Sugar – What You Need To Know

We’re back today with nutrition expert Josh Bezoni, who explains his 30/30 intake rule when it comes sugar and fiber.

In last day’s post, I introduced to you the author of the “7 Day Belly Blast Diet Plan.” Through Josh’s connection with Bill Phillips, he has had an opportunity to work with stars such as Brad Pitt and Demi Moore, as well as helping millions of people while he was a Transformation Contest Judge for Body-For-Life.

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Craig: That’s so powerful. You talked about those obesity additives, and I want to go back to those. Are there certain foods that people are eating that people can get really hooked on and how can they get rid of those obesity additive foods, overcome those cravings, and what are some really good substitution foods that they can get in that will get them kind of on the right path?

I know a lot of eating is really about routine and ritual. Like 8:00 at night American Idol comes on, I’m going to grab a bag of chips and sit in front of the TV. So, what can people do, what are some strategies that they can use to overcome this negative eating spiral?

Josh: I think a lot of it in the beginning is awareness. I think a lot of people are eating by accident, by that I mean they don’t even really consider what they’re eating or what’s in the foods that they’re eating. They’re just doing like you said, they’re sitting down grabbing their ice cream sundae, or they’re grabbing a bag of chips, and they’re eating without any awareness.

So, the first thing is just start checking out some food labels. Maybe jump online a bit and look at CalorieKing.com or one of these other websites and just see what’s in the food you’re eating. It will shock you.

Here’s an example. I was in New York City, and they put all the calorie content in the menus. It’s a required law in New York City. It opens your eyes to how many calories are in things. I thought I was going to eat a somewhat healthy meal, and it had like 2,400 calories in it. So, education awareness first  and foremost is important.

As far as obesity additives there’s a very simple thing to do here. In my program “Seven Day Belly Blast Diet” that’s coming up, I talk about obesity additives, there’s seven of them. The first one, public enemy number one is sugar. It’s what I call stripped carbohydrates.

This is really America’s number one problem, our number one problem in America, as well as Canadians too, because we pass all this junk across the border and to a lot of other countries now.   Sugar, people are consuming HUGE AMOUNTS of sugar these days, like 173 grams a day. We’re talking 140 pounds a year of straight sugar.

What sugar does when it enters the body is it causes a storage hormone called insulin to immediately grab hold of the sugar and either stuff it in muscle cells as energy or if the muscle cells are already stuffed full, which most people’s are, it converts it to fat.

So, people are consuming this very toxic very negative thing called sugar and stripped carbohydrates, and what I mean by stripped carbohydrates are like white breads, and these milled processed flours and things that are really bad, and they act just like sugar in the body. Something very SIMPLE to do is REDUCE YOUR SUGAR INTAKE DRAMATICALLY.

If someone did nothing else after this call but reduce their sugar intake The American Heart Association says 30 grams of sugar a day on average. When you consider a can of Coca-Cola has 40 grams all by itself, that’s not a lot of sugar. So, I have a 30/30 rule, 30 grams of sugar and 30 grams or more of fiber a day, which most people aren’t getting. That’s another topic we can talk about.

But, if you follow the 30/30 rule and nothing else you can get tremendous results very quickly. So, public enemy number one is sugar. One quick note too on the Coca-Cola, 40 grams of sugar, 4 grams of sugar is a teaspoon, so drinking a can of Coke or any other soft drink, I’m not picking on Coke, is like taking 10 teaspoons of sugar and dumping it into a glass of water, mixing it up and drinking it. So, soft drinks, energy drinks, even fruit drinks out there, fruit juice are really NOT A GOOD CHOICE FOR HYDRATION.

Craig: While we’re there why don’t we cover real fruit and where that plays in, in your experience, for people getting results and also in your plan?

Josh: Real fruit is for the typical average person out there that’s eating all this junk food and eating all this bad food real fruit is a great substitute because it’s still sweet, but it has fiber, which kind of blunts this insulin effect I was talking about, and fruit is full of vitamins and minerals and vital nutrients and phytochemicals, which gives them their color, and they’re very important for disease prevention.

So, fruit I think is great. A couple of pieces, a couple of servings of fruit a day are fine. You’ve got some more advanced people out there that are maybe trying to get contest ready. They might want to start limiting their fruit intake, but as an overall health protocol you definitely want to have at least two servings of fruit a day.

Craig: To get those 30 grams of fiber is there some foods in there, you know when most people hear that word they go, “Oh my god, it’s going to be some type of crazy Metamucil drink,” what can they do to really enjoy the foods that they’re eating and to increase their fiber intake?

I know that the average American is getting 12 grams or 13 grams of fiber per day, which is significantly below what’s recommended not only for fat loss purposes, but to avoid cancer, which is a really big thing.

Josh: Here’s the deal with fiber and how it plays a role in weight loss and everything else. A lot of people don’t realize it, but back in the cavemen days we were eating 60 or 70 grams of fiber a day, so we were eating a lot of fiber. If you’re eating a lot of fiber your digestive tract works as it’s supposed to, you clear your body of what I call toxic waste.

In my program, I tell people that they can lose up to 10 pounds in seven days. Now, that sounds impossible, but what I’m talking about, and I clarify it is really excess water, including this toxic waste that a lot of people have in their digestive tracts and including fat over seven days.

A lot of people who only are eating seven grams of fiber a day or eight, nine, 10 grams of fiber a day, their digestive tract just holds onto this food they’re eating in a very inefficient manner, so they have really pounds of undigested food. It’s not a pretty topic to talk about by any means, but that FIBER helps to cleanse out your system, and it’s very important.

It’s also important for nutrient uptake. If you’re taking in nutrients, but your digestive tract is just full of this toxic waste you’re not going to absorb the nutrients like you should. So, getting at least 30 grams of fiber a day is going to help with that tremendously.

A lot of women talk about this pouch area, and guys talk about this belly bulge. It’s not all fat. You really need to take that fiber, and you’ll feel healthier. You’ll absorb more nutrients. You’ll have proper digestion. You won’t get all this bloating and stuff. You won’t be as likely too anyway, unless it’s a food allergy, but that’s another subject.

So, yes, fiber is vitally important, 30/30, 30 grams or less of sugar, unless you’re an athlete, there’s something I call a sugar loophole, unless you’re exercising, which we can talk about, 30 grams or more of fiber.

Join me in part 3 where the nutritionist Josh Bezoni goes into more details about obesity additives.