In his new book, The Belly Fat Cure, Jorge Cruise writes a lot about sugar. He believes that too much sugar consumption is the greatest contributor to obesity and the new, even more important health indicator—belly fat – in our culture today.
Belly Fat, Sugar and Premature Death
Belly fat is what he calls the “physical marker” of eating too much sugar—it’s the exterior consequence of a highly refined, processed diet filled with sweets, sodas, and nutrient-lacking foods. And sugar’s damage goes beyond the accumulation of fat around the waist. It has been linked to three of the most deadly health conditions that may not have any exterior signs until it’s too late: cardiovascular disease, cancer and Type 2 Diabetes. And if that’s not bad enough, too much sugar ages your body, causing more wrinkling and weakens the immune system. Now bring in the belly fat factor—the latest research findings show that a high waist circumference significally increases the risk of premature death—and you have multiple reasons to keep your sugar intake low and your waist circumference within a healthy range.
To allow you to do that is exactly why he wrote The Belly Fat Cure. Surprisingly, the way to lose belly fat is not simply what we’ve all been trained to think— more exercise, less food—but involves limiting your sugar intake and ensuring you get the proper amount of quality carbohydrates. It’s not the amount of calories so much as it is the kind of calories. Too much sugar causes insulin levels to increase in the body. In order to release belly fat, insulin levels need to remain low. Learning to live with less sugar is something all Americans could benefit from.
Artificial Sweeteners
Now you may be thinking the solution is to use alternative sweeteners, right? Nope. He highly recommends that you stay away from yellow, pink and blue! Those are the packet colors of the ubiquitous artificial sweeteners that you can find virtually everywhere—sucralose (yellow packets), saccharin (pink packets) and aspartame (blue packets). They are known as excitotoxins, which contain neurotransmitters that “overexcite” neurons in the brain, causing degeneration and even death in these critically important nerve cells.
A Sweet Secret
The good news it that nature provides a wonderful natural sugar that is sweet, safe and does not spike insulin and is actually good for your dental health! We’re talking about a sugar alcohol called xylitol. Xylitol occurs naturally in many fruits and vegetables, and is even produced by the human body during normal metabolism. It is commercially produced from plants, trees and fibrous vegetation, and has the same sweetness as common table sugar but with one-third less calories and no unpleasant aftertaste. And the best part, in terms of losing belly fat, is that it metabolizes without insulin so it creates a significantly lower glycemic effect when eaten.
So instead of reaching for an artificial sweetener, carry packets of XyloSweet with you, it’s pure xylitol. Use it in iced tea, to sweeten lemonade, over oatmeal and in protein shakes.
Sweet Treats
You can also enjoy xylitol-sweetened gum, mints and candies. When I get a sweet craving between meals, I chew Spry gum or eat some Spry mints. It satisfies my sweet craving without adding to my daily sugar intake and I get the added benefit of Xylitol’s anti-bacterial properties that help prevent cavities.
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