Is Sugar Bad For You?

If sugar is bad and “toxic,” then what should you think about fruit?

It’s the hypothetical question that rarely gets answered — or is even considered — for anyone considering a no-sugar diet

Before you buy in to the easy-to-sell concept, you might want to consider the familiarity of the script. Yesterday, fats were going to kill you. Today, fats are on the path to redemption — some are not as unhealthy as we thought, while others have hidden health benefits.

But in the minds of many, an “obvious” enemy has emerged: carbs and, more specifically, sugar

And yet, the question remains, “is sugar bad for you” in any dose, or — like almost anything else — is the issue more about how much you’re eating and where it’s coming from? When you dig deeper into the science, you’ll find that going “sugar-free” might be unnecessary if you want to lose fat, live longer, and feel great every day.

Not All Sugars Are Created Equal

Sugar is far more than just the white stuff you spoon into your coffee. (That’s sucrose.)

In biochemistry, a sugar is either a monosaccharide or a disaccharide (“saccharides” being another name for “carbohydrates”).

• A monosaccharide is a simple sugar.
• A disaccharide is a sugar composed of two simple sugars.
• An oligosaccharide is composed of two to ten simple sugars.
• A polysaccharide is composed of two or more simple sugars (300 to 1,000 glucose molecules in starch).

In short, all carbohydrates are composed of single sugars. If we go back to the example of sucrose, or table sugar, that’s actually a disaccharide of the simple sugars glucose and fructose.

Meanwhile, starch, dietary fiber, and cellulose are polysaccharides. That’s an important distinction for those of you keeping score at home: fiber — something most people know as good — is also a form of sugar.

Of those three, we can only digest starch, which is composed of glucose. Starch is also what you’ve probably heard call “complex carbs” or “slow carbs” — slow because the body needs time to break them down into single sugars (notably glucose, the “blood sugar”).

So the idea of true non-sugar diet means kicking out a lot of foods that are perfectly healthy. Sure, you can live without ingesting sugars, or even carbs … but only because your body can synthesize the glucose its needs out of fatty acids and amino acids.

This happens because your body needs sugar. Glucose is needed as fuel for important functions, like your nervous system and your brain. (Yes, your brain doesn’t only function on glucose, but it does need glucose; and glucose also helps cells interact.)

Maybe more importantly: there are many perfectly healthy foods that contain sugar (see below). Any no-sugar diet that would insist removing all of the following foods can’t be foolproof, right? And that’s the point: any diet that veers towards extremes oftentimes is misguided, and that includes the catch-all “don’t eat any sugar.”

Answer the question: Is sugar bad for you?

Like most things in life, the poison is in the dose.

As we’ve seen, your body actually needs sugars, to the point that it’ll manufacture some even if you avoid all carbohydrates.

But consuming too much sugar leads to type-II diabetes and obesity (though overeating will make you fat even if you aren’t consuming many carbs). Too much sugar also results in an increase in advanced glycation end products, and so in skin damage and a greater risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

That’s why added sugar can be dangerous: not because it’s “as addictive as cocaine” (it can be addictive, but not nearly as much as cocaine or as the act of eating itself). The real danger with sugar is not that it’s inherently fattening. A gram of sugar is still just 4 calories. And 4 calories will not make you fat. However, you can eat a lot of sugar and not feel full. So you eat some sugar…and then some more…and then some more…and next thing you know a box of cookies are gone — and you’re still feeling hungry.

Added sugars are all too easy to overconsume. That’s true of every added sugar, no matter how healthy-sounding it may be. “Cane sugar,” for example, despite being natural, isn’t a lot healthier than other sources of sucrose. Conversely, the much-vilified high-fructose corn syrup (55% fructose, 45% glucose, usually) isn’t a lot worse than sucrose (50% fructose, 50% glucose).

What are especially treacherous are sugars in liquid form. You can drink and drink and drink mass quantities of them—enough calories to account for a five-course meal—and yet still feel hungry. Perhaps it’s unsurprising, then, that soft drinks are linked to the current obesity epidemic. Sodas and colas are by far the main source of added sugar in the average American’s diet, accounting for 34.4% of the added sugar consumed by U.S. adults and children.

In that respect, fruit juices aren’t any healthier. In fact, they can be even worse. Why? Because the sugar in fruit juice is fructose, which can stress the liver (only the liver can metabolise fructose in any large amounts). Current evidence also points to the consumption of fructose causing greater weight gains than glucose.

But the same isn’t true for the sugars you’ll find in vegetables and fruits. In fact we need to be clear that, to this day:

There is no evidence that eating fruit, even in high amounts, will harm your health.

Unlike fruit juices, whole fruits are filling. Apples, though solid, are 10% sugar … and 85% water; that alone makes them very hard to overeat. In addition, recent studies show that whole fruits may help regulate blood sugar.

There’s one “sugary” drink that doesn’t pose the same threat: milk. While milk contains sugar (lactose, a disaccharide of glucose and galactose), it has far less less than fruit juice, since milk also contains protein and fat. Back in the day when fats were the enemy, low-fat milk was considered healthier than whole milk, the same isn’t true today. Now that fats have been (partially) redeemed, whole milk is back in fashion — and backed by lots of evidence.

So how much added sugar can I eat per day?

Here’s something we can all celebrate: you don’t need to feel guilty each time you eat added sugar. But you should stay aware of your consumption and do your best not to exceed these limits:

• 100 calories/day if you’re a woman (about six teaspoons, or 25 g);
• 150 calories/day if you’re a man (about nine teaspoons, or 36 g)

What does that mean? You’re looking at 1 full-sized Snickers or about 7-8 Oreo cookies. But note that we’re not saying you should add a Snickers or Oreos to your daily eating plan. The example here simply illustrates the total quantity you’d want to cap your day at. But keep in mind: Added sugar winds up in a lot of unexpected places, like soup and pizza.

While the average consumption of sugar in the United States may be decreasing (it was up around 400 kcal/day in 1999–2000, dropping down to about 300 kcal/day in 2007–2009), it’s still way too high. And of course, it’s an average, and averages lie. Some people consume a lot less, and others … a lot more.

But let’s say you don’t like one-size-fits-all numbers. You don’t want to carry around a set of measuring spoons all day, or worry about how many grams of sugar you consumed. If that’s the case, here’s an even easier way to keep your sugar consumption in check. It’s based on the model of the old school Food Guide Pyramid, which was released in 1992 and replaced in 2005 by MyPyramid—before that was eventually replaced by whatever this thing is that the government is using nowadays.

The base of a healthy sugar pyramid is made of vegetables and fruits: Not only are they filling, they also provide you with fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals (biologically active compounds found in plants, some of which are beneficial to our health), in addition to the sugar. Whole milk can also go there. The little sugar naturally occurring in bread doesn’t count as added sugar, either—but the sugar that’s often added during manufacturing in the U.S. does.

As for fruit juices, honey and maple syrup, they all count as added sugar, as does high-fructose corn syrup.

So that’s it. Just keep this pyramid in mind. If the base of your personal sugar pyramid is wide, then sprinkling a little added sugar at the top won’t make it collapse. It’s only when most of the sugar in your diet comes from soft drinks, sweets, cookies, breakfast cereals and the like, that your pyramid is likely to topple, and your health along with it.

READ MORE: 

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

Healthy Fat: Which Foods Should You Really Be Eating?

Kamal Patel is director of Examine.com, an education company he cofounded in 2011. Since that time, Examine.com’s growing team of researchers has reviewed thousands of studies on supplementation and nutrition. Today, over a million visitors each month rely on Examine.com to separate marketing hyperbole from scientific evidence.

 

The post Is Sugar Bad For You? appeared first on Born Fitness.

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How to Make a Nourishing Natural Cuticle Cream at Home

Cuticles are one of those things that are easy to overlook. Cover them up with some cute, non-toxic nail polish and carry on, right? Unfortunately, cuticles can split, peel and even get infected if ignored or mistreated. This natural cuticle cream gives cuticles the love they need and helps avoid or even reverse damaged cuticles. Why Do...

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The power of showing up: Notes from Session 1 of TEDWomen 2017: Build

Vocalist Deborah Cox and the Lake Area Girls Choir blow the roof off to kick-start TEDWomen 2017: Bridges, November 1-3, 2017, Orpheum Theatre, New Orleans. Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED

“We build them, we cross them, sometimes we burn them.” TED Content Director Kelly Stoetzel kicks off TEDWomen 2017 with an explanation of how she and conference curator Pat Mitchell developed this year’s rich conference theme, Bridges. “Over the next three days we’ll hear talks from artists and architects, entrepreneurs, scientists and activists,” she continues — the usual TED fare, in other words, given a special TEDWomen twist. In this session, “Build,” we find ideas of power, empathy, ingenuity and radical humanity, to name a few. So let’s get cracking.

I’m every woman. This fall, the powerhouse vocalist Deborah Cox is starring in the national tour of The Bodyguard, a musical based on a movie starring the late great Whitney Houston, who sings a song first popularized by the great Chaka Khan that was co-written by the songwriting legend Valerie Simpson (of Ashford & Simpson)  … That chain of strong women’s voices just got 50 voices stronger, as Cox opens with a stunning take on “I’m Every Woman,” joined by the young women of the Lake Area Girls Choir. Their combined voices rock the audience right out of their seats, echoing up through the balconies of the historic Orpheum Theater.

Be the first domino. Self-proclaimed professional troublemaker Luvvie Ajayi tamed her fears by conquering them in the boldest ways possible — deep-sea diving, skydiving and ziplining across forests. In this, the first full talk of the conference, she encourages others to do the same, to be the first domino causing a chain reaction. “Being the first domino is doing or saying what is difficult, because that is usually when it’s needed,” she says. However, she adds, we can’t simply rely on those who have traditionally spoken up and out to ignite social change. Instead, she call for us all to fearlessly embrace who we are as a revolutionary act, to become fellow troublemakers and speak truth to power despite trepidation.

Why did Luvvie Ajayi jump out of a “perfectly good plane,” she asks? To face her fear in the boldest way possible. She speaks at TEDWomen 2017: Bridges, November 1-3, 2017, Orpheum Theatre, New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

Footbridges that connect people with opportunity. Avery Louise Bang found her calling when she traveled in Fiji as a college student and saw communities mired in isolation because of the rivers, canyons or peaks separating them from the rest of the world. Without an easy way to cross these expanses, people struggled to send their kids to school or reach medical care. Bang resolved to help, and studied engineering before joining the Denver-based nonprofit Bridges to Prosperity, which has now built 270 bridges in more than 20 countries, connecting nearly a million people. But their work, she emphasizes, is less about constructing spans of steel, stone and mortar and more about transforming lives by giving them access to a larger world. She calls on countries and philanthropists to prioritize connecting the estimated one billion people on the planet still stranded due to geography. As she says: “Poverty due to rural isolation is a crisis we can solve in our lifetime.”

Avery Bang builds bridges — literal ones, that link isolated villages to schools, health care and markets. She speaks at TEDWomen 2017: Bridges, November 1-3, 2017, Orpheum Theatre, New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

Justice has geography too. Liz Ogbu is a trained architect, but she likes to say she works in spatial justice. What’s that, you ask? Well, she says, it’s a way to remember that all too often justice is impacted by geography. That’s right, she’s talking about gentrification — from the perspective of those displaced by it, not those looking to “fix” it. Ogbu questions the troubling assumption that some people (traditionally the poor or disenfranchised) will inevitably be pushed out when development and progress come knocking. “Why is it we treat culture erasure and economic displacement as inevitable?” she asks feistily. Instead, developers, architects, designers and policy makers must think differently about development, to “make a commitment to build people’s capacity to stay … to stay in their homes, to stay in their communities, to stay where they feel whole.”

Can we heal the Gulf of Mexico? Tonight, ocean expert Nancy Rabelais is speaking onstage; by Friday she’ll be back at work, diving the Gulf of Mexico to track the ominously named Dead Zone — a zone without enough oxygen in the water to support life. The Gulf has the second largest Dead Zone in the world, the size of New Jersey (“not to brag,” says Nancy), and on top of killing fish and crustaceans, it’s killing the traditional fisheries in these waters. Here’s the troubling reality: the Dead Zone is caused mainly by excessive nitrogen and phosphorous, the Mississippi-borne runoff of corn and soybean farms hundreds of miles upstream. How to help US Midwestern farmers care about shrimp fisheries in the Gulf? By speaking out and showing the connection between algae-poisoned water in Toledo, Ohio and the dying life on the bottom of the Gulf. Nancy is working to build across-the-aisle support for cleaning up the Gulf’s waters and restoring one of America’s treasures.

When Nancy Rabalais dives in the Gulf of Mexico, she sees the “dead zone” effects of farm techniques far upstream. She speaks at TEDWomen 2017: Bridges, November 1-3, 2017, Orpheum Theatre, New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

Justice is our responsibility. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, says Eve Abrams, producer of Unprisoned, a podcast about the prison system. However, between one and four percent of those in prison are likely innocent. That’s 87,000 brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers — predominantly African American — unnecessarily separated from their families, their lives and dreams put on hold. Using audio footage from her interviews, Abrams shares the touching stories of those with incarcerated family members, and calls for us all to take a stand to ensure that the justice system ultimately works for everyone. “Justice is hard to come by,” she says. “If we don’t like what’s going on, it’s up to us to change it.”

Helping every mother have a healthy birth Christy Turlington Burns remembers the moment her just-born daughter was placed in her arms for the first time, a magical moment that was quickly shattered when her third stage of labor (when the placenta expels) did not go as planned. Surrounded by the best medical care, she lost almost a quart of blood as doctors and nurses worked to resolve her condition. She’s fine now — in fact, she was home with her baby within 24 hours. But as she found out, what happened to her is one of the leading causes of maternal death in the world. Burns resolved to help. Her nonprofit, Every Mother Counts, targets maternal health in a number of straightforward, practical ways. None of this is a mystery — we know how to help moms survive childbirth, and most of the interventions are low-cost and proven. Now we must find the will to do them, for every mother in the world.

Where to begin. Artist and poet Cleo Wade recites a moving poem about being an advocate for love and acceptance in a time when both seem in short supply. Interwoven with stories of individuals at the beginning or end of their lives, she shares the inherent truths that come with aging and reflects in the wisdom of a life well-lived. Wade leaves the stage with a simple yet enduring takeaway: be good to yourself, be good to others, be good to the Earth. “The world will say to you / ‘Be a better person’/ Don’t be afraid to say yes,” she says.

That’s it from TEDWomen for tonight. Up tomorrow, a whole host of more extraordinary stories and insightful ideas. Stay tuned, and night from New Orleans.

from TED Blog https://blog.ted.com/the-power-of-showing-up-notes-from-session-1-of-tedwomen-2017-build/
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Gallery: Just about to open doors at TEDWomen 2017 at the Orpheum Theater

Rehearsal days involve a lot of laptop time as our video and stage teams fine-tune the details to create the amazing experience that will be TEDWomen 2017 in New Orleans. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

We’re about to open the doors for the audience to join TEDWomen in New Orleans — three days of powerful talks from women and men that take on the issues breaking now and share soul-deep ideas for creating better lives going forward. TEDWomen is happening in an astonishing theater, new to us and freshly renovated but nearly a century old. In itself it’s a story of renewal and rejuvenation: Flooded during Katrina, the theater was meticulously restored and reopened in 2015. During our rehearsal and setup says, we’re pretty unabashedly taking hundreds of pictures of this glorious interior — which is about to rock with the sounds of the Lake Area Girls Choir backing the Broadway star Deborah Cox.

Photographer Ryan Lash captures this amazing theater from three angles — from the top of the house, from the first balcony, and a reverse shot from backstage capturing yet another impromptu crew meeting on the red circle.

The speaker’s-eye view from the red circle, looking out at the audience seating at the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

Follow news from TEDWomen in a bunch of ways — here on the TED Blog, on @TEDTalks, on the hashtag #tedwomen. Tune in for some amazing Facebook Live interviews with four speakers throughout Thursday and Friday. And of course, look for talks from TEDWomen that will post on TED.com throughout the year to come!

from TED Blog https://blog.ted.com/gallery-just-about-to-open-doors-at-tedwomen-2017-at-the-orpheum-theater/
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Coaching online: 5 steps to helping more people, getting better results, and living + working on your own terms.

Most people working in health and fitness want to take on more clients while still delivering amazing results — without having to work 100-hour weeks or being a slave to their clients’ schedules. Could coaching online be the answer? Here are the pros, the caveats, and — most importantly — 5 steps to creating a successful online coaching business.

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Most people working in health & fitness eventually ask themselves:

Isn’t there a better way to do this?

More specifically, they’re asking:

How can I maximize client numbers and income while still maintaining control of my schedule and helping people get the best results?

And a lot of them wonder:

Is coaching online the answer?

If you’ve ever considered whether it’s possible to handle more clients while still giving them a high-quality experience… or wished you could work fewer hours from wherever you like while still being a great coach, this article is for you.

In it we’ll talk about:

• The problem with traditional fitness coaching and how we solved it.

• How online coaching is a great option for growing your business, working less, and becoming a better coach… if you do it right.

• 5 systems that are crucial to taking your coaching business online (these will be the difference between success and failure).

Before digging in, however, I wanted to let you know that Precision Nutrition’s ProCoach — the most effective system for delivering nutrition coaching, in-person or online — is opening very soon.

Tested with nearly 100,000 clients, ProCoach makes it easy to deliver world-class, proven nutrition and lifestyle coaching to your clients.

It’ll help you grow your business while working less, getting better results, and living life on your own terms.

Want to coach online? Or a combination of online and in-person? Whatever fits your ideal lifestyle, it’s all possible with ProCoach.

To understand ProCoach you first need to understand why it was created, and the key problems it helps health and fitness professionals overcome.

John Berardi shares his early coaching struggles and how PN went from 20 to nearly 100,000 clients with ProCoach.

Want to know exactly how the ProCoach software works? Then check this out.

See how other health and fitness pros are using ProCoach with their clients.

 

Watch Facebook Live sessions, live from TEDWomen in New Orleans

Join us for four in-depth conversations over two days, live from the Blue Room at TEDWomen, hosted by podcaster Manoush Zomorodi. Guests include TEDWomen speakers Gretchen Carlson, Sally Kohn, Cleo Wade and Justin Baldoni, and the conversations are sure to be lively — get more details, dates and times below. Watch live on Facebook at facebook.com/TED.

Thursday
10:20–10:50am Central time
Facebook Live with Gretchen Carlson
Broadcast journalist Gretchen Carlson will join us for an interview about sexual harassment and assault in the workplace and what we can do to end it.

1:05–1:35pm Central time
Facebook Live with Sally Kohn
Political pundit Sally Kohn will join us for an interview about media bias and the challenge of reporting news that speaks to both sides.

4:20–4:50pm Central time
Facebook Live with Cleo Wade
Artist and poet Cleo Wade will join us for an interview about finding your voice and using your power to create change.

Friday
9–9:30am Central time
Facebook Live with Justin Baldoni
Actor Justin Baldoni from CW’s Jane the Virgin will join us for an interview on challenging gender stereotypes, redefining masculinity, and working together to end sexism.

from TED Blog https://blog.ted.com/watch-facebook-live-sessions-live-from-tedwomen-in-new-orleans/
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Easy Vegetable Green Curry

This Easy Vegetable Green Curry recipe has been my go-to for yeas and I’m finally getting around to sharing it with you. It comes together in about 20 minutes and is easy to make with simple ingredients. This recipe is vegan, gluten-free and oil-free. Vegetable Green Curry Ingredients Ginger, garlic and onion. I start my... Read More The post Easy Vegetable Green Curry appeared first on Running on Real Food.

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