What’s Wrong With Sugar?

Lots.

We’ve been “had” by the food companies who don’t care that they are capitalizing on our ill health. Our government food guidelines are at the mercy of big business so we are misled.

 Our brains and our bodies are naturally captivated.

 We have lost control.

 We think we are addicted.

 But there is hope!

Once we understand what is happening inside our brains and bodies that influence our relationship with sugar, we can gain mastery and improve our health.

Want to learn more about sugar? I’ll teach you all about it.

You will never think about it in the same way as you do now.

Do we lose muscle when we lose weight?

You may have heard that with weight loss “diets” you use up your muscle tissue and that’s a bad thing?

It is indeed a bad thing!

When we have less muscle, our metabolic rates are slower, we are weaker, we have an increased risk of osteoporosis, and we are more susceptible to falls and injuries.

We want all the muscle we can get!

Intermittent fasting preserves muscle tissue. Want to know how that works?

What is Ketosis Anyway? And why do we care?

Ketones are chemicals produced by the liver that are a bi-product of burning fat for fuel.

When the body has no external supply of glucose for the brain from food, the brain, heart and muscles MUST find another source of energy, and that energy source is ketones! The vital organs continue to function without a hitch as long as there is fat to burn and ketones to use.

Thank you Mother Nature (or whomever did the engineering) for the perfect plan to keep our vital organs working even in the absence of food!

Our bodies are amazing.

One way to get your body into ketosis is to be on a “Keto Diet,” an ultra-low-carb eating style.  Eliminating carbs forces ketosis by restricting the major source of glucose from food.

Although some people thrive on a Keto Diet, what I have observed is that the vast majority of people are “on” the diet, and lose some weight, but the eating style is not sustainable for the long haul and they go “off” the diet and gain the weight back.

Another way to burn up fat stores and lose weight is to practice intermittent fasting.

Once you are “fat adapted,” during your daily fasting period you will be burning body fat and your vital organs will be happily using the bi-product of ketones for fuel.

This is why “hangry” never happens when you are fat adapted. Your body quickly switches from external glucose (food), to glycogen (liver stores), to ketones for energy as needed.

This ketogenic process has nothing to do with whether you are eating carbohydrates!

It has only to do with going a period of time without external food.

How easy is that?

Want to learn more about ketones and ketosis?

I’m here to help.

Do you know what’s inside your GI tract?

No, not that stuff. The GOOD stuff!

And what’s this have to do with insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity??

Much more than you might have thought, actually.

Individual bodies react differently to the exact same foods, and now we know one major reason why: the tiny organisms that live in our GI tract called the “gut microbiome”! 

Did you know that these tiny fellows (the good bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea, and eukaryotes) are considered so important to our health that scientists consider them collectively as a separate “organ” with its own metabolic and immune functions?

And did you know that inside a HEALTHY gut there are about 100 trillion microbes, representing over 5000 different species, and they weigh about 4.5 POUNDS???

We are just beginning to understand what role our gut microbiome plays in fat storage, insulin resistance, and weight loss, but what we DO know is that a healthy microbiome is incredibly important to all those functions!

SPECIAL NOTE for those with IBS: checkout my sister-website all about IBS, what it is, what to do about it, and a TON of IBS-friendly recipes!

What is Fat Even For?

Ready for a brief physiology lesson about the awesome thing we call FAT?

I’m not kidding. Fat is fantastic!

Here is what your body is doing right now:

•         We eat food and it is ultimately broken down into components including glucose, which is the fuel for all of our body’s cells.

•         Glucose circulates in the blood stream.

•         Insulin opens the cell to accept this circulating glucose. Insulin is like the butler opening the door for the guest (glucose) and allowing it inside.

•         Insulin moves glucose into all cells that need fuel. Some cells, like muscle cells, store some extra glucose for quick energy whenever we need it.

•         When muscle cells are full of glucose, insulin facilitates filling our liver with glucose for the next level of energy storage. If muscle cells run out of glucose, glucose can be accessed quickly from the stores in the liver and sent to the muscles for energy. This is useful physiologically – we need to be able to run away from the tiger and not run out of fuel in the muscles too quickly!

•         When the liver is full, insulin helps the liver turn extra glucose into triglycerides and stores them away on our body in the form of body fat. If the stored glucose in the liver is used up, the stored body fat is mobilized for fuel.

What a fantastic system! As long as we have body fat, we won’t starve even when food is unavailable. We can access the fat on our body for fuel! And if we are trying to lose weight, this is actually our goal - promote a physiological environment in which we access our own body fat for fuel and use it up!

But what happens when there is just too much food coming in too often?

Insulin resistance, high blood sugar, diabetes…do you know what those words actually mean in your body?

What exactly is “diabetes”?

And what is the difference between the types?

And how does your body develop diabetes?

And what can you do about it?

And, the MOST IMPORTANT question of all: HOW CAN YOU REVERSE IT????

If you want to know all the details in language you can understand, read the full article.

I’ll explain it all.

But that last question: how can you reverse it?

By eating in a way that makes your body’s physiology work properly! And no, I don’t mean “cut out the desserts.”

If you are curious, I invite you to read more!

And if you want my personal help with this, join my program. I’d LOVE to help you prevent this disease, or reverse it if you already have it. YES. This is entirely possible.

Your Body is your Lunchbox!

I NEVER considered fasting. Ever. Nope. Not happening. I do not skip meals.

“I feel terrible if I skip meals!”

That was 99 pounds and several years ago.

I wasted so much valuable time being so dang wrong. I think that is one of my biggest professional regrets as a Nurse Practitioner, that I did not do the research into our physiology a long time ago and find all the data that was hidden and suppressed.

Want to know more about Intermittent Fasting? It is a Game Changer!