Welcome to part 1 of the three deadly fat loss culprits. Today’s post I’m going to be talking to you about culprit number 1 which is sugar. Sugar is by far the sneakiest of the three as it takes on many forms and is often times you don’t even know you’re eating it. But hopefully after reading this you will know exactly why sugar is bad, what foods have it, and how to cut it out of your diet for a healthy life.

Unfortunately in today’s society sugar is often overlooked and underestimated. When most people check the nutrition facts of foods at the grocery store they go straight to the number of carbs, protein and fat and most often times base the nutritional value of a food on those alone. In fact many people would choose a low fat, high sugar food over a high fat, low sugar food thinking, “ oh this has less fat so it must be healthier” and not even looking at the sugar content OR ingredient listings.

On top of being commonly overlooked it is even more commonly underestimated for how deadly it is to our body. Not only does it aggravate pre-existing conditions such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and arthritis, it also has degenerative affects on your endocrine system and depresses the immune system. It also has a huge impact on how you store and burn fat. Sugar raises insulin levels which in turn promotes the storage of fat and raises your triglyceride levels putting you at risk for heart disease.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell when something is full of sugar since sugar has many forms. There’s sucrose which is common table sugar, dextrose which is corn sugar and high fructose corn syrup which is probably the most commonly used and the worst for you. Below is a link of foods that contain corn syrup, many of which appear to be “health foods” that might surprise you.

Foods and Products Containing High Fructose Corn Syrup

“So if sugar is so bad for you then how much or little should you eat?” in my honest opinion you should strive to cut sugar out of your diet COMPLETELY. That’s right! Zero sugar. Our bodies just flat out don’t need it and can do without it. Sugar has no nutritional value whatsoever so cutting it out completely would’t deprive you of necessary nutrients.

So that’s it for today. I hope you found this post educational and I seriously hope you strive to cut out as much sugar as you can as it will make a great impact on your health and fat loss. Stay tuned for the next deadly fat loss culprit ALCOHOL!