THE SUGAR PROBLEM

Today we're going to talk about why.

Sometimes you may just feel like you.

Can'T stop eating when you want to. I want to discuss cravings and willpower with you. Like why do you get those dang.

Cravings in the first place?

And why do you have no willpower to battle those cravings when they hit? And better yet, once we understand why, I'm going to teach you how to overcome this, how to stop storing fat and how to start burning it. But before we get right to that, I want to say thank you for all of your awesome feedback on the last video where I addressed why starchy carbs and insulin secretion are getting in the way of your fat loss. My goal with these free videos are to help you understand how our bodies process food and how you can make small changes that will make a big impact. So today I want to keep adding on to what we've learned so far. There's a process to achieving long lasting fat loss. But just to quickly recap, in video one we talked about the biggest obstacle that people have reaching their fat loss and how to get and stay motivated. But now that you have your false assumed truth, a glimpse into your vision and what you actually want and you're starting to think about your driving core motivator. If you don't know what I'm talking about with these, then you probably haven't watched video one. So please pause this video, open up a new window and go back and watch video one. Then in video two we talk about one of the video other biggest obstacles to your fat loss goals, which was understanding how starchy carbs convert into glucose and the role insulin plays in whether you store it as fat or you.

Use it as energy.

Again, if you didn't watch that video, you'll want to go back and do that now.

This series should be watched in order.

So that you get maximum benefits and really understand the many reasons why we can't achieve lasting fat loss.

Understanding all of this is going to.

Transform your body, so GO Watch video 2 if you have not watched that already. Now as a licensed master sports nutritionist and functional fitness trainer, I specialize in simplifying fat loss, nutrition and fitness for you to make it so you can achieve lasting results.

When you make a decision to change your eating habits and hopes of losing weight, you end up cutting out of your diet a lot of foods that you love to eat. Because you have likely been eating that way for a while, immediately your body starts to crave all that stuff that you had been eating. The challenge Is that most of you probably try to willpower your way out of these cravings. And as you know, it doesn't matter how strong willed you are, if you have to fight that battle every single day at every single meal, it is easy to get discouraged and quickly give up. That's what makes sticking to a new meal plan so dang hard for people. Well, that's totally normal. And in today's video, I'm going to share the science behind why those cravings happen and how you actually can overcome them. There's a lot of information to share when it comes to cravings and being able to stop our desire to eat when we aren't even hungry. Now, just even to share with you, someone like me, who knows nutrition, who studies nutrition, and who knows what I'm about to share with you, I still get triggered with things when I make slight wrong mistakes. For instance, I recently made a pie. And I made it with all the right things. The low sugar, I made it healthier, I used agave nectar in it. And I knew a lot of the stuff I'm about to share with you, but I still had that one piece of pie. And then I couldn't stop. I mean, I ate some, I put it away, I got back up and grabbed it again. Oh my gosh, I must have gotten up and gone to the refrigerator at least five times. And I literally polished off this entire pie. And of course, afterwards, I felt terrible and I was so mad at myself. But what was crazy is it was just some of those simple ingredients in this piece pie that was doing it for me. Now, if I had just swapped out some of those ingredients, that craving problem wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't have attacked and eaten the whole dang pie. You know, my goal is always to simplify fitness and nutrition. So for today, I'm going to zone in on three specific things that we're eating in our diets that are giving.

Cravings a winning edge over willpower.

These three things, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweet sweeteners. Now, first, I want to talk about sugar. Now, sugar, no matter what form it is in, is by far one of the most dangerous substances that we can eat. And when we consume the wrong carbohydrates, the processed carbs like crackers, cookies, pretzels, and the starchy carbs like rice and pasta, or when we eat foods that have added sugar, like box cereal or even healthy granolas and some trail mix, we are absolutely making ourselves fatter and fatter. And now to understand what sugar does to our bodies and cravings, we must first understand what the different sugars are. And we need to understand what happens to our bodies when we eat these different types of sugars. Glucose, which is found in fruit, is also found in starch. After it's broken down, our bodies produce glucose. And actually every cell on earth has glucose in it. Lactose is a sugar found in dairy products like cow's milk. Sucrose is what we most commonly see, and that's table sugar. And it's made up of 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Now, fructose is fruits and corn syrup, so it's the sugar in that. Now, not to overwhelm you, but I want to focus on only two of these. Glucose and fructose. Now, with glucose, any cell in our body can process the glucose into energy. Now, remember in the last video when we talked about glucose and how the liver, muscle and fat cells take glucose from your bloodstream to use it for energy. But when it comes to fructose, the liver is the only organ that can metabolize it. Fructose just can't be absorbed by all cells like glucose can. So when people eat a diet that is high in fructose, the liver, our liver gets overwhelmed and starts turning fructose into fat. Our bodies like to use glucose as energy, and this is where our bodies focus on our liver, because it needs to be converted into glucose through the liver. But here's the problem with that. If your body already has enough glucose, which in most of our diets, it likely does, the body is converting it straight to fat. So in addition to adding to the problem of fat loss, there are other major health consequences. Not only does this fat end up on our thighs and our belly, the back of our arms and our hips, but this fat also builds up in our liver. Now, without getting too technical, when we force our liver to synthesize fats, it causes fat around the organs and also is a huge cause of heart disease. Eating a lot of fructose in the form of added sugars can cause insulin resistance, which leads to obesity and type 2 diabetes. What is even scarier and more concerning for fructose is high fructose corn syrup. You'll see it on packages as hfcf. And this is found in just about every single processed food. Manufacturers use it. It's a food that they created that is cheap and easy to produce and easy to transport, and it lasts for unrealistic amounts of time on our grocery store shelves. So they love it. For processed foods because it makes them last longer. Now, while this is a lifesaver for manufacturers, it is a true poison to our bodies. Molecularly high fructose corn syrup is, is not much different from sucrose. Now, high fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose and 45% glucose. Now that percentage difference makes a big difference because it's a syrup and it metabolizes very, very quick. So it hits our liver a lot faster than an equal amount of fruit sugar. And high fructose corn syrup directly interferes with the metabolic process of leptin secretion in our body. Now why does that matter? Well, leptin is a critical hormone directly involved in sending signals to your body to indicate that you're full. So high fructose corn syrup slows leptin secretion significantly, which leads to overeating. Are you seeing a theme here? This becomes a downward spiral. Cheap foods that taste good leads to overconsumption, which leads to chances for weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, high triglyceride levels, and heart disease. Yikes. Now, I know what you're probably thinking. So is fruit making me fat because there's fructose in fruit? Should I not be having fruits? Well, before you put your fruit down, fruit is different. Fruit in its original form is not bad for us. And the reason is fruit has a built in mechanism, fiber. And the fiber is a big reason it's so different. And it doesn't overload our livers because it slows down the time frame in which it hits our liver. Simple sugars from whole fruit actually support our health because it contains vital nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. And it has that fiber to help slow down the rate that it's hitting our liver. However, the extracted refined sugars do not have that. Okay, so hopefully you get this, that no added sugars and for sure no high fructose corn syrup. But you're saying you don't need a lot of sugar. Maybe. Or maybe you'll buy sugar free or you drink diet soda or chew sugar free gum. Or maybe you're just wondering, hey, can I have those things? And if you do have them, maybe you're wondering why you still get cravings. Why is this? Well, here is what is happening. You see, when we eat artificial sweeteners, when you eat them, your body senses the sweetness of the food and expects that it's getting those calories. So basically your body's craving the calories. So what happens is you end up eating even more calories elsewhere to make up for this. Now, most artificial sweeteners, they're anywhere from 200 to 600 times sweeter than sugar. So this really starts to mess with our taste buds. Then what happens is when you have a naturally sweet food, like a piece of fruit, it no longer tastes sweet because your taste buds are so accustomed to food being much sweeter tasting. So an apple, for instance, doesn't taste sweet anymore to you. And although this sugar substitute has little to no calories, they increase your cravings. And to top it off, there are side effects from artificial sweeteners like bloating. Now, the worst artificial sweetener, saccharin. Now, the original sugar substitute that has been used as a food additive since the early 1900s is saccharin, and that one is 300 to 500 times sweeter than sugar. And it is the most studied because of its popularity, peaking in the 70s during the diet craze. Its low came in 1970s also, when it gained a warning label for the potential to cause cancer. Yup, cancer. And then there's aspartame. Let's talk about that. Do you remember receiving that little gumball in the mail years ago? This was the launch of aspartame. Now, that one's 200 times sweeter than sugar. And some of the reported dangers associated with aspartame are very serious, including, including death, nausea, migraines, muscle spasms, depression, even weight gain. There are even more rumors of a link to brain tumors, birth defects, and fibromyalgia. The list goes on. My own mother 10 years ago had severe migraines until she stopped her diet soda routine, which was sweetened with, guess what?

Aspartame.

Now, sucralose is the newer, and that is the Splenda that we see. It's a British import, and unlike its competitor competitors, saccharin and aspartame, Splenda can withstand heat, which makes it ideal for baking. It's made from sugar, but it's not considered a natural food product and it's not used for energy by the body like sugar. Now, this one is 600 times sweeter than sugar. And 85% of sucralose is not digested and leaves the body as it came in. Now, however, sucralose also has its own dangerous headaches, including migraines, stomach bloating, gas constipation, and diarrhea. All of these are common with sucralose, sorbitol and mannitol. These are basically sugar alcohols. For this reason, I am including sugar Alcohols with artificial sweeteners. Now Sorbitol is a naturally occurring sugar in fruit and is used as a sugar substitute, food additive and preservative and it's most commonly used in sugar free gums and mints. But listen, be aware, sugar alcohols, they can have a laxative effect if you eat too much. Many learn the hard way after they've eaten a bag of sugar free candy which is typically made from sorbitol. Now, okay, so I know that this is a lot of information, but I hope you found it helpful and you figured out how bad these artificial sweeteners are and how they're likely linked to your cravings. So what's next? Well, I hope it is pretty clear by now since you have a better understanding of what happens when we include added sugars and artificial sweeteners into our diet, especially those with high fructose corn syrup. It is seriously detrimental to fat loss and the biggest reason for fat storage, not to mention all those other side effects that I just mentioned. So you're probably wondering, well what can I eat and what are the right foods to eat and where does exercise tie in everything and what do I do to satisfy those sweet cravings and what about sleep? Does that affect our fat loss? There's so much more that I want to share with you and if you've watched all three of my videos so far, you know that your mind plays a huge role and it really is a big, big critical part in beginning any transformation and understanding your goals and knowing why you're doing certain things that will always help to keep you accountable. Getting our mind right is so important, but we can't forget our bodies. We have to get to know the right nutrition to feed it, the right movement and exercises to do for it. And we need to know how to take this information and apply it individually so that we can have your own formula for fat loss transformation.

Well, I've got some good news for you. I've been working on a brand new program, Total Body Thrive and this is where I'm going to show you everything in the small community. We get deep into the goals and the mindset and then I teach you everything about nutrition in a way that will not feel like information overload. You'll understand why foods react the way they do in your body, why movement and certain exercises are critical for your fat loss and which ones to do that I promise you this information is critical for lasting fat loss and your own personal transformation. This community is going to help you with all of those goals. And in the next video, I'm going to share exactly how you can be part of this community. I'm going to teach you how this academy can truly change your life once and for all and keep you moving in that right direction. And because you've made it this far, you might actually be a great candidate for this. However, there's one caveat.

It's only going to be open for.

A limited amount of time and for a certain amount of you. I've got to keep this community small so I can work with all of you. Are you interested? If yes, make sure to check your emails, check your spam box, because if.

You don't see me come in your.

Email, you can't get in. Treat this as a lifeline for you, because it is.

It's so important that you watch this.

Next video that I send you and if this is something that you want.

To be part of, you've got to.

Do it early while I have the space for you. I'd love to have all of you.

In Total Body Thrive, but I only.

Am going to have it open for a certain amount of you, the ones that take action quickly. Now, before you sign off, if you found this video helpful, I would love to hear from you and I would love for you to share this with others.