An 8 year old smoking a cigarette turns heads but one chomping through a plate of biscuits and muffins is enjoying a treat? Well diabetes is fun…
Science has proven the damage that cigarettes cause to our health and we have legislation to protect us. Now science proves sugar is killing us, why are we still seeing it everywhere?
If you pick up one nutrition book this year make it the Glucose Goddess by Jessie Inchauspĕ. Jessie cuts through science jargon and explains how sugar in its many forms impacts our bloody glucose levels by deregulating the locking and unlocking of our fat storage and in turn our energy availability and body composition. In a world still plagued by outdated emphasis on calories and stigmatisation of obesity, we are doing a woeful job of upgrading the education our households and workplaces experience. For those inclined to dive deeper to the tactics on hormone imbalance, insulin sensitivity, and chronic health decline, The Obesity Code by Jason Fung is an informed choice.
On a personal level we must agree that the institutes we rely on for policies and care (schools, businesses, doctors, government) are blind, slow, or misaligned to an effective solution and are years away from a health focused plan around sugar in our diets. So you and I have two choices;
1) Stay ignorant, blame someone else, keep doing the same. OR
2) Take control, educate yourself for your own gains. Change today.
If you are in the first bucket, we are sorry to see you go but wish you well. Our only ask is that you don’t blame time as an obstacle. Read a book, listen to a podcast, invest a couple of hours this month. It isn’t time, its priority. That’s OK but call it what it is. However if your health markers are a priority for you then come join us, the water is lovely..
For all you second bucket’ers, welcome to the lowest hanging fruit in your search for a stable energy balance and body composition goals. The science behind the below rules are plentiful and backed by peer reviews but more importantly they are easy and free to achieve. Yes you will require willpower and a runway of 3 - 6 months to really reap the dividends but as we see it that is time well spent. Christmas is coming anyway, we might as well use our days with nutritional intentionality.
So what are our ultimate goals? Firstly to remove the victimhood mentality, accept that shops and companies are capitalist and want our money, so does the health care system. There are no immediate incentives for food manufacturers to care about our health (costs are higher) but that doesn’t mean we get to blame Nestle when we tuck blindly into a second bar of indulgence. Secondly and tangibly to remove refined sugar from our diet! Myopically. Fanatically. Immediately. It serves no purpose (no one needs a blood sugar kick if their intake is balanced) and only escalates a damaging insulin hormone imbalance, and significantly impairs our health acutely and chronically. *Read, there is no scientific benefit to refined sugar (Sucrose, Fructose, Glucose). Cut it. Today.
Below are our five guardrails for the easiest reduction in sugar in your day.
Do’s
Drink only water, tea, or black coffee - fizzy drinks are killing us. Next.
Eat a bowlful of vegetables at the start of every meal. Packed with digestive slowing fiber, they regulate blood glucose spikes. “But my kids don’t like vegetables”, no they won’t if you usually give them white bread rolls. They (you) probably don’t like irregulated sleep either?
Replace your breakfast cereal with high protein alternative (or intermittent fasting for adults who are inclined). Easy win but it does mean avoiding a colourful shopping aisle. #sorrynotsorry
Quit snacking. Except on Christmas day, then you have license to go big or go home!
Move for 30 minutes per day. Groundbreaking? We doubt it. But if you can’t find 30 minutes of movement in a day (I am not going to patronise you with ideas) then what pill are you waiting for us to invent?
Into gamification? So are we. Write these on a whiteboard and tick them each day. Three to four per day gets you a draw. All five gets you a high five win!