Prevent Pre-diabetes by curbing your sugar addiction
Ever notice after eating a proper meal, with your three main food groups, that you still crave something sweet – soda, ice cream, cake pie or what ever you can lay your hands on? You could be an addict.
Even though you may think you are eating healthy, if you reach for the chips after a meal you are exhibiting a craving for additional carbs to satisfy your addiction.
Many of us who are trying to prevent pre-diabetes need to take note of these cravings and resist them if we want to prevent or reverse this disease.
Lots of the food we eat is loaded with extra sugars and we are totally unaware of it. Forget the pie and ice cream. You can find sugars in breads, sauces, pasta, ketchup, fruit juices and a host of other foods we think are safe to consume.
To all the fruits heads
One food source we are encouraged to eat throughout the day is fruits. And of course they are laden with sugars. In fact some fruits have as much sugar as a can of soda.
The good thing about fruits, besides the fiber you get from them, is that the sugars they release takes a longer time to be absorbed than other types of sugars.
The trick to eating fruits is to know where they fall on the glycemic index. The lower it is on the index the better it is at keeping our sugar consumption low.
Fruits like apples and grapefruit are low on the index but watermelon is high and a banana, although not high, is at the top of the medium range.
Yes. We are encouraged to eat lots of fruits but know which ones will lead to better sugar control.
Hidden and disguised sugars
Food companies find unique ways to label sugars in our foods . . . with the intention of making them more palatable. They employ chemists and other scientists to test and tweak the foods we eat – adding artificial coloring, and other fake ingredients, as well as little more sugars and sodium. They know that the vast majority of us have an affinity for the sweet stuff.
Lots of the food we eat wouldn’t taste nice if we were to eat them in their natural state. So to make them more pleasing to our taste buds sugars is the secret sauce being added.
For example, slicing up a potato and eating it without further processing would taste awful. But with added sugar and salt and fried in unhealthy oil makes us want more. You just can’t eat one.
Effects of sugar on our bodies
Our bodies need energy to function each day. This energy is derived from either fats or sugars. When we are constantly feeding it sugars it begins to look for this as the source of its energy and not the more slower burning fats. This is the root of our sugar addiction. This is the main reason we reach for that extra carb source after dinner.
Any sugars not used is stored as fat to be used later.
If you want to prevent pre-diabetes then you have to cut the sugar and force your body to use the excess fat as its main source of energy. Do this by adopting an exercise routine focused on burning fat.
Because sugar is a faster burning source of energy, and easy to access, our bodies burns this first and store fat to be used after sugar is used up. When exercising, you want to reach the fat-burning zone and maintain it for a period of time in-order to reduce fat storage levels. Fire up your fat-burning furnace by doing hiit weight training.
Insulin Resistance
Insulin also comes into play. The more sugars we consume the more insulin hormone is secreted into our blood. As you know, insulin, leptin and ghrelin hormones all work in concert to store fat.
The more insulin secreted, the more fat we store. If we continue to feed our bodies sugars because of our addiction, insulin production will reach an overload and eventually lead to resistance.
Symptoms of excess sugars
Pre-diabetics will soon start noticing the subtle effects of excess sugar on their bodies with the following symptoms:
- Blurry vision
- Feeling tired
- Weight gain
- The need to urinate more often
- Tingling in hands and feet
- excessive sweating
These are some of the early effects of excess sugar consumption. Recognize them for what they are . . . early onset of insulin resistance.
Effective changes to prevent pre-diabetes
It’s time make lifestyle changes to include dietary upgrades and becoming more active. Become a label reader. If the ingredient ends with ‘ose’ . . . it’s sugar. Avoid products loaded with extra sugars and salt.
These are the most effective changes you can start doing in-order to prevent pre-diabetes.