SUGAR ~ not so sweet

I have a sweet tooth.  I'm a Carmel Macchiato, smores, fist full of chocolate chips in my mouth kind of girl.  Well, I used to be.....

Just a little bit of sugar in here!  Right?

You have to live a little, we can't take everything away that we enjoy BUT I've found with the Paleo lifestyle, there are at least substitutions you can make for most everything!

Why bother making a substitution? 

Sugar is not a health food.  Not so much.  It tastes like a little bit of heaven but it's actually been quoted as "toxic" in some articles I've read.  I'll explain this as simple as possible. 

Let's start with glucose.  Glucose is a fancy term for "sugar in the blood" or "blood sugar."  It's an important energy source that is needed by the body, all cells and organs.  Glucose comes from the food we eat.  Carbs such as pasta, bread and fruit are common sources of glucose.  These carbs are broken down into sugar and then absorbed into the bloodstream.

Then there's the pancreas.  The pancreas produces chemicals that regulate these blood sugar levels.  It must secrete insulin to mitigate the elevating glucose levels.

Insulin's job is to feed the glucose in your bloodstream to hungry cells and send the leftovers to the liver to be turned into triglycerides for storage in your fat cells.

YEP.  STORAGE IN YOUR FAT CELLS.

This can lead to insulin resistance in cells that use glucose as energy.  Insulin resistance is when insulin is always present so the pancreas must produce more insulin to get the job done.  Now we have too much insulin in our bodies.  The body can only store a small amount of glucose but it can store an infinite amount of fat.

Infinite!

When insulin is in the blood, you have insulin to take care of before you use your stored fat. 

Make sense?

Hyperinsulinsim (above normal level of insulin in the blood) is a problem.  It keeps you in fat storage mode, without the ability to access your stored fat for energy.  In other words, you can't lose that weight!  Those last few pounds won't budge.

Carbs and insulin are a normal part of human nutrition.  What isn't normal is the mass consumption of processed carbs.  We just have to choose our foods wisely!  With Paleo we would give back insulin sensitivity and help re-adapt to using the stored fat as energy. 

Here are some healthier sugar substitutes for you to try, all from nature:

honey

fresh fruit juice

molasses

coconut sugar

maple syrup

green leaf stevia/vanilla stevia drops

agave

The Paleo way is simple.  By eating natural whole foods such as nuts, meat, veggies, fruit, you'll be supporting your health and eliminating sugar and refined carbs at the same time.  Because these whole foods don't contain processed sugar or refined carbs, no additional effort is needed to avoid them!!