The "Sugar Blog" (La Vita e Dolce), ABRIDGED

Molte grazie, to everyone who sat themselves down to read the entire five-part series, "La Vita e Dolce," which I have been referring to as the "sugar blog." Several of you asked me to boil it down to the key points, and help translate them into a lifestyle change (the kind that helped me lose 20 pounds I had been carrying since delivering Stella, who turns two this month). Happy Birthday to us both! As I'm actually transcribing some of my recent conversations in which I was asked to explain the bottom line, I'm going to write like I talk, (info-packed, run-on sentences, with a little meandering). Okay, here's the skinny (haha!):

1. Don't Dose Yourself All Day with Sugar (P.S. Almost All of Us Do). Even if you think you are a good eater (I did) -- maybe because you eat all foods, lots of veggies, etc., -- if, at every meal (and possibly in between and late at night), you are throwing in a good measure of refined carbs (foods processed so that your body gets a hit of glucose almost instantly, i.e., sweetened drinks, milk, juice, cereal, a dollop of honey, flour-based products - breads/muffins/pancakes/waffles/donuts/pretzels/pasta/crackers/you name it -- basically the staples of the American diet and especially American breakfast and snacks), you are overfeeding yourself, which leads to inflammation, leptin-resistance and the cascade of health problems that ensue. PLEASE NOTE: I DID NOT EVEN MENTION DESSERT!

Learn More: See the first chart in Part One to find out how much added sugar the American Heart Association recommends you consume every day (noting that to be considered an "active" person, your exercise routine is the equivalent of walking 3 miles a day). To get a real shock, scroll down in Part One and check the chart with sugar content of many common foods. Or even better, start reading your labels! The real fun is to see how much sugar is in something you thought had none (like pasta sauce, bread, pasta, mustard).

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98
Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com, from Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

KNOW THIS:  We consume 2 or 3 days worth of sugar in one meal sometimes. That means when we think of moderating our sugar intake, we need to eat at least 85% LESS than we do every day. I know firsthand that this is a drastic change, but keep reading for a positive, practical way to do it.

2. HFCS Is As Bad As Sugar for the Body, And Worse, it’s made from genetically modified corn that has been grown and processed with synthetic chemicals. While their molecular structures differ, HFCS, sugar and honey similarly contain about 50% glucose, 50% fructose. What differentiates them is their processing and sweetness.  Unlike highly processed HFCS and sugar, unpasteurized honey contains trace amounts of vitamins, minerals, local pollen and anti-fungal propolis; but honey is 4 times sweeter than sugar (1 tsp. honey = 17 g sugar; 1 tsp white sugar = 4g sugar). Going light on the honey respects body and planet.

Learn More: Look for the green-shaded sugars in the chart in Part Two to discover less refined sugars you may have never heard of, which include trace amounts of good nutrients; and learn that one brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added back in, while another is its much-less-processed brother. My new favorites from this list: date sugar, palm sugar, Sucanat, and raw cane juice (if you live in Atlanta, Your Dekalb Farmers Market in Decatur produces this onsite).

3. Fructose Overdoses Make Your Liver Sick, which Leads to Heart Disease and Tricks You into Overeating. Fructose, unlike other simple carbs, is metabolized in the liver and does not stimulate insulin production. When insulin doesn’t go up, leptin doesn’t surge to signal the brain that you ate, so your brain tells you to eat more. Thereby, overdosing on fructose taxes the liver, which forms toxins in the body, stores more visceral (belly) fat and tricks you into overeating. How often do you consume too much fructose? Consider: a can of Coke with 40g of sugar sourced from HFCS (55% fructose, 45% glucose), gives you 22g fructose -- 3 times as much as one apple (about 7.5g fructose). Drinking sugar is the most common way of overdosing on fructose (regardless of the source because white/brown sugar, HFCS, fruit juice, evaporated cane juice, honey and agave all contain high levels of fructose).

Learn More: In this video, Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MD, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at UCSF, presents the science behind what he's dubbed the "fructosification of America": “Before food processing we got fructose from fruits and vegetables, and consumed about 15g of fructose a day. In 1994, American adults were consuming 54g of fructose daily.”

4. A "Sugar Burner" is a Sugar Addict. Are you craving sugar in some form (drink, dessert, carbs, dairy) all day every day? Can you work out many days a week and seem to hardly lose a pound? Are you tired or ravenous after a workout? Do you have an eternal “beer belly” or “paunch” (fat below where your six-pack would be -- called “visceral fat”)?

Many of my friends and family would answer yes (I did). These are signs that you are leptin-resistant, and as such, have become a “sugar burner.” Your broken energy controls think you are in a famine, overlooking your fat when you need energy, and instead burning what sugar you have circulating in your blood stream or have stored in your muscles. This is why when you workout, you experience extreme fatigue and hunger, and minimal fat loss. It’s also why your body tells you to eat more often, especially at night, even though you have plenty energy stored in your belly, or hips or thighs, etc. After all, the brain needs blood sugar to operate, and if the body isn’t tapping its sugar reserves (fat), the alternative is to keep putting sugar in your mouth.

“Also lost is the knowledge of where to put that fat, so a preponderance of it is stored in the viscera [lower belly]...Some of that fat permeates the liver, impeding the liver's ability to listen to insulin and further hastening diabetes.” -- Dr. Ron Rosedale

Meanwhile body-wide inflammation from overeating blocks your satiety signal from registering in your brain. The vicious cycle forms:

Learn More: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE LEPTIN-RESISTANT?  Check out Part Three, which seeks to describe how various systems in the body suffer from sugar overdose, and shares the teachings of Neurosurgeon Jack Kruse, whose blog includes his "prescription" for becoming leptin-sensitive again (hint, see #7 below).

5. Our Brains Are Not Designed to Handle the Superstimuli of Refined Sugars and Grains, which is why we crave something that is slowly dismantling our good health. In its 2009 statement, the AHA described how the quick hit of glucose and the palatability of processed/sugary food and drinks alter the pleasure center (aka limbic system) of the brain such that: you eat more regardless of whether or not you need to, hard-wired pathways are established to crave the sugary food, and you feel pleasure even as you overeat. 

Learn More: In Part Three, read the straightforward explanation of how food rewards in the brain lead to sugar addiction, excerpted from Biochemist and Neurobiologist Stephan Guyenet's blog.

KNOW THIS: You may face some crazy withdrawal symptoms as you change your eating. After reading the Food Rewards section of Part Three, maybe your conscious understanding of how your instincts have been manipulated by refined sugar will help you to deny your cravings. Or hopefully at least you can more easily accept that you may freak out, feel utterly deprived of all pleasure and proper nourishment, and generally grouch at everyone you see. As your body's chemistry returns to health, this too shall pass.

6. Many of Our Health Problems Can Be Prevented Or Cured by Diet Change. In Part Four, learn about the relationship between sugar overdoses and the following ailments:  Infertility, pre-diabetes, mood swings, PCOS (ovarian cysts), heart disease, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gallstones, Type II diabetes, cavities, weight gain/obesity, recurrent bacterial/yeast infections (including ear infections).

Let's put all this information into ACTION!

7. Shift Your Paradigm - Eating Whole Vegetables and Fruits, Intact Grains, Nuts, Fish and Meat is DELICIOUS!!  For your sugar (after all, your brain needs it), eat complex carbs that time-release sugar as they breakdown: kidney/black/pinto beans, peas, chick peas, lentils, nuts, nut butters, oats, whole wheat berries, brown rice, barley, bulgar, quinoa, high-fiber fruits and non-starchy vegetables such as dark green lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, bok choy, zucchini, cauliflower, tomatoes, celery, cucumber, cabbage, broccoli and other green veggies.

This diet only seems restrictive when viewed through the American lens of a lifestyle (and grocery store) full of refined sugars and grains. For example, for breakfast, I eat yummy leftovers from dinner. How strange! Evolutionary biologist Snack Girl comments on how this is a common practice around the world. She believes that "the study of nutrition is overrated and that we should eat as our ancestors did." A more strict version is called a Paleolithic diet, referring to the age prior to the Agricultural Revolution, 500 generations ago, which also avoids dairy and grains. I kicked off a lifestyle change with a version of this diet, somewhat like a strict candida diet (which should be no great surprise to you at this point - you understand that yeast and bacteria feed on glucose).

Here's what I did - 4 weeks of NO dairy, sugar, refined grains or alcohol (resetting my system, to become leptin-sensitive again). Now I experiment with eating something from that tempting group once a day, or less. No eating after dinner (go to JackKruse.com to understand how this affects your leptin), minimal snacking or none, 2 or 3 meals a day, pay attention to satiety signals and stop before full (I'm a notorious overeater). Been doing the adjusted version for about 2 months, exercising once or twice a week. So far the 20 pounds stays off and I have dropped 3 pants sizes.

Learn More: See Part Five for more eating tips, and please read the "Whole Grain Hoax" so you don't fall into the trap of thinking that foods labeled "whole grain" are the same as intact grains.

Please email me for recipe ideas or post good ones in the comments below. I cook dinner most nights, usually serving one protein (fish or meat), and two fresh vegetables. With four little kids running around the house (and wanting to "help" make dinner), you can bet my recipes are quick to prepare. I spend about 30 minutes to an hour making dinner for 6. The slow cooker is a great asset, especially to soften whole grains and meats. Also, I have a great Emeril steamer with stainless steel baskets for vegetables and fish, that I can set and walk away (to change a diaper or litigate sibling disputes).

Here's a delicious breakfast recipe I am tampering with, now understanding that steel cut oats are healthier than rolled: Overnight, Slow-Cooker, Apple Cinnamon Steel-Cut Oatmeal. Eggs and bacon (2 pieces, don't go crazy) are great with fresh fruit. Smoothies are okay, with kefir for probiotics, add flaxseed oil or seeds for EFAs, berries, bananas. Some of my friends make green smoothies with kale or spinach. My secret ingredients for yummy scrambled eggs are thyme and ricotta cheese, so for your first month if you do no dairy, substitute a spoonful of dijon for the ricotta.

For lunches or snacks: turkey/lettuce roll-ups, tuna salad, avocado/guacamole, nuts, hummus, unsweetened peanut butter on celery with raisins, air-popped popcorn with olive oil and grated parmesan, Mary's All Gone whole grain crackers (not refined), vegetables, salads (make your own dressing with dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, S&P), rice and beans (Moe's rice bowls), soups.

And when you are thirsty, DRINK WATER! See Part Five for ways to make healthy drinks fun.

KNOW THIS: This is not a diet, it's a life change. Once you restore leptin-sensitivity and regulate your sugar intake, you won't crave sugar all day every day. THIS CAN HAPPEN WITHIN 2 TO 6 WEEKS! Then you eat these foods again, just at much reduced levels (like I said, I aim for once a day at most, no eating after dinner). Is it worth it to invest a month or so to change your life? Or possibly, to save your life? It was a worthwhile trade-off for me.