What do you need to drop from your diet to loose weight and be healthier? Sugar. Robert Lustig argues that sugar is nothing more than a poison. More than likely you have viewed this Youtube video. I watched it for the second time today.
The Cliff's Notes
To put it simply: Fructose must be metabolized by your liver. What do we call things that must be metabolized by one's liver? A poison. If you think that is a bit extreme... How do you make ethanol? You ferment sugar. Sugar is the same as ethanol, it just does not give you a buzz because it can not be processed by the brain.
So what if we started to view all sugar like alcohol? To quote cookie monster, "it is a sometimes food". I know that giving up fruit and all sugar will not work for me. It makes me sad to think of a world without chocolate or fruit pie. I can, however, put it off till the weekend. I wonder how much healthier (and smaller around the middle) we would be if we took this approach.
The diet I am on right now cuts out sugar entirely for the majority of the week. I get one cheat day every week to indulge in whatever I want. Robert Lustig says "When God made the poison, he packaged it with the antidote." Where ever you find sugar it is packaged within a large quantity of fiber. Think about sugar cane. I will probably start to eat fruit again once my weight is to a level I am happy with but for right now I am limiting it to one day a week. This limitation resulted in a 3lb weight loss last week.
The Cliff's Notes
To put it simply: Fructose must be metabolized by your liver. What do we call things that must be metabolized by one's liver? A poison. If you think that is a bit extreme... How do you make ethanol? You ferment sugar. Sugar is the same as ethanol, it just does not give you a buzz because it can not be processed by the brain.
So what if we started to view all sugar like alcohol? To quote cookie monster, "it is a sometimes food". I know that giving up fruit and all sugar will not work for me. It makes me sad to think of a world without chocolate or fruit pie. I can, however, put it off till the weekend. I wonder how much healthier (and smaller around the middle) we would be if we took this approach.
The diet I am on right now cuts out sugar entirely for the majority of the week. I get one cheat day every week to indulge in whatever I want. Robert Lustig says "When God made the poison, he packaged it with the antidote." Where ever you find sugar it is packaged within a large quantity of fiber. Think about sugar cane. I will probably start to eat fruit again once my weight is to a level I am happy with but for right now I am limiting it to one day a week. This limitation resulted in a 3lb weight loss last week.
Ever since I cut wheat from my diet I've had these massive sugar cravings. Really massive. Whole pint of Ben and Jerry's massive. Its physically painful to pass by the M&M bowl at work.
ReplyDeleteThats an addiction. Thats why I'm trying to quit. I went a week w/out sweets and treated myself to some chocolate cake last night.
As I started to read your post my co-worker poured a bowl full of M&M's from a large 1 pound bag and the plinking sound made my mouth began to water.
And now I'm craving.
I feel your pain. My roomate has 2 packages of Cadbury Cream Eggs in the frig. They yell "EAT ME" every time I open the door.
ReplyDeleteIt's cute that you call Rich your roommate ;)
ReplyDeleteHe is referred to as husband in most posts. Gwen would be roommate.
ReplyDeleteHaha -- my bad, Bea! Those are going to be gone tomorrow morning. They're part of an Easter care package for a friend of mine who tragically has no regular access to sweets, being a nun. (As an aside, I wonder how healthy she feels, not really having control over her diet?) I put them in the fridge so they wouldn't get melty and gross. :)
ReplyDeleteJonathan,
ReplyDeleteAre you eating much fruit? Once I cut fruit out I quit having sugar cravings. I still eat fruit, I just no longer eat it everyday.
You and the Times are on the same page
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=1
I hadn't seen this vid before - thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteThey leave me feeling like I just made the chocolate version of a terribly bad decision in a dark Vegas alley, but now you've got me craving Cadbury eggs like yeah whoa. Thanks a lot :P