Is this what's making/keeping you FAT?

It's a given that eating too much sugar and fat will make you FAT. We all know this.  However, what I wasn't aware of was how it was making me FAT.

A friend at work gave me an article to read on the dreaded hidden sugar and I will never look at carbs the same again.   Here's some snippets. 

Regardless of what you eat, all food breaks down into one of three groups: 
PROTEINS or FATS or CARBOHYDRATES - CARBOHYDRATES then turn into SUGAR

If you constantly battle your weight and seem to have a predisposition to gain FAT, then you’re probably consuming too much hidden SUGAR! And like most of us who constantly battle our weight, you just don’t know it. 

SUGAR is what is making you FAT, and it’s coming into your body from many different sources. Your body uses what it needs and then turns the rest into FAT. Once you know where all the SUGAR is coming from and understand what happens to it once it’s in your body, you can start to make adjustments. Remember the gift of sugarcane from Columbus? It becomes refined SUGAR. 

Refined SUGAR is found in processed foods, soda, candy, cookies, cake, ice cream, and any other products using it as an added ingredient. Refined SUGAR is a simple carbohydrate. The body burns it for fuel before it will burn anything else by immediately turning it into glucose (blood SUGAR). 

SUGAR from fruits, fructose, is also a simple carbohydrate. Remember the body burns simple carbohydrates first for fuel before ever getting close to burning stored FAT. Fructose metabolizes slower because the liver converts it to glycogen prior to glucose. 

SUGAR from vegetables and grains is a complex carbohydrate and burns more slowly than the simple carbohydrate. Although it burns more slowly, in excess complex carbohydrates will also cause FAT gain. 

SUGAR is going into your system at an alarming rate. It’s in your vegetables, fruits, processed foods, snacks, condiments, beverages, breads, and flour. Americans live on SUGAR. I mean that literally when I say it. SUGARS and added SUGARS are the main fuel of the American public!

So, now we know how much SUGAR we get from the SUGAR industry.  How about the hidden SUGAR? This is the SUGAR coming into our bodies from high-SUGAR foods, such as fruits and vegetables. They come in the form of simple and complex carbohydrates. Four grams of carbohydrates metabolize the same as four grams of SUGAR. To give you a visual, four grams of SUGAR equals one level teaspoon.   OMG!!!!

So, how does our food compare to teaspoons of SUGAR? Let’s analyze the SUGAR content in a medium order of fast-food French fries.   
 
One of the purposes of your digestive tract is to break down the starch and other complex carbohydrates – which are simply chains of SUGAR molecules – into their component SUGARS so they can be absorbed into the blood. Our medium order of fries contains 47 grams of carbohydrates. Those 47 grams of carbohydrates metabolize the same as 47 grams of SUGAR, which is almost 12 teaspoons! 12 teaspoons of SUGAR, just from the fries.

Article - FAT TO SKINNY Fast and Easy! Doug Varrieur

Can you imagine sitting down to eat 12 teaspoons of sugar.  Now add a burger and a soda to this meal.  You could be eating close to 50 teaspoons of sugar in one sitting.  So in this scenario, we are constantly burning the sugar and never getting to the burning the fat ... which is when the weight loss kicks in.  So to all of us who think we are eating well but not seeing any changes, we need to step back and take a look at our hidden sugar in take.

I believe I'm sensitive to carbs and for some this might not be the case. But, this time around I'm really watching my sugar in take.  Not just the sugar grams per the nutritional label, but the total carbs. 

Good luck everyone!