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This article will talk not so much talk about why eating a Low Carb, High fat diet is healthy, but instead I am going to discuss how the lack of sugar in a diet could be the casual factor in a diets success. I have lost 50lbs in about 5 months and did so on the Keto diet. The keto diet is not the be all and end all of nutrition. It is what worked for me. How it worked for me could be due to the lack of sugar in the diet. Below I share some of the things I have learned about sugar and the effects it has on the body.
THE DIET DEBATE
There seems to be a great debate between the Vegan, Palo, and Keto Diet and what one is healthiest. The Truth is everyone’s genetics are different and different people respond differently to different diets. For me the Keto diet has been extremely successful and is successful for many others. However, the Paleo or Vegan diet might be the right answer for someone else. The short answer is they’re all heathy…. If done right. The major contributing factor to the health of these diets is not necessarily what they are eating, it is what they are not eating. What they are not eating is added sugar. All of the diets I have just mention all promote eating whole nutritionally dense foods. In doing so they all also remove sugar, at least refined sugar, from the diet.
What is Sugar?
Sugar that is added to food is broken down in the intestines into two molecule Glucose and Fructose.
• Glucose
Glucose is found in every living thing. Our own bodies use Glucose as a fuel source and require it to operate. The body’s need for glucose should not be confused with a requirement for glucose in our diets. Our bodies are able to produce all the glucose it needs via gluconeogenesis. In simple terms Gluconeogenesis is the body’s process of turning fats and proteins into glucose.
• Fructose
Fructose is not required by our bodies and can only be processed by the liver. The liver does this by turning it into glycogen. If there is excess glycogen then it is turned and stored as fat. This can eventually lead to Non-Alcoholic fatty liver diseases. The was so uncommon 40 years ago that when doctors first started seeing patients with fatty liver disease they were assuming the patient was consuming an excessive amount of alcohol. When the patients were reporting that they were not the doctors would assume they were lying. It wasn’t until fatty liver disease was being diagnosed in children that the issue was given a second look.
High Fructose Corn Syrup.
As the name suggest and from what we learned earlier about Fructose one cold already see a possible problem with High Fructose Corn Syrup. As the name suggest it is a syrup high in Fructose. This syrup can and has been added to a multitude of foods that we eat every day without a second thought. These foods include:
• Bread
• Cereal
• Juice
• Various sauces
• Energy Bars
• Soda
• Energy Drinks
Of course the above list is not exhaustive but it paints a small picture of what is out there. I encourage everyone to read the nutrition labels and Ingredient’s list. High Fructose Corn Syrup offers no nutritional value and can only harm you.
Harmful effects of Sugar.
There is a massive amount of harm added sugar can do to the body in the long term. The worst of which, in my opinion, is insulin resistance. With an unhealthy insulin response to incoming sugars the body will start uncontrollably storing fat. This excess fat is a precursor to other disorders like Type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, studies published by The American Society for Clinical Investigation have shown that Fructose not Saturated fat increased the risk of LDL (bad) cholesterol, thereby increasing the risk of heart disease.
If this information is informative or you would like to learn more and dive further into any of these subjects I will be more than happy to do a follow up post with a narrower scope. Also please help me out by upvoting and resteeming this post. The greater exposure I have the more people can get this informtion. Also, please check out some of my past post for more information on health and nutrition.
Keto How I lost 50lbs in 5 Months Part 1
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