Sugar, sugar, sugar!

Sugar, sugar, sugar!

Let’s talk about SUGAR.

First of all, what is processed sugar? It is any sugar that comes from sugar cane or sugar beets, which are processed to extract the sugar. It is typically found as sucrose, the combination or glucose and fructose.  Perhaps we quickly think of sweets and fizzy juice but do we consider the sugar in our carbohydrate food choices, in our dairy products, and the tinned or bottled foods we consume?

Here are some examples.

• Cookies, biscuits, cakes and pastries.
• Bread, pasta and crackers.
• Pre-made beverages, including coffee, tea and sports drinks.
• Yogurt.
• Cereals.
• Salad dressing and condiments.
• Tomato sauce, pasta sauces, soups,, baked beans.

It is everywhere!

So what is the problem? Your very clever body works hard all the time to keep you in balance, called Homeostasis. The system reacts to stimulus inside and outside the body to regulate all of your body systems, maintaining stability. It keeps us alive! The stimulus could be temperature, stress, food intake, fluid intake and more. What we do with and put into our bodies does matter, and much of it we can control.

Sugar is inflammatory to your body, it makes your body work. It sends your blood sugar and hormone levels up and down like the image shows, as your body tries to regulate and find stability. When you consume something with sugar your body releases insulin to combat the intake, after this spike in insulin your sugar levels decrease, you start to feel lethargic, your body craves the sugar again as it thinks you need it, and so you start the cycle again. Your energy levels and mood will fluctuate, your hormonal system is kept very busy as your body tries to create homeostasis. This cycle makes you store more fat around your middle too as your body thinks it needs to keep it closeby for the ever fluctuating levels of sugar and hormones. The rollercoaster can create Chronic Inflammation.

Chronic Inflammation is seen as the forerunner of many diseases. Reducing our intake of processed sugar could have an impact in reducing our risk for many conditions like heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

So what can you do about it? If you think you need to look at your sugar consumption, try starting with replacing processed sugar for natural sugar, like raw honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, dates etc, and that’s a step in the right direction. Buying as little processed/packaged food will help massively. Look for where you are probably consuming a lot of sugar and try to cut it out or find an alternative. You will find many foods will initially taste bland as your body adjusts to the sudden change in sugar content, you may also feel cravings and experience withdrawal symptoms such as headache. These feelings will pass. Be strict, but pace yourself too!

Below you can find a suggested alternative to a sugary treat. Energy Balls, that can be made in minutes.

Here is a recipe I have used;

Chocolate and Oat Energy Balls

I substituted peanut butter for almond butter, and chocolate protein powder to plain pea protein. You could also substitute the nut butter for coconut oil, or add some coconut in place of some of the oats, or some dried fruit such as chopped dates in place of the chocolate, or seeds, or nuts, or no protein powder too. One to play about with, just make a small batch at a time and perfect your recipe! Just pop in a food processor, or mix by hand then roll into bite-size balls, ready for when you fancy something sweet. They are amazingly filling too so don’t worry you won’t eat too many!

Anything we can do to help our body stay balanced is good. We are taking control of something that can have serious implications on our health in the future. Control the controllables!

Good luck!