SUGAR ANYONE?
Earlier this year, the CDC indicated that about 86 million Americans have pre-diabetes. This is the condition where blood sugar is elevated but its just short of full blown diabetes. What is even more striking is that is that it is estimated about 90% of them don’t even realize it! Wowza.
Why do we consume so much sugar? Its in everything…and those things are in abundance in our diets. Simple sugar…high fructose corn syrup, refined carbohydrates (white flour, white rice), and over processed foods (think most things in a box/wrapper).
One thing many people arent real sure of is how to read labels correctly. Here’s a good example;
Make sure that you are reading the breakdown of sugars vs total carbohydrates. In this example, total carboyhydrates are 30g, but only 2g of that is simple sugar. Compare this to a can of coke as seen below, 39 total carbohydrates, ALL 39g is simple sugar. 1 tablespoon of sugar is 12.5 grams, so a bit over 3 tablespoons of pure sugar per can of coke. The point being, not all carbohydrates are the same.
What to do?
- Learn to read labels correctly, figure out what you’re putting in your mouth. Soda/juices/etc are all just loads of sugar… look at the labels and understand them.
- Get active and exercise; even if you’re just starting, plan for 15-30 minutes a day and add / modify from there. Just start doing ‘something’ so you can build on it. Routine creates habit.
- Lose weight. This will happen by following rules 1 & 2 above, but note that losing 5-7% of your body weight cuts your chances of getting diabetes by a whopping 58%!!!
- Eat lots and lots of veggies; broccoli, spinach, carrots, green beans etc. Eat fruit (greenish/yellow bananas vs brown spotted = less simple sugar), add some lean meat (chicken/turkey), and whole grain foods (if you can knock your neighbor out with a loaf of bread, its ‘real’ whole grain)
- Watch out for sweeteners! Artificial sweeteners trick your body into thinking its getting something sweet but then it doesn’t, so it craves the sugar/calories it thought it already had and you end up overeating sweets. They are in lots of things, caution. (Gum/mints/anything ‘no sugar’ but still sweet). Try to use stevia if you must.
- Supplementation is possible as well. Some have suggested the botanical Hintonia Latifloria. Check out this interesting article by Terry Lemerond; https://www.chiroeco.com/diabetes-epidemic/