FitSugar

Is White Sugar Really THAT Bad For Me?

FitSugar — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:45:00 PDT

I think you know the answer to the question if white sugar is bad for you. White sugar comes from sugar cane, which is a plant, so why is it so bad for us? Can you say highly processed? Yeah, the gorgeous white crystals most people pour into their coffee every morning has zero nutritional value because it's all stripped away. White sugar is a refined sweetener, adding nothing but calories and taste to foods.

When you eat foods with refined sugar like sodas, candy bars, or high carb meals, it upsets the body's blood sugar balance. This triggers the release of insulin, which the body uses to maintain blood sugar levels at a constant and safe level. After insulin levels spike up, they quickly crash soon after, leaving you feeling sleepy, and possibly even hungry again. This often leads to more snacking and usually on sweet or refined carb treats. This cycle leads to overeating, since you are not really hungry, and weight gain. This is the reason carbs are often viewed as “bad” nowadays, and why the Atkins Diet is so popular.

Refined carbs such as white bread, white pasta, white rice, baked goods such as cookies have the same effect on your body, so that's why you should look for alternative foods made from whole grains. When you feel like snacking, stick to straight up fruits, nuts and ones that contain whole grains. These are slow burning carbs that contain vitamins and fiber too, so they'll give you a consistent flow of energy without the sugar meltdown.

Source

Eat Cake For Breakfast and Lose Weight, Study Says

Jenny Sugar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:21:52 PST

If your insatiable sweet tooth is preventing you from losing weight, findings from a recent study may be just the thing to help you slim down. Researchers found those who ate a large breakfast that included something sweet lost weight and were able to keep off more pounds than those who ate a small breakfast.

A group of 193 obese adults (not a huge study) were split into two groups. One ate a large, 600-calorie breakfast that included a sweet item such as a cookie, cake, or doughnut. The other group ate a 300-calorie breakfast with no dessert. Both groups ate the same amount of calories daily: 1,600 for men and 1,400 for women.

Keep reading to find out more details about cake and weight loss.

Weight Loss Rules You're Allowed to Break

Jenny Sugar — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:58:49 PST

If you love to eat, losing weight can seem so structured, you immediately get frustrated and grab the first decadent food you can find. Even though there are some very specific guidelines that can help you reach your goal faster, there's no one-size-fits-all weight-loss plan for everyone. Here are five rules you can bend and still drop pounds from the scale.

No Cheesecake, Wine, or French Fries
While dessert, alcohol, and fried foods tend to be high in calories, just because you want to lose weight doesn't mean you have to live without the foods you adore. Actually, denying yourself the bites you crave can backfire, causing you to feel deprived, resulting in bingeing. You can't eat these foods all the time, but it's perfectly healthy to enjoy a few spoonfuls of ice cream or a small glass of chardonnay every once in a while. Just limit your portion sizes and only indulge about once a week.

Salad, Every Day
Salads aren't for everyone, and the dissatisfied feeling you get afterward could cause you to head to the nearest pizza joint. Plus salad toppings can really add up. When a bowl of greens is covered in candied walnuts, cheese, dried cranberries, avocado, and creamy dressing, a seemingly healthy salad can run higher in calories than a burger. If you're not into a bowl of raw veggies, choose other low-calorie meals that incorporate veggies such as sandwiches, broth-based soups, grilled veggies, and whole-grain salads. You have to enjoy the foods you're eating in order to stick with a healthy meal plan.

Keep reading to find out three more diet rules you can break and still lose weight.

5 Easy Ways to Eat More Fruit

Jenny Sugar — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:57:13 PST

Luscious, juicy, sweet-as-candy fruit is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. It's full of vitamins, fiber to keep you full, water to keep you hydrated, and the natural sugars make it a healthier alternative to sugary treats. You should aim to eat three to six servings of fruit each day, but if that seems like a lot, here are some ways to sneak fruit into your diet.

Add fruit slices to sandwiches. Sliced pear, apple, and watermelon add a unique texture and unexpected flavor to run-of-the-mill sammies.
Mix pureed fruit into plain yogurt. When comparing six-ounce containers of Greek yogurt, plain offers 18 grams of protein for 100 calories, and strawberry is 140 calories with 14 grams of protein. Instead of buying the premade flavors, make your own by adding pureed fruit to plain yogurt. You'll save money, avoid added sugars, and be able to customize the flavor to wow your taste buds with distinct combos like blackberry peach or strawberry pear.
Add fruit to baked goods. We've all made banana bread, but that's not the only fruit-based treat you can whip up. Lower the fat in just about any recipe by replacing oil with applesauce, or get creative with muffin recipes by adding diced strawberries, or mix bits of dried apricots into cookie dough.
Cut up fruit and store it in the fridge. It takes effort to wash and cut fruit, enough to make you reach for something easier (and less healthy) instead. Make fruit as accessible as a bag of chips by storing cut up fruit in containers in the fridge.
Eat fruit for dessert. Save calories and skip the refined sugars by enjoying nature's dessert. Here are ways to make fruit even more decadent and enticing - the almond butter and granola filled dates are one of my faves.

Skip the Butter: 5 Healthy Toast Toppings

Michele Foley — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:37:05 PST

A piece of whole-grain toast in the morning is a quick, no-fuss breakfast. But when you add the usual toppings of butter and jam, it becomes a vehicle for refined sugar and saturated fat. Pass on empty calories and make your toast with one of these protein-packed and heart-healthy toppings. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day after all!

Source

Meet the Mind Behind the Going-Viral "Fotoshop" Video

Annie Tomlin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:27:30 PST

At first glance, the above video seems like any other beauty commercial: beautiful women, a flashy soundtrack, and promises of perfection. Keep watching, though, and you'll find that the key "product" is Fotoshop by Adobé. Filmmaker Jesse Rosten created the faux commercial as commentary on the prevalence of Photoshop, and we're betting his video will reach a million views by the week's end. We caught up with him to find out why he created the spot, what he hopes people will take away from it, and whether he's a Photoshop user himself.

BellaSugar: The idea for Fotoshop came to you while watching an infomercial with before-and-after pictures that looked identical, just Photoshopped. What moved you from watching the commercial to do a project about the subject?
Jesse Rosten: I suppose I just like to make things. They say when you have a song stuck in your head the remedy is to listen to the actual song. It's like that with me and ideas. If I get an idea that I'm passionate about, I tend to obsess over them. The only cure is to go produce the idea. The beauty of modern filmmaking tools and internet distribution is that one doesn't need permission anymore to go make something. This required a lot of work, but was relatively inexpensive to put together. Plus, it was a lot of fun!

BS: I have to confess - I actually expected you to be a woman when I saw the video, but I'm glad to see a man tackle the issue. Why do you think men should care if women have their wrinkles airbrushed away?
JR: I thought it would be funny to have a men's version of the product, putting one's head on a herculean body, etc. But I opted to keep it simple and focused on women since they suffer the most with societal expectations of beauty. This is a complex issue and I don't pretend to have the answer, but as the incidents of eating disorders and anorexia among American women continue to rise, I think it's important to keep the discussion alive.

Read the full Q&A.

Tell Us: Are You Going on a Detox?

Leta Shy — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:08:08 PST

I'll admit, I went a bit overboard during the holidays. Faced with table after table of homemade treats, it was hard to say no. So January has been a welcome reprieve from all the sugar I consumed during all of the festivities. Now, it's all about less refined sugars, lots of salads, and plenty of water.

For many of you, a new year may mean detoxing as well. That can be anything from making sure you are eating foods that help get your body back on track (if you're curious, here are 10 detoxing foods to introduce into your diet) to making sure you make this cleansing green drink recipe once a day. Whatever your healthy eating plan of choice, have you decided to detox this month? What ways are you using to cleanse?

10 Foods to Help You Detox

Michele Foley — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:48:03 PST

This holiday season, I went a little overboard and am now feeling the urge to eat clean. Since most detox diets are usually calorie-deprivation diets in disguise, I steer clear of them, but I still think that there are natural ways to get your body back on track. Exercise, cutting out alcohol and refined sugars, and eating a healthy diet does wonders. A little extra help doesn't hurt either.

Here are ten healthy foods with natural cleansing properties. Include them in your next meal and get rid of that extra junk left over from the big feast.

The Biggest Diet Trends of 2011

Leta Shy — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:35:06 PST

Like years before, 2011 was chock-full of trendy diets that got everyone talking, as well as trying. So what were the top diets of 2011? Read on to find out!

HCG Diet
The HCG diet isn't new (it's been around for more than 50 years), but it's once again a phenomenon. This was the year that people flocked to doctor's offices to get a pricey hormone injection all in the name of weight loss. The diet's deal: eat a restricted calorie diet, usually 500 calories a day, and inject the HCG hormone (or use drops or lozenges) every day. The claim is that the HCG hormone, which occurs in pregnant women naturally and helps them burn fat to use to feed their babies, helps convert body fat to energy so you get all the adequate calories you need every day without feeling hungry, but experts warn that there aren't any studies that prove the safety and effectiveness of the diet.

Paleo Diet
Eat like your ancestors did - as in, the ones from a very long time ago. The Paleo diet is a meal plan based on the hunting and gathering instincts of cavemen. That means lots of free-range, grass-fed meat, fresh seafood, and vegetables, but no grains, dairy, legumes, refined sugars, and processed foods. The Paleo Diet's main focus is to improve your overall health, and many people who have been on it say it's cured their digestive conditions, such as IBS. Experts are split on whether or not it's an effective diet - especially since some very common foods, like dairy and grain, are forbidden.

Read on for more top diet trends of 2011.

Tired, Bloated, and Puffy? How to Survive the Post-Trip Hangover

Michele Foley — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:06:47 PST

Whether it's for fun, business, or to see the family, traveling can be a major disruption to a daily routine. Sleep schedules get screwed up, exercise routines are thrown off, and a healthy homemade meal is out of the question. Once you return home, it can be hard to get back to a healthy routine. Before letting yourself completely go, follow these small tips for easing your way back.

Give Your Body a Mini-Detox
I'm not suggesting a juice cleanse, but give your body a break by eating as clean as possible. Choose whole, natural foods, and try to stay away from alcohol, fatty foods, refined sugar, and simple carbs. After this mini-detox, you'll find that you're feeling better and all of those unhealthy cravings you developed on vacation are a thing of the past. Here are 10 healthy foods with natural cleansing properties to include in your next meal. Also make sure to drink plenty of water since it will ward off fatigue, headaches, and irritability.

See more tips for surviving a post-trip hangover after the break!