How To Lose Weight Over Christmas: Part 5

5. Avoid Sugar & Sweeteners

Cutting sugar can be difficult for many people because like smoking, sugar is addictive. Eating sugar or sweeteners has been shown to increase your appetite, maintain your craving for sweet food and can result in weight gain.

To reduce temptation, it’s best to never buy sweets, chocolate, or cake, and better still don’t keep any in the house. For dessert, replace mince pies & Christmas cake with berries, natural yoghurt and full fat cream or make your own low carb sugar free dessert.

Why Avoid Sugar?

A study that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), showed that people who ate the largest amounts of added sugar had the highest blood triglyceride levels and the lowest HDL cholesterol levels. Eating lots of sugar more than tripled the odds of having low HDL cholesterol levels (bad), which is a strong risk factor for heart disease.

In contrast, people who ate the least sugar had the lowest triglyceride levels and highest HDL levels, a protective factor against heart disease.

Sugar helps to promote weight gain and fat storage.
Sugar decreases your body’s production of leptin, a hormone critical for appetite regulation.
Sugar appears to fuel cancer cells.
Sugar intake over time can cause insulin resistance, subsequent Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Types Of Sugar:

Glucose
Fructose
Sucrose

Types Of Sugar Sweetener’s:

Glucose Syrup / Corn Syrup
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Fruit Sugar
Maple Syrup
Agave Nectar
Table Sugar
Raw Honey

Choose your sugars wisely

If you choose to include sugar in your Paleo diet, it may be a good idea to review your current level of health, abdominal fat and fitness goals. If you are looking to lose weight, then it’s best to eliminate all types of sugar from the diet. If you do decide to include some sugars in your diet, then it’s best to choose sugar that has additional health benefits such as berries.

For example, blueberries might have an equal fructose/glucose ratio but they also offer anti-oxidant properties – which is good for health. Another example is raw honey, which can offer some nutritional benefit despite the sugar content. Therefore, be selective on what sugars to include or not include. Know what you are putting into your body.