Bin the sugar and eat real food

Right: Chocolate covered Cream Filled Krispy Creme- 86g donut- 347 calories, 21g fat, 39g carbs (23g sugar).

The simplest way I have found that I can give advice to people who ask about improving their diet is to:

Avoid processed foods and simple sugars (going for lean protein, fresh fruit and vege, low fat dairy and low GI unprocessed grains).

Sounds simple enough doesn't it! People love to get into long conversations about low fat, low carb, raw diets, meal replacement shakes, macros, calories, carb cycling etc etc, see it all as too hard and do nothing which is such a shame!

The longer I have been eating this way, the more benefits I find and could never go back! My diet has slowly evolved over the past few months so that i only use natural ingredients to spice/flavour foods and I only use protein shakes/bars* where necessary.

Sugar is a particularly nasty beast and is added to almost all processed foods- you wouldn't think of it if you didn't check the labels! Eg tinned beetroot! Why not eat fresh?

Here are some reasons to avoid it:

1. Sugar has no nutritional value, studies have shown that sugar, caffeine and alcohol produce a chemical reaction in the body that creates enjoyment, but only for a moment. This results as a depression or that desire to get “high”. Doctors call this a “crash”. Dr. Janice Keller Phelps has researched the addictiveness of sugar. People would start out as sugarholics and then they’d become victims of depression. Because of that, people get stressed and want to eat more because of their chemical imbalance and they tend to get overweight.

2. Refined carbohydrates and sweets enter our blood stream rapidly. Our pancreas is attacked by the sudden urge of sugar. It releases too much insulin since it’s doing more work than it usually does. Because of this chemical confusion, there is a big drop in blood sugar. This causes feelings of hunger!

3. Sugar can suppress the immune system's ability to remove foreign debri and fight bad bacteria in the body.

4. Sugar can upset the body's mineral balance. With just 2 teaspoons of sugar, micronutrients in the body can change radically, throwing the blood chemistry out of balance. Some mineral levels increase, some decrease, and delicate ratios are upset. This may cause calcium deposits to increase which could lead to arthritus and other bone diseases.

5. In 1976 the sugar industry found it was less costly to make sugar from corn than from beets or sugar cane. Since then, high fructose corn syrup has replaced sucrose as a sweetener in processed foods and sodas. It has been shown that fructose causes the white blood cells of the immune system to become inactive and unable to protect the body against damaging intruders.

6. A sugar addiction speeds up the aging progress. When sugar is consumed on a regular basis the pancreas can become over stimulated and secrete too much insulin. Excess insulin can cause a drop in normal blood sugar levels, and hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, may develop. Symptoms of hypoglycemia can involve tiredness, memory failure, quick heartbeat, anxiety, tremors, headaches and depression. These may sound like diseases of the old, but more and more young people are experiencing these warning signs daily.

I have the pleasure of turning down sugary/fatty treats at work on a daily basis. Today when offered a Krispy Creme donut, I checked out all the different varieties in the box- glazed, jam filled, every colour under the rainbow and said "Oh they look really pretty, but no thanks- they're not really food are they? Just fancy sugar!" (Well, if you want to be perfectly honest, they are a lethal recipe of sugar coated fried bread (donut) with a cocktail of artificial additives, flavours, colours, preservatives)#

* the protein bars are a real treat for occassional use only as they contain a lot of artificial ingredients. Having said that, try "Oh Yeah" they are delicious!

# Disclaimer: Despite all the evidence above in relation to why sugar should be avoided- I admit I have been known to have one hell of a sweet tooth. I have managed to get my former addiction to a controllable level through eating clean and now fruit tastes super sweet and delicious once more! As part of a balanced approach (and not yet in strict comp prep) I currently indulge in some sweet treats about once a week, although they are never as delicious as we build them up in our anticipation to be!