Sugar In Health Foods Almost Killed Me

The heading above appeared in my local Sunday paper and immediately drew my attention. The reason for this is that I am involved in weight loss using healthy eating, hypnosis and virtual gastric banding. For a long time I maintained that so called healthy foods contain too much sugar and are not always healthy for you, particularly when eaten in large amounts.

Low fat foods are really trendy but it is fat that gives food taste. Remove the fat and you then have to substitute sugar for the food to taste any good. If you don’t believe me have a look at the sugar content between normal yoghurt and low fat yoghurt.

You will notice firstly that it is really hard to decipher what the sugar content is because it is presented as carbohydrates and sugar. Look at the number of Kilojoules (KJ), the higher the number the more the sugar.

In his article the author juiced 4 apples. This gave him a glass of apple juice that contained 16 teaspoons of fruit sugar (fructose). Of these 16 teaspoons a small amount will go to energy production but the majority will be stored in the liver as a triglyceride. Some will also be released into the body as fat. Large helpings of fruit are not conducive to weight loss!

In his article the author said that he had set out to eat a diet that was high in sugar with the sugar being supplied by so called health foods and healthy food habits. After 50 days this is what the author found;

  • His liver was hardening and developing cirrhosis
  • Despite not increasing his calorie intake and doing the same amount of exercise he put on 8.5kg in 2 months
  • Body fat increased by 7%
  • He gained 10cm around the waist

Now I know that the author was eating a diet high in sugar but the take home message here is that you need to question what the sugar content is in so called healthy foods. If you want to lose weight you have to reduce sugar intake. Just because a food is termed healthy it may not be due to the high sugar content.

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