered in butter, toast, hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables and so many other wonderful foods. Focus on educating yourself on how to eat as healthily as possible.
