Choose the Right Calories for Life

If you’re trying to cut calories to lose weight and get healthier, are you confident you are cutting the right calories? In our last blog we discussed a type of sugar, fructose, and how the overconsumption of this poison is contributing to increasing levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease in America. Cutting out or at least cutting way back on foods that contain high-fructose corn syrup is a great start.

But in your quest to drop pounds, you may be cutting out important calories that will actually help to speed up your metabolism and keep your insides healthy.

Glucose is another type of sugar, but this is actually an important energy source for life. Glucose comes from the carbohydrates we eat. We burn glucose to produce energy.

Protein requires twice as much energy output to process than carbohydrates do. This means that your body will work harder to move these types of foods through the body. Protein also helps keep hunger at bay, but make sure you’re choosing lean proteins or you’ll be working against yourself again.

Fiber is necessary to keep your bowels in healthy working order, lower cholesterol levels and control blood sugar. Men under age 50 need 38 grams of fiber each day; women need 25 grams. Fiber from some foods, like almonds, will delay absorption of a portion of the calories into your bloodstream so they are delivered into the intestines and eliminated. Fiber also helps to satisfy hunger without overeating.

Fats come in different forms: Trans fats can clog your arteries while omega-3 fatty acids are essential to our overall health. We need healthy fats in our diet; without them our bodies won’t work as effectively. You can get these good fats by consuming foods like fish, nuts, olive oil and flax in moderation.

The bottom line is that you need to be smart in your food choices, whether or not you are trying to lose weight. For more tips on how to eat healthier, contact Dr. Marilyn Kutzscher in San Francisco at 415-923-3560 or marilynkmd.com.

Tracking Down Your Sugar Sources

When you think about cutting sugar out of your diet, you might think that staying away from candy bars, sodas and ice cream cones will do the trick. The truth is high fructose corn syrup (one type of sugar) is found in some of the most unlikely food sources. Consider these seemingly “healthy” foods that often have sugar added to them:

• Bread, tortillas, muffins
• Ketchup
• Pickles
• Soy sauce
• Yogurt
• Energy bars
• Cured meats
• Waters and sports drinks
• Salad dressings, especially fat-free varieties
• Baked beans
• Soups
• Crackers
• Dried fruit
• Juices

American consumption of processed and “convenient” packaged foods (and, therefore, fructose) has increased steadily over the past century. Some studies have shown that Americans increased their fructose consumption from 15 grams a day to 73 grams a day OR over the past 120+ years. Add to that the fact that we are not using our bodies physically in the manner requisite to earlier times, and we have a recipe for disaster. This increase in grams sets fructose at 12% of the average American’s total calories every day.

Why? Many of these “empty” calories come from sugary sodas. However, some experts say that 80% of the foods we buy at the grocery store in America have added sugar (but they tend to call it by different names on the labels). Let’s face it: Foods that have added sugar taste better so consumers tend to buy them more often. This equates to a win for the food industry but a loss for the overall health of Americans.

It is this rise in fructose in our diets that may be contributing to the rise in obesity, diabetes and heart disease. In fact, it is estimated that 1/3 of all Americans will have diabetes by the year 2050. Studies have shown that when sugar is more readily available, the prevalence of diabetes increases.

What can you do? Read labels. Choose whole, unprocessed foods. Be aware of what you’re putting into your body – if you don’t know what an ingredient on a label is, research it online first or choose a different food. Don’t let excess sugar “poison” ruin your life.

For more tips on how to reduce your sugar intake, contact Dr. Marilyn Kutzscher in San Francisco at 415-923-3560 or marilynkmd.com.