Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Addicted to Fat Crack

I have spent the last few days reading about sugar addiction.  I have always said I am addicted to sugar and it is almost impossible for me to stop at one cookie or a small amount of anything sweet.  It is very much like an alcohol addiction - it is crack.  It is fat crack.  (as termed by Pookey A)






Here is something I just read on someone else's blog:


The gist of Lustig's teachings, and Gillespie's writings, and results from an increasing number of research projects, is this - sugar makes us fat in two major ways. Firstly, the fructose in sugar gets converted into fat in our liver, which leads to a whole range of problems not to mention weight gain, and secondly, it changes the way our brain recognises energy, and makes us think we're starving when we're not. Explained: 

1. Fructose converts into fat. Quickly. As I said last post, our liver is the only organ in our body that can process fructose, so 100% of any fructose we eat ends up there. Once in the liver, fructose triggers a very complex metabolic process that produces 1. fat droplets (which stay in the liver, causing insulin resistance), 2. a damaging form of cholesterol called VLDL (which can cause heart disease), and 3. triglycerides, which get stored as fat in our muscle (particularly around the belly). In other words, when you eat fructose, you're eating fat. But not all of the fructose is converted into fat. Some of it ends up as uric acid, a waste product known to cause gout and high blood pressure. 

2. Fructose throws our hunger hormones out of whack. This is the second blow, the second major way fructose makes us fat - fructose, unlike glucose, does not supress the hormone in our body that tells us we're hungry (called ghrelin). So we keep thinking we are. And you know what else? It also interferes with our brain's ability to recognise leptin, the hormone that tells us we're full! In other words, we can keep eating fructose and our brain won't get the signal that we've had enough. It makes us think we're starving when we're not.



And this:

Fructose does stimulate our pleasure hormones, so on top of losing our ability to tell we've had enough of it, we want more!


I am going to read Gillespie's book for more information.  I am not ready to give up sugar all together, but I am going to try and really cut out the sugar.  I think it will help with the fat around the middle.


I am also going to try and stick more closely to low GI carbs.  This will be difficult because one of my "go-to" meals for weight loss is sushi for lunch.

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