Sugar - The Truth!

Let's talk about the not-so-sweet truth about sugar and how it sabotages your health. First of all, did you know volleyball drills the average American gets 20% of their calories from sugar? It is estimated that the average volleyball drills eats a whopping 136 pounds of sugar a year! Unfortunately many young people eat an even greater amount. Sugar is an empty calorie food, meaning that you are taking in calories that have no nutritional value to fuel your body.

Have you ever noticed that once you have something sweet it leaves you wanting more and more? You've just hopped on the sugar treadmill. You get the sugar high and then crash, as your blood glucose levels swing wildly up and down. Sugar is the drug of choice for many people and it is not without consequences.

Refined sugar depletes your body of all the B vitamins; it also leaches calcium from your hair, bones, blood and teeth. If that is not enough, sugar also affects your body's digestion. Sugar ferments in your stomach. It stops the secretion of gastric juices and inhibits the stomachs ability to digest. Weight gain, mood swings and irritability are a few more side effects from consuming too much sugar. Sugar plays a major role in altering one's mood. Refined sugar has a chemical reaction on the brain, releasing serotonin, the 'feel good' hormone; this tricks the body into a temporary lift as well as causing a rise in blood glucose levels. This 'feel good' lift is then followed by the crash where you feel tired, irritable and even depressed. So what do you do about it?

Removing sugar, or at least reducing the amount, from your diet can and probably should be done in steps. First of all, make a decision to cut out all added sugar that you use from the sugar bowl. If this sounds impossible, please give it a chance. When you stop adding extra sugar to your foods you can actually taste the food your eating. Give your taste buds a week to adjust and I'll bet you will actually appreciate the flavors of your food more without the sugar. Another step to take is to read your labels. Food manufacturers add high fructose corn syrup to most packaged foods. You can start by cutting out all foods with this dangerous ingredient. This may seem daunting but let's face it; real food does not come in a box anyway. Packaged and processed foods are rarely a wise choice for optimal nutrition. When you get a sugar craving try to satisfy it with a natural sugar source like fresh fruit or dried fruit.

You want to avoid the processed sugars that have become so common place in our society. They are white sugar, brown sugar, blackstrap molasses and corn syrup. There are better choices out there like maple syrup, honey, cane juice, rice syrup and sorghum molasses. Many people use artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar. I'm sorry to say that this is no better. Many artificial sweeteners have been proven to have negative side effects. Studies have also shown that eating an artificially sweetened item will still leave you wanting something sweet just as if you had eaten real sugar.

There is no reason to use artificial sweeteners. The right way to deal with our natural desire for sugars is to get them from whole foods, from starches, vegetables and fruits. So I would like to challenge you to reduce your sugar intake. Give it just one week and you will see that you can do it and that you will feel better and more balanced.

Barry Lovelace is an internationally recognized fitness professional specializing in the functional training of athletes. Barry trains athletes in his area and all over the country. He is a member of Team Mens Fitness, the owner of FitQuest Fitness in Allentown Pa, fitness expert for LifeScape magazine and the creator of several products Get great health and fitness info on his website