Healthy Eating Focus 2012 Week #10

Welcome to week ten of my ten week Healthy Eating Series, to Kick off 2012!

Before getting into Focus #10 I’d like to recap your first nine focuses they are:

Focus #1 – Slow down when you eat

Focus #2 – Create a relaxed environment while you eat

Focus #3 – Creat an eating rhythm with you eating time, (meal cadence)Focus #4 – Feel leasure as opposed to stress with your food choices

Focus #5 – Eating for nourishment

Focus #6 – Toxic beliefs about diet

Focus #7 – Quality of food

Focus #8 – Macronutrient Balance

Focus #9 – Awareness at meals

Now, to our final focus – Caffeine and Sugar Use 

Caffeine and sugar are neither good nor bad.  They are powerful substances.  The question is, are we using them wisely or are we abusing them.

Caffeine and sugar are abused when: It consistently becomes substitute energy. It’s used as substitute food. We consume too much.

Ask yourself if these two substances control you, or you control them.  Getting more than 3 servings of caffeine per day may be pushing that limit.

According to Marc David, “caffeine abuse leads to an experience of “false metabolism” – that is, central nervous system stimulation masquerading as true energy.  True energy would be eat food, digest it, convert it to energy at the cellular level, then use that energy.”

Increased caffeine use can lead to: Mood swings Energy/fatigue issues Sleep issues Adrenal burnout Inability to lose weight

In the weeks to come, focus on the deeper issues behind too much caffeine and sugar.  Can you find your true and natural enery?  Can you trust your energy level and let go of pushing it?  Just as importantly, can you value rest when you need it, and not try to push through the body’s need to relax and be tired?

 

Please feel free to pass this valuable information to your friends, family, and co-workers!

In Good Health,

John Preston

Your Fitness Tutor

john@fitnessknowhowhq.com

www.fitnessknowhowhq.com

The nutrition information in this post is all the more effective when combined with a  sound fitness program. Check out my S.U.P.E.R Fitness Training Program to learn how you can live The Ultimate Health Lifestyle.

P.S. The information in this email is from Marc David’s “Food Psychology Coaching” Program. It was written by Certified Food Psychology Coach, Lisa Olona, and shared with her permission. If you like the information and are interested in learning more you can contact Lisa at lisaolona@peoriabootcamp.com

P.S.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, Lisa is a friend and associate. The link to contact her is not an affiliate link. I stand to gain nothing financially by providing you with her contact information. I’m always striving to provide you with FREE, accurate and effective information, that will help you to reach your ultimate potential. And I feel this information that Lisa is sharing serves that purpose.

Healthy Eating Focus 2012 Week #8

Welcome to week eight of my ten week Healthy Eating Series, to Kick off 2012!

To date, you have learned the importance of slowing down your eating, eating in a relaxed setting and meal cadence. You’ve also learned how all three of those things will boost your metabolism.

Before getting into this week’s Healthy Eating Focus, lets recap your first 7 psychological and nutritional focuses.

Focus #1 – Eating Speed

Focus #2 – Relaxed Eating

Focus #3 – Eating Rhythm

Focus #4 – Pleasure From Food

Focus #5 – Eating for Nourishment

Focus #6 – Awareness at Meals

Focus #7 – Quality of Food

Healthy Eating Focus #8  – Macronutrient Balance

There are 4 macronutrients and all of them play a vital role in developing and maintaining a healthy body.

These macronutrients are:

  • Protein

  • Fats

  • Carbohydrates

  • Water

It is important to maintain a good ratio of protein, fat, and carbohydrates.  As well as, consume an adequate amount of water.

An imbalance can lead to:

  • Fat craving

  • Carb craving

  • Binge eating

  • Mood issues

  • Energy issues

  • Inability to lose weight

If you don’t get enough protein in your diet, this can lead to:

  • Sugar and carb cravings

  • Low energy

  • Low immunity

  • Low mood

  • Inability to build muscle

  • Inability to lose weight

  • Decreased ability to cope with stress

This week, make sure you are getting a good amount of healthy fats, healthy carbs, and protein.  Last, and certainly not least, make sure you are consuming a lot of water throughout the day!

Please feel free to pass this valuable information to your friends, family, and co-workers!

In Good Health,

John Preston

Your Fitness Tutor

john@fitnessknowhowhq.com

www.fitnessknowhowhq.com

The nutrition information in this post is all the more effective when combined with a  sound fitness program. Check out my S.U.P.E.R Fitness Training Program to learn how you can live The Ultimate Health Lifestyle.

P.S. The information in this email is from Marc David’s “Food Psychology Coaching” Program. It was written by Certified Food Psychology Coach, Lisa Olona, and shared with her permission. If you like the information and are interested in learning more you can contact Lisa at lisaolona@peoriabootcamp.com

P.S.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, Lisa is a friend and associate. The link to contact her is not an affiliate link. I stand to gain nothing financially by providing you with her contact information. I’m always striving to provide you with FREE, accurate and effective information, that will help you to reach your ultimate potential. And I feel this information that Lisa is sharing serves that purpose.

Healthy Eating Focus 2012 Week #7

Welcome to week seven of my ten week Healthy Eating Series, to Kick off 2012!

To date, you have learned the importance of slowing down your eating, eating in a relaxed setting and meal cadence. You’ve also learned how all three of those things will boost your metabolism.

Just to recap your first six focuses, they are:

1. Slow down when you eat.

2. Create a relaxed environment while you eat

3. Create an eating rhythm with your eating times, (meal cadence)

4. Feel pleasure as opposed to stress with your food choices

5. Eating for nourishment

6. Awareness at Meals

Here is your eating focus for the week.  Work on this every time you eat, and you’ll start to create new habits. Enjoy!

Focus #7 – Quality of Food

It is important to make sure you are eating high quality food!  By quality food I mean food that is nutrient dense.  This nutrient dense food helps to regulate your appetite and prevents overeating.  Food dense in nutrients includes fresh food with no added chemicals or preservatives.

Nutrient dense foods signal the brain that we’ve received our nutritional requirements sooner than non-nutrient dense food. Therefore we are satisfied before we start to over eat.  These nutrient dense foods naturally regulate our appetites, because our bodies are inherently accustomed to eating them.

Eating foods that are processed or not fresh leads to:

  • Decreased nutrient density of food

  • Decreased nutrition for the body

  • Increased food cravings

  • Increased appetite

It is very difficult to address your weight, nutrition, fitness and health concerns when the quality of food that you eat is poor.  You are working against yourself by leaving your body feeling unsatisfied.

So this week focus on eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean cuts of meat (fish and poultry)!

Please feel free to pass this valuable information to your friends, family, and co-workers!

In Good Health,

John Preston

Your Fitness Tutor

john@fitnessknowhowhq.com

www.fitnessknowhowhq.com

The nutrition information in this post is all the more effective when combined with a  sound fitness program. Check out my S.U.P.E.R Fitness Training Program to learn how you can live The Ultimate Health Lifestyle.

P.S. The information in this email is from Marc David’s “Food Psychology Coaching” Program. It was written by Certified Food Psychology Coach, Lisa Olona, and shared with her permission. If you like the information and are interested in learning more you can contact Lisa at lisaolona@peoriabootcamp.com

P.S.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, Lisa is a friend and associate. The link to contact her is not an affiliate link. I stand to gain nothing financially by providing you with her contact information. I’m always striving to provide you with FREE, accurate and effective information, that will help you to reach your ultimate potential. And I feel this information that Lisa is sharing serves that purpose.

2012 Healthy Eating Focus Week #6

Welcome to week six of my ten week Healthy Eating Series, to Kick off 2012!

To date, you have learned the importance of slowing down your eating, eating in a relaxed setting and meal cadence. You’ve also learned how all three of those things will boost your metabolism.

Just to recap your first five focuses they are:

1. Slow down when you eat.

2. Create a relaxed environment while you eat

3. Create an eating rhythm with your eating times, (meal cadence)

4. Feel pleasure as opposed to stress with your food choices

5. Eating for nourishment

This week the focus is to make sure that you are aware at your meals.

Focus #6 – Awareness at Meals

This simple focus can be quite difficult for so many of us.  We think that we’re being efficient or productive by getting some stuff done while we eat. Right?  Not right!  It is now time to stop eating and multi tasking.  Being aware at your meal means being with your meal; noticing it, tasting it, being present, awake, alive, and alert.  When you eat, simply eat.

This is actually a nutritional requirement.  Marc David, points out, “The nutritional power of Awareness is physiologically proven in the Cephalic Phase Digestive Response-the body’s requirement for the “head phase” of digestion, assimilation, and calorie burning.

By “head phase” he means the phase during a meal in which we taste, experience pleasure, smell the aroma, experience satisfaction and a visual stimulation of a meal.  Our subjective experience of a meal profoundly impacts how we digest and assimilate that meal.

The more AWARE we are when we eat, the more our appetite is satisfied and the more our brain and digestive system can give us accurate feedback about a meal.

This week take the time away, separate yourself from the craziness of the day, and become aware at your meals.  It makes a big difference on how your body physiologically responds and burns calories.

Please feel free to pass this valuable information to your friends, family, and co-workers!

In Good Health,

John Preston

Your Fitness Tutor

john@fitnessknowhowhq.com

www.fitnessknowhowhq.com

The nutrition information in this post is all the more effective when combined with a  sound fitness program. Check out my S.U.P.E.R Fitness Training Program to learn how you can live The Ultimate Health Lifestyle.

P.S. The information in this email is from Marc David’s “Food Psychology Coaching” Program. It was written by Certified Food Psychology Coach, Lisa Olona, and shared with her permission. If you like the information and are interested in learning more you can contact Lisa at lisaolona@peoriabootcamp.com

P.S.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, Lisa is a friend and associate. The link to contact her is not an affiliate link. I stand to gain nothing financially by providing you with her contact information. I’m always striving to provide you with FREE, accurate and effective information, that will help you to reach your ultimate potential. And I feel this information that Lisa is sharing serves that purpose.

2012 Healthy Eating Eating Focus Week #5

Welcome to week five of my ten week Healthy Eating Series, to Kick off 2012!

To date, you have learned the importance of slowing down your eating, eating in a relaxed setting and meal cadence. You’ve also learned how all three of those things will boost your metabolism.

Just to recap, your first four Healthy Eating Focuses are:

1. Slow down when you eat.

2. Create a relaxed environment while you eat.

3. Create an eating rhythm with your eating times, as opposed to eating sporadically.

4. Feeling pleasure as opposed to stress in your food choices.

This week the focus is to make sure your food is nourishing.

Focus #5 – Eating for Nourishment

It is important to develop a nourishing relationship with food, or no amount of nutritional or weight loss guidance will ultimately help.Marc David explains, “Someone can eat a great diet, have a great body and even have great health – yet receive little nourishment from food, and indeed can be severely punishing themselves with food and exercise.”

He continues to explain, “As a planet, until we learn to nourish ourselves with food on an individual basis, we will continue to produce and manufacture poor quality food, junk food, toxic food, and remain stuck in a dysfuntional and painful relationship with body, and body image.”

This is so profound to me, and so apparent in our society today.  It seems the more “diets” we come up with, the more we are stripping away from having a nourishing experience with food, and the more we seem to be having a growing problem with obesity.

When it comes time to eat are you eating to nourish yourself?  For instance, do you:

Enjoy
Savor
Relax
Reflect
Celebrate
Take time
Play music
Eat with good friends

I encourage you today, to find a happy and nourishing experience with food.  It just may be that experience that helps you create and maintain a healthy body and body image.

Please feel free to pass this valuable information to your friends, family, and co-workers!

In Good Health,

John Preston

Your Fitness Tutor

john@fitnessknowhowhq.com

www.fitnessknowhowhq.com

The nutrition information in this post is all the more effective when combined with a  sound fitness program. Check out my S.U.P.E.R Fitness Training Program to learn how you can live The Ultimate Health Lifestyle.

P.S. The information in this email is from Marc David’s “Food Psychology Coaching” Program. It was written by Certified Food Psychology Coach, Lisa Olona, and shared with her permission. If you like the information and are interested in learning more you can contact Lisa at lisaolona@peoriabootcamp.com

P.S.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, Lisa is a friend and associate. The link to contact her is not an affiliate link. I stand to gain nothing financially by providing you with her contact information. I’m always striving to provide you with FREE, accurate and effective information, that will help you to reach your ultimate potential. And I feel this information that Lisa is sharing serves that purpose.

2012 Healthy Eating Focus Week #4

Welcome to week four of my ten week Healthy Eating Series, to Kick off 2012!

To date, you have learned the importance of slowing down your eating, eating in a relaxed setting and meal cadence. You’ve also learned how all three of those things will boost your metabolism.

Just to recap, your first three Healthy Eating Focuses are:

1. Slow down when you eat.

2. Create a relaxed environment while you eat.

3. Create an eating rhythm with your eating times, as opposed to eating sporadically.

I believe you will really appreciate this week’s focus!

Focus #4 – Pleasure

Enjoy what you eat.  It is common for people to make food choices that they label as “bad,” and then feel guilty about eating it.  First of all, this adds to the stress that ultimately slows down in your metabolism, as discussed in Focus #2.

Unfortunately, we are beginning to label foods as being morally good or bad.  How about taking the labels away, and allow yourself the opportunity to enjoy a food or snack that pleases you?

As Marc David explains, “Fighting pleasure means fighting our natural biology and soul design, which deeply impacts health.”

This week I encourage you to strategically include pleasurable food in your diet.  This doesn’t mean lose control and have 3 scoops of ice cream everyday.  That is why the word “strategically” is placed in that sentence above.

For example, if you love chocolate, then allow yourself a small piece of chocolate everyday.  Allow yourself that freedom to find pleasure in what it is you enjoy.  Keep the amount small, but give yourself that treat.

So that is your assignment this week.  Include pleasurable foods in your diet!

Please feel free to pass this valuable information to your friends, family, and co-workers!

In Good Health,

John Preston

Your Fitness Tutor

john@fitnessknowhowhq.com

www.fitnessknowhowhq.com

The nutrition information in this post is all the more effective when combined with a  sound fitness program. Check out my S.U.P.E.R Fitness Training Program to learn how you can live The Ultimate Health Lifestyle.

P.S. The information in this email is from Marc David’s “Food Psychology Coaching” Program. It was written by Certified Food Psychology Coach, Lisa Olona, and shared with her permission. If you like the information and are interested in learning more you can contact Lisa at lisaolona@peoriabootcamp.com

P.S.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, Lisa is a friend and associate. The link to contact her is not an affiliate link. I stand to gain nothing financially by providing you with her contact information. I’m always striving to provide you with FREE, accurate and effective information, that will help you to reach your ultimate potential. And I feel this information that Lisa is sharing serves that purpose.

2012 Healthy Eating Focus Week #2

Welcome to week two of my ten week Healthy Eating Series, to Kick off 2012!

So how did you do this past week with your eating speed?  Are you convinced that it’s important to slow down and give your body the time that it needs to function properly, allowing for a faster metabolism?  Did you pay attention to your personal eating speed?  Sometimes it’s just a matter of becoming aware of it.

Your focus for week #2 builds upon your week #1 Eating Focus.  Slower eating means relaxing.  Are you stressed while you eat?  For example, are you driving in the car and eating or having an intense conversation while eating?

Focus #2 – Relaxed Eating – Relax and Burn Fat

Remember, the slower you eat the faster you metabolize.

This same concept applies to eating relaxed.  If you eat when you are stressed, your body goes into a fight or flight response.  So imagine the stress your body goes through if you see a big gorilla running toward you.  It doesn’t matter if it’s something as scary as that, or if you’re simply stressed about what you’re eating.

During these moments your body doesn’t recognize the differences in what you are experiencing.  It is genetically programmed to initiate the fight-or-flight response when it perceives any stress.

When it’s in this stress mode, the metabolism slows down and even some of your digestion stops.

Here are some key points to remember about stress and eating.  These were taken from Marc David’s “Slow Down Diet.”

“Worrying about fat increases fat.  Anxiety about weight loss causes your body to put fat on and retain it.”

Slow down, relax your mind! According to Marc, you will burn food more efficiently if you breathe in more oxygen.  So relax and take deep breaths while eating.

Here are some helpful tips:

Breathe
Slow down and take your time
Create a relaxed eating environment by using candles, soft lighting, good company
Turn off your phone
Turning off the TV
Choose a restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere
Keep the conversation light and enjoyable

Try taking 10 long slow deep breaths before each meal, and after each meal.

While eating this next week really focus on creating a relaxed atmosphere, and think about slowing down and breathing.  Do this while keeping all stressors away.  You will be well on your road to a faster metabolism and an overall healthier you!

Please feel free to pass this valuable information to your friends, family, and co-workers!

In Good Health,

John Preston

Your Fitness Tutor

john@fitnessknowhowhq.com

www.fitnessknowhowhq.com

The information in this post combined with my Fat 2 Fit 56 Day Makeover will provide a great jump start for you. Make this year’s resolution a reality!

P.S. The information in this post is from Marc David’s “Food Psychology Coaching” Program. It was written by Certified Food Psychology Coach, Lisa Olona, and shared with her permission. If you like the information and are interested in learning more you can contact Lisa at lisaolona@peoriabootcamp.com

P.S.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, Lisa is a friend and associate. The link to contact her is not an affiliate link. I stand to gain nothing financially by providing you with her contact information. I’m always striving to provide you with FREE, accurate and effective information, that will help you to reach your ultimate potential. And I feel this information that Lisa is sharing serves that purpose.

2012 Healthy Eating Focus Week #1

Happy New Year! 

Now that the Holidays are over it’s time to refocus your energy back to your health!

I have been working with individuals that want to lose weight or struggle to manage their weight, for over 18 years now.  The media bombards us with fad diets, gimmicks, and the quickest (easy) ways to lose weight.  Yet, many people still continue to ride the emotional roller coaster of gaining weight and feeling guilty, then losing weight and feeling successful, only to gain it back again.

This needs to change for your own sanity!  During the first 10 weeks of this year I will be walking you through a step by step lesson that will help you create an emotionally healthy relationship with food and with your body.  I will give you 10 key steps that go beyond calorie counting and stressing about everything you consume.

My goal is to help you develop such an emotionally healthy relationship with food and exercise so that you’ll never have to “diet” again.  You can feel OK to eat that piece of cake at a birthday party, without the hours of beating yourself up.  You can enjoy food at an emotionally healthy level.

This is simply my thanks to you for being a committed reader, as well as, my genuine desire to make your life more enjoyable.

Here is your eating focus for the first week.  Work on this every time you eat, and you’ll start to create new habits. Enjoy!

First ask yourself, am I a fast, moderate, or slow eater?  If you answered fast or moderate, then this is really for you.  If you answered slow, you’ll learn just how much of a boost you’re giving to your metabolism by eating slowly.

Focus #1 – Eating Speed

Eating fast creates stress on your nutritional metabolism.  So if you want a healthy metabolism, slow down when you eat!

According to the “Slow Down Diet,” by Marc David, your body creates a stress response when you eat too fast.  The following things occur:

Reduced nutrient absorption
Reduced oxygen supply
Reduced thermic efficiency – your ability to burn calories
Reduced growth hormone – helps burn fat and build muscle
Reduced thyroid hormone – decreases metabolic activity
Reduced muscle mass – more flab and a slower metabolism
Reduced sex hormones – lower sex drive, low energy
Reduced kidney function – toxicity, electrolyte imbalance, water retention

You’ll also experience:

Increased nutrient excretion – loss of vital nutrients
Increased blood cholesterol – stress raises LDL
Increased salt retention
Increased cortisol levels
Increased food sensitivities and allergies
Increased oxidative stress – prematurely ages the body
Increased inflammation

We cause stress to our bodies when we eat too fast.  The body has to work harder to keep up and digest properly.  The information above is the result of this stress.  The indicators of good health; the things you want to go up, decline and vice-versa.

The lesson this week is to practice slowing down when you eat!  For the next few meals, become aware of your eating speed.  As you become more aware of the speed, start to focus on slowing down.  Give your body the time it needs to digest the nutrients properly!

Please feel free to pass this valuable information to your friends, family, and co-workers!

In Good Health,

John Preston

Your Fitness Tutor

john@fitnessknowhowhq.com

www.fitnessknowhowhq.com

If you really want to get a jump start with your weight loss this year, then check out my Fat 2 Fit 56 Day Makeover. It just might be right for you!

 

P.S. The information in this post is from Marc David’s “Food Psychology Coaching” Program. It was written by Certified Food Psychology Coach, Lisa Olona, and shared with her permission. If you like the information and are interested in learning more you can contact Lisa at lisaolona@peoriabootcamp.com

P.S.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, Lisa is a friend and associate. The link to contact her is not an affiliate link. I stand to gain nothing financially by providing you with her contact information. I’m always striving to provide you with FREE, accurate and effective information, that will help you to reach your ultimate potential. And I feel this information that Lisa is sharing serves that purpose.

 

Biggest Loser – Motivational and Inspirational Quotes Season 12 week #10

Before I get to the Motivational and Inspirational Quotes from this week I want to go over an important Holiday weight gain issue. This was the Thanksgiving episode. They started the show with Thanksgiving temptation. But more importantly they dropped an interesting fact.

According the The Biggest Loser, the average American consumes about 4500 calories during Thanksgiving. This is an important fact. Because so many people worry about weight gain during the Holidays or try to make a Holiday meal healthier. I say that that is a waste of time. Here’s  why….

Yes the average American may consume 4500 calories. But if you’re an average American you’ll need about 2000 calories that day. So it is only 2500 extra calories. That means you’d only gain about .7 pounds on Thanksgiving. You shouldn’t be concerned with a .7 pound weight gain on Thanksgiving. You should enjoy yourself and your friends, family and food. What you should be concerned about, and what should keep you awake at night is the extra 100 calories that you consume the 350 non-holiday days each year that lead to 10 pounds of weight gain a year.

If you eat clean everyday and exercise more days than not year round, then you won’t have anything to worry about on the Holidays. How much more fun and enjoyable will they be if that is your reality?

Let’s look at this another way. Let’s say that you consume an extra 2500 on each of the Holidays; Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. That is 10,000 extra calories. That means you’d gain about 2.8 pounds. You seriously aren’t trying to make Thanksgiving a healthy meal because your worried about gaining only 2.8 pounds are you? If so here is the solution. You need a combination of reduced calorie intake (eating) or increased calorie expenditure (moving) of about 166 calories per day to lose 2.8 pounds during the two months between Halloween and New Years Day.

If you do that, then you can pig out during the four holidays and not gain a pound.

So how do you get to a total of 166 calories?

10 minutes of exercise (jogging at 12 minutes/mile, circuit training, aerobics), for a 180 pound person will burn about 100 calories. One chocolate chip cookie is about 72 calories. Grand total 172 calories. There you go. Exercise 10 minutes/day (or add 10 minutes to your workout) and skip one cookie per day. That way you can enjoy your holidays and not gain any weight.

Now if you just go nuts and have Halloween candy around for a month, eat Thanksgiving left overs for a week, eat every bit of candy and cookies that people bring in to work or give you as gifts, then you’re going to gain a ton of weight (10-20+ pounds). If you’re going to do that then just disregard everything I’ve written above.

Gain the weight and look me up in January. I’ll help you to lose the weight then!!!

Now for the Inspirational and Motivational quotes from this weeks episode of The Biggest Loser

“You have a lot to fight for.”

“If you can’t celebrate it then you don’t think you’ve achieved anything. It make it that much easier to go back.”

“Just keep moving, don’t stop.”

“Yeah, I’m hurting, but I’m not dead.”

“Finish what you start.”

“Hold your head up high.”

“I have so much to live for now.”

“I was lying to myself, there’s no more lying.”

“This is the life, right here!”

See you next week

Splenda – Should You Consume It?

One of my clients asked me an important question today. “Is Splenda OK fo my diet?” And here was my response. “For now. Eventually you shouldn’t eat any artificial sweeteners. I’ll do a little research on Splenda and get back to you.”

My reason for saying “For now..” is that I know he is making a commitment to change his nutrition and lose some weight. He wants to use the Splenda in his coffee. By reducing calories when he consumes coffee it will help with his goal of losing weight. I’m hoping that the success he’s about to experience will build some momentum to make some other changes, including not using artificial sweeteners.

The reason I’m against the use of Splenda and other artificial sweeteners is because they are “artificial”. I’m a proponent of eating whole and natural food.

But the reason that I didn’t give him an absolute no is because I’ve spent very little time researching Splenda. So I decided to keep my word and do a little research. Here is what I learned.

Splenda is the brand name of a chemical called Sucralose. Sucralose was discovered in 1976 by scientists while researching ways to use sucrose as a chemical intermediate in non-traditional areas. They found the compound to be exceptionally sweet.

Sucralose is a molecule of sugar chemically manipulated to surrender three hydroxyl groups (hydrogen + oxygen) and replace them with three chlorine atoms. Natural sugar is a hydrocarbon built around 12 carbon atoms. When turned into Splenda it becomes a chlorocarbon, in the family of Chlorodane, Lindane and DDT (pesticide).

Here is its chemical name – 4,1′,6′-trideoxygalactosucrose,

Sucralose has been accepted by several national and international food safety regulatory bodies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Joint Food and Agriculture Organization / World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives, The European Union’s Scientific Committee on Food, Health Protection Branch of Health and Welfare Canada, and Food Standards Australia-New Zealand (FSANZ). Sucralose is one of two artificial sweeteners ranked as “safe” by the consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest. The other is “Neotame”. According to the Canadian Diabetes Association, the amount of sucralose that can be consumed on a daily basis over a person’s lifetime without any adverse effects is 9 mg/kg/day.

In determining the safety of sucralose, the FDA reviewed data from more than 110 studies in humans and animals. Many of the studies were designed to identify possible toxic effects, including carcinogenic, reproductive, and neurological effects. No such effects were found, and FDA’s approval is based on the finding that sucralose is safe for human consumption.

So, with the approval of all of those agencies Splenda must be safe? The truth is, we just don’t know yet. There are no long-term studies of the side effects of Splenda in humans. The manufacturer’s own short-term studies showed that very high doses of sucralose (far beyond what would be expected in an ordinary diet) caused shrunken thymus glands, enlarged livers, and kidney disorders in rodents. (A more recent study also shows that Splenda significantly decreases beneficial intestinal flora.)

Since Splenda has been on the market, no independent studies of sucralose lasting more than six months have been done in humans. Of those trials that were done, none were very large — the largest was 128 people. So, what happens when you’ve used sucralose for a year, or two, or ten?

Evidence that there are side effects of Splenda is accumulating little by little. Sucralose has been implicated as a possible migraine trigger, for example. Self-reported adverse reactions to Splenda or sucralose collected by the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center include skin rashes/flushing, panic-like agitation, dizziness and numbness, diarrhea, swelling, muscle aches, headaches, intestinal cramping, bladder issues, and stomach pain. These show up in the people who have an allergy or sensitivity to the sucralose molecule. But no one can say to what degree consuming Splenda affects the rest of us, and there are no long-term studies in humans with large numbers of subjects to say one way or the other if it’s safe for everyone.

Now for some information on how consuming Splenda can help with weight loss.

Eating sugar shoots our blood sugar levels up and triggers a spike in the hormone insulin, which is needed to prep our cells to absorb the sugar. If there are no other nutrients to sustain our blood sugar level, it crashes as quickly as it rises — and we crave another hit. This is how sugar addiction begins.

Moreover, sugar floods us with pleasure by stimulating the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and probably other mood-elevating substances.

And so our brains have learned over time to equate the taste of “sweet” with a rapid infusion of energy and pleasure. Even now when we eat sweet foods, special taste buds trigger enzymes that prime our brain to anticipate this extra boost. With a balanced diet and a healthy metabolism, a calorie–control mechanism kicks in after a few minutes to regulate the desire for more food, including the satiety hormone leptin. But with too much sugar, we eat and eat and can’t get satisfied.

So even if the “Sweet” taste comes from a zero-calorie artificial sweetener, our body still responds with increases of insulin. This allows the body to store extra calories (fat) more easily. Plus you’ll be more likely to turn to more food, more quickly to fill the hunger that wasn’t satisfied by the sweet tasting food.

So do I recommend the use of Splenda? NO!

I know that there are many legitimate an well meaning organizations that have deemed Splenda safe.

But if you want to be healthy then I advocate a nutrition plan consisting of whole and natural foods. And Splenda is not natural.

If you want to lose weight then I recommend avoiding sweet foods, natural or otherwise. Even if the sweetness comes from a zero-calorie source, the body still reacts the same physiologically. Making weight loss more difficult.

The information in this post is from the following sources;
www.wikipedia.com
www.womentowomen.com
www.holisticmed.com/splenda

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