How Sugar Affects You

What is fueling your body? Clean or dirty fuel?

Sugar as Fuel

Sugar - it's the body's first go-to for fuel if present. When the body is burning sugar primarily, it forgoes burning fats and squares away the sugar first. However, just because it is what our bodies burn first does not mean it is the best form of energy for us.

Let's make this real life for you. Think to a day when you wanted a quick pick-me-up, so you reached for a candy bar for "energy"? Awesome. Now you have the energy you wanted, but an hour or two later, here comes an energy crash with the craving for even more carbs and sugar. Can you relate?

Burning sugar is like using dirty fuel in your engine. We would be horrified if we found out the gas we are paying for to put in our cars was hurting our engines, yet in our bodies we hurt our metabolism daily with our food fuel choices. Steady, clean fuel choices are balanced protein and healthy fats.

How much Sugar is Ok?

You don't need sugar or carbs to thrive. However, in a world of decadence, it is hard to discern need from want/craving/health trend. Right?! The reality of the situation that in the United States, we eat dangerous amounts of sugar every single day.

How much sugar is recommended? The CDC recommends no more than 50 grams (12 teaspoons) of sugar a day. That is still a lot! The American Health Association recommends a sugar limit of 25 grams a day for women and 36 grams a day for men. What does that look like?

Let's break it down:

• One fancy Starbucks drink can easily send you over the daily limit, with drinks ranging from 30-67 grams of sugar.

• One donut from Dunkin's ranges from 10-20 grams of sugar.

• A medium apple contains 19 grams of sugar.

• A large orange contains 17 grams of sugar.

• A banana contains 15 grams of sugar.

We haven't even gotten to dessert items. All the above are considered breakfast, and it starts our metabolism off on a roller coaster of cravings.

Why does the Body use Sugar for Fuel First

As long as prolonged exposure to high amounts of sugar has not make you insulin resistant (leading to diabetes), your body is able to uptake sugar and use it for quick fuel faster than it can fat.

HOWEVER, if sugar stays in the blood stream for too long, it is toxic to every cell in the body. This is the reason the body rushes to use sugar for energy before anything else!

Diabetes is an expression of sugar toxicity. When the body is insulin resistant, sugar stays in the bloodstream instead of going into cells to be used as energy. When sugar stays in the blood stream, horrific things happen. Nerve cells start to die, blood vessels get injured and plaque develops (leading to heart disease), eyesight dims, brain function fumbles, some people even lose limbs. Why? Because sugar in the blood stream has get out, and our body knows it!

Have you heard of insulin? It is a master hormone in the body. Insulin unlocks the ability of cells to receive glucose. However, like our brains with an alarm that just never stops ringing, when insulin keeps telling cells to "open up!", the cells become insulin deaf and stop listening because they have no more capacity. We call this insulin resistance.

Here's the process: sugar is eaten, glucose enteres the bloodstream, glucose has to leave asap, insulin is released, insulin unlocks the cells to let glucose in. If cells can't take the glucose for energy, the body turns the sugar into triglycerides and stores the sugar as fat in fat cells. This is a protective mechanism for us. This is damage control. If the body cannot do this fast enough, glucose levels remain dangerously high.

Insulin is like miracle grow for fat cells. Seriously. The less we stimulate our body to produce insulin (i.e. the less we eat sugar) the more balanced and healthy we will be, the less sugar cravings we will have, and the less our body will have to do damage control on our metabolism 24/7!

Dr Ben Bikman, author and insulin specialist teaches that every single cell in the body responds to insulin, without exaggeration. However, fat cells become insulin resistant first to protect themselves from destruction of too much fat storage from the last sugar high.

How to Balance your Blood Sugar

Balancing your blood sugar is one of the most meaningful things you can do for your health and wellbeing. Even without being diagnosed with prediabetes or diabetes, your blood sugar fluctuations can cause both psychological and physiological stress. Balancing blood sugar discourages every form of disease from having a place in your body. Diseases currently linked strongly to blood sugar regulation and insulin resistance include diabetes, heart disease, gout, PCOS, and Alzheimer's, among others.

Many mechanisms are in play in this simple disease risk factor, but one of the most notable is inflammation. When you decrease sugar intake, balance your blood sugar levels and decrease cravings, your body has a chance to take a break and heal itself. Inflammation goes down, feelings of wellbeing and steady energy rise. You are definitely need to know about this!

Top ways to balance blood sugar:

• Start the day with protein: When you start your day with carbs, especially simple carbs or sugar, it keeps you in a loop of cravings for the rest of the day. Start your day with protein or a health fat. If you want to have a carb, make sure it is paired with a source of steady energy (protein/fat) so it does not spike your blood sugar and insulin as much.

• Prioritize sleep: Lack of sleep can make you crave sugar. Adequate sleep gives you steady energy as well as making you more insulin sensitive.

• Take a walk or move after you eat: Movement makes your muscle cells more sensitive to insulin and allows you to uptake glucose more readily.

• Limit your sugar intake to 25 grams a day: 25 grams a day is a good in-between of complete restriction and sugar reliance. It will keep you out of the cravings loops while still giving you freedom to have a small treat here and there. Take note that sugars are in fruits and veggies (especially root vegetables) as well. 

• Give yourself 2-4 weeks: Revamping your metabolism will take some time. Often the first week or two you might need extra electrolytes to support "keto flu" type symptoms. After a few weeks you will feel so steady and energized that your body and mind will thank you.

• Celebrate your wins: Do you have more mental clarity? More energy? Less stress? Less body aches? Take note of them and remind yourself how worthwhile this process has been for you when you're tempted to go back into patterns of sugar reliance.

Many people find great benefit in working with a health coach to reverse this disease risk. Support can be valuable and save you time and frustration as you reach your health goals.

Reach out to you doctor if you are having dizziness, blurred vision, increased thirst and/or urination, fatigue, or black outs. Proper lab work and assessment are invaluable for more advanced insulin resistance states. Diagnosed diabetes is reversible with lifestyle change and health coach assistance should be paired with the oversight of a doctor.