Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bandwagon. I haz one.

Ever since giving up sugar I've noticed a curiosity amongst friends and aquaintences. Since year dot we've all been 'giving up fat and taking up exercise', so giving up sugar seems to be something new. Well it is new.

Everyone at the gym knows I'm doing it as I have had a lot of support from two of the trainers there who have been fructophobes for some time now. Plastering it all over my facebook page has also sent the message loud and clear that this is my latest bandwagon. And it appears I am collecting a few passengers along the way.

The curiosity of people who want to know more about giving up sugar has really surprised me. I thought I'd have to be explaining myself all the way, defending my actions so to speak but it's been quite the oposite. People are often asking me how I'm going, why am I doing it, what exactly am I changing to give up sugar, is it hard, do I think they could do it too, etc. The questions are all the same but the most striking thing has been the amount of people who say to me, "But I don't eat a lot of sugar."

Yes you do. You just don't know it.

When I give some examples of where the hidden sugar may be in their diet they stand mouth agape and suddenly want a seat on the bandwagon. Of course I happy help them aboard and further ear bash them until the probably wish I hadn't lol.

Sugar is everywhere and it doesn't always taste sweet. It's hidden in so many foods, especially low fat foods, they're laced with it to make them more palatable. You often have to be specifically looking for sugar to find it.

One of sugars most evil traits is that it inhibits your appetite suppressing hormone Leptin, so your brain doesn't even realise it's eaten anything. And, it's addictive which is why so many people find it so hard to stop at one Tim Tam and why so many always feel hungry when they've eaten an adequate amount of calories.

Your brain simply doesn't register that it's eaten anything when you eat a high sugar meal. And remember, it doesn't have to be a sweet tasting meal to be a sugar laden meal.

So in short, you eat something high in sugar, your brain doesn't recognise you've eaten, you're still feeling hungry, you eat more, you end up eating twice as much as you need in order to feel satiated, you gain weight.

So what do you do next? You go on a low fat diet of course! You start eating low fat this and low fat that, all of it laced with sugar...and you wonder why you can't lose any weight.

7 comments:

  1. So, so true Donna! I could NOT believe how much 'hidden' sugars were in practically everything I ate. You are becoming that gnawing little reminder on my shoulder to go back to that life that was me 6-7 years ago because god, I felt sooo much better then!

    And you know, you've already been my inspiration to cut sugar out of my cups of tea ;) So, thanks for that at the very least!

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  2. It's just everywhere, isn't it! I feel quite angry that we've been duped all this time and have had the choice of whether to eat sugar or not, pretty much taken away from us. They hide it. How can we make the decision not to eat it when they're hiding it?

    Another foul disgusting thing, and unfortunately this is completely and utterly true, if you're a smoker...double whammy. Not only are you eating sugar, you're inhaling it! As if the nicotine addicting wasn't enough, they lace it with sugar just to make certain you never want to stop the nasty little things!!

    They need the sugar to disguise the flavour of the rancid nicotine.

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  3. Well done on cutting sugar from your tea!! That is fantstic!

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  4. NO WAY!!!! There's sugar in cigarettes?? I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, for I am certain I would take them up and never quit :o

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  5. You'll probably notice me reading a bit more, because I am interested also. I'm due for Gastric Lap Band surgery on 15th Feb so am doing the Optifast diet now and want to make sure that when I get back onto real food that I'm eating well. So this is very interesting. :)

    Just thought I'd tell you why I'm reading so much! LOL!

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  6. Epiphany my Mum had the lap banding surgery, it was truly life changing for her. She went from around 120kg to 61kg. It took two years but because it was slow going she always felt well. She said the eating regime wasn't that hard after the surgery but she did have to be strict with it, there's no room for error. It's a good thing you're wanting to get into a healthy eating pattern after the surgery too. You'll need to be eating the right foods to ensure you're getting enough energy during the day and because you can only eat a tiny bit you need to make the right choices.

    Good luck with the surgery!

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