Step 1: Eliminate all Food and Drinks that Contain Added Sugar and Refined Carbohydrate

Paleo Sugar Intake

It is a well accepted fact that our Paleo ancestors consumed virtually zero added sugar. On occasion, they would find a “wild source” of sugar in seasonal fruit or honey. Sugar consumption in any form was definitely the exception and not the rule. Paleo people did consume a small amount of sugar from in the form of sucrose and fructose. Table sugar and high fructose corn syrup was not a part of the typical hunter gatherer diet. As a BeginnerPaleo practitioner, you should completely avoid any added sugar. The only sugar in your diet should be from the naturally occurring sugar (glucose) in vegetables and the occasional piece of fruit (preferably starchy fruit).

We examined the fact that carbohydrates, particularly those carbohydrates that contain a lot of sugar and are highly refined, drive our bodies to produce more insulin and cause us to store more fat in our fat tissue while failing to liberate the triglycerides we already have stored in our bodies. When you eat sugar or refined carbohydrates, you are preventing your body from accessing the fat stored in your body. Eating the Modern American Diet causes a constant stream of sugar into the body causing you to become, in essence, a sugar burner. “A diet flush with carbohydrates will reprogram your metabolism, locking your food away as unburnable fat. When you get hungry again you won’t crave anything but more of the same food that started you down the path to dependency. Think of this stuff as more than a drug—it’s like a metabolic parasite, taking over your body and feeding itself.”[1]

The Modern American Diet tells us that the bodies preferred source of fuel is glucose and that to provide your body with this fuel, you need a constant stream of glucose in the form of sugar and carbohydrates. Further, when you work out to lose weight, you deplete glucose stored in the body. To replenish your stores, you need to eat more sugar and carbohydrates so that you can perform better. Although some of this extra glucose and sugar will be stored as fat, if you work out hard enough and burn more calories than you consume (a negative energy balance) you will ultimately lose weight.[2]

However, the bodies preferred source of fuel is fat from both your diet and that which is stored in your cells.[3] As Mark Sisson from MarksDailyApple.com writes:

The Fat Paradigm, under which the human species has thrived quite effectively for two and a half million years, recognizes that human metabolism is pre-programmed by evolution to be primarily fat-based (the real preferred fuel). In other words, our genes expect us to function optimally when we consume fats and can easily access our stored fat. The Fat Paradigm acknowledges that the body is able to manufacture adequate glucose as needed. It acknowledges that most typical human movement patterns can be fueled almost entirely by fats and/or ketones if need be, but can draw on glycogen when energy bursts are required (and which can then be replaced over time).[4]

The BeginnerPaleo Diet naturally causes you to become fat adapted and does not require a constant stream of sugar and refined carbohydrates to make you feel normal. You will naturally burn fat during everyday activity and during exercise because your body has become fat adapted. You will feel satisfied between meals because your body will naturally be burning its fat stores. The only way to become fat adapted is to limit the amount of sugar and refined carbohydrate in the diet.

Modern Sugar Intake.

Modern day Americans are estimated to consume 156 pounds of added sugar per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This means that the average American eats their weight in sugar each year. Compare this with a person living in the 1800s, who only consumed 12 pounds of added sugar per year.[5] According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), on average, we consume about 27.5 teaspoons of sugar a day, which is the equivalent of about 440 calories. This accounts for almost 110 grams of carbohydrate per day. These statistics refer to added sugar and don’t consider the amount of sugar the average American eats in fruits, fruit juices and other whole foods.[6] According to the USDA, Americans eat 39 percent more sugar today than they ate in the 1950s. This amounts to another 50 pounds of the white stuff per person every year.[7] The majority of this added sugar comes from a form of sugar that is particularly harmful to your health – corn sweeteners – that include high fructose corn syrup which can be particularly harmful to your health and were non-existent for our Paleo Ancestors.

The table below shows the increase in annual sugar consumption from all sources and the increase in overweight and obese individuals annually.[8]

Decade	Annual Average Sugar Consumption	Percentage of Overweight Individuals	Percentage of Obese Individuals
1950s	109.6	–	–
1960s	114.4	31.5	14.3
1970s	123.7	32.1	16.4
1980s	126.5	32.7	25.2
1990s	145.9	33.6	35.9
2000s	152.4	34.2	39.5

Low Fat and Non-Fat Foods. Low fat and non-fat products also contain a high amount of sugar. In the early 80s, people were told to stay away from fats, including saturated fats, and instructed to eat foods low in fat. Being the smart marketers that most food companies are, they replaced fat in the foods that we typically eat with sugar to improve the taste. What resulted was foods high in sugar but low in fat. When you reduce the percentage of fat in a product, the result in as increased proportion of protein of carbohydrates. Since protein is often more expensive and does not taste as good as sugar, cheap carbohydrates in the form of fructose often replaced the “insidious” fat in processed foods. The absence of fat in the food often reduced the low-fat or non-fat food’s satiety value causing people to eat more than they normally would. Moreover, fructose is a special type of sugar that causes people to eat more and actually feel like they have not eaten because of the low hormone response of the body. In effect, food marketers found the holy grail of food production in low-fat and no-fat foods: people ate more of it because they believed that it was “healthy” and felt less full because of the lack of fat and increase in sugar content.

Sources of Sugar and Refined Carbohydrates. Sugar is in the common sources of foods that you would think of including:

Table sugar
Honey
Soda
Candy
Syrups
Cakes, Brownies
Cookies

Sugar is also in almost every form of modern processed foods. Some examples include:

Canned vegetables and fruit
Salad Dressing
Cereal
Dairy products, like yogurt
Peanut butter
Condiments like Ketchup and Mustard
Crackers

Sugar and Refined Carbohydrates. Processed foods that are common in the Modern American Diet act the same way in the body that sugar does. That doughnut you wolfed down with your morning coffee or the cake you ate at lunch has the same effect on your body as if you ate table sugar. Refined or processed carbohydrates are created by stripping away a whole grain down to its component parts. What results is a starch or sugar molecule that is devoid of fiber and nutrients. Processed and or refined carbohydrates are generally called “white” carbohydrates because they can appear white. Some examples include, white flour, white rice and most types of pasta. Stripping away the component parts makes refined carbohydrates more palatable but also makes them act like sugar in the body.

Sugar Substitutes. To satisfy our sweet tooth and make us feel “good” about our choice, marketers have created an assortment of artificial sweeteners to add to food and beverages. These include:

Acesulfame potassium (Sunett, Sweet One)
Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet)
Neotame
Saccharin (SugarTwin, Sweet’N Low)
Sucralose (Splenda)

The main problem with all artificial sweeteners is that they are not natural, regardless of what they claim on the package. These are chemicals and not food. Stay away from all of them. Because they are multiple times sweeter than regular food or sugar, they cause you to eat more natural food to equal the sweetness level in these sugar substitutes. While research into the long term health effects of consuming sugar substitutes is mixed, they are not a part of the Paleo Diet.

Sugar in All its Forms.

The added sugar in our diet comes in many different forms, including monosaccharides like glucose and fructose and also in disaccharide form like sucrose and lactose. To have a better understanding of why knowing the difference between different forms of sugar and how they react in your body.

Glucose is the most common form of sugar and it occurs naturally in fruits and plants. In fact, the majority of carbohydrates that you consume are immediately converted into glucose in your blood stream. One of three things happens based on the level of insulin and the presence of other foods in your meal: the glucose is used as fuel, it is used to replenish muscles or it is stored as fat. On the BeginnerPaleo Diet, the best form of glucose to consume is that which is contained in starchy vegetables. Starch is a complex polymer of glucose molecules that are broken down by the body and absorbed.[9] Many Paleo participants limit starchy grains and legumes but embrace starchy vegetables, which can be easily digested and burned as fuel.

Sucrose is a combination of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. It is most commonly found in table sugar. When consumed, the body breaks down the sucrose molecule into its component parts and processes the glucose and fructose separately.

Fructose is primarily found in fruits and refined carbohydrates in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Fructose is two times as sweet as glucose. It is estimated that, through the natural consumption of fruits and vegetables, our hunter gatherer consumed less than 10 grams per day of fructose. This increased to 8% of caloric intake or 37 grams per day in the late 1970s. Today, 15% of calories or almost 75 grams per day comes from the consumption of fructose, the majority of which comes from high fructose corn syrup.[10]

Lactose is primarily the form of sugar found in Milk. We will discuss this type of sugar in more depth in Step 5.

Dangers of Fructose. Of all the different types of sugars, fructose may be one of the worst for you in terms of both weight loss and health. Fructose consumption has been linked to symptoms associated with Metabolic Syndrome, which can cause hypertension, inflammation, insulin resistance and weight gain.[11] Fructose can only be metabolized by your liver. Unlike glucose, it cannot be used by your body’s cells for energy. In high doses, fructose can become toxic and cause damage to the liver. Researchers have likened fructose intake to the consumption of alcohol, calling it “alcohol without the buzz.”

The Modern American Diet’s increased consumption of fructose can be one of the main reasons that you gain weight, causing a strain on the metabolism and an increase in insulin resistance. As noted in the book, Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About it by Gary Taubes:

The human body, and particularly the liver, never evolved to handle the kind of fructose load we get in modern diets. Fructose exists in fruits in relatively small quantities—thirty calories in a cup of blueberries, for instance. (Some fruit, though, as I’ll discuss later, has been bred for generations to increase its fructose content.) There are eighty calories’ worth in a twelve-ounce can of Pepsi or Coke. Twelve ounces of apple juice has eighty-five calories of fructose. Our livers respond to this flood of fructose by turning much of it into fat and shipping it to our fat tissue. This is why even forty years ago biochemists referred to fructose as the most “lipogenic” carbohydrate—it’s the one we convert to fat most readily. Meanwhile, the glucose that comes with the fructose raises blood sugar levels and stimulates insulin secretion and puts the fat cells in the mode to store whatever calories come their way—including the fat generated in the liver from the fructose.[12]

Taubes goes on to note that, should you entirely do away with fructose in the diet, consumption of starchy carbohydrates and flour may not cause weight gain.

High Fructose Corn Syrup. One of the most common forms of sugar found in the majority of processed foods is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS was invented in Japan in 1966 and was introduced to the United States in the mid-1970s. It is primarily derived from corn and glucose syrup. “HFCS is a desirable food ingredient for food manufacturers because it is equally as sweet as table sugar, blends well with other foods, helps foods to maintain a longer shelf life, and is less expensive (due to government subsidies on corn) than other sweeteners.”[13] Although there are three separate types of HFCS, the most common types are HFCS-42, which consists of 42 percent fructose and 58% glucose and HFCS-55, which consists of 55 percent fructose and 45% glucose. Recall that modern table sugar, sucrose, is equal parts glucose and fructose.

People in the 1950s ate zero HFCS. In the 1970s consumption was at 5.5 pounds per capita, increasing every decade to 63.8 pounds per person of HFCS in the 2000s.[14] Because fructose is twice as sweet as sucrose, lesser amounts by volume can be included in the food we eat. Depending on the type of HFCS consumed, the implication is that more fructose will be consumed in comparison with sucrose. Since fructose is the primary driver behind insulin resistance and weight gain, especially when eaten in conjunction with foods that contain a high amount of glucose, HFCS should also be avoided on the Paleo Diet. Fructose operates in a dose dependent manner – the more you eat it the more weight you will gain and the higher at risk you are for the diseases associated with excess consumption.[15]

Fructose in Fruit. The Paleo Diet encourages participants to eat fruit in the diet until satisfied. Since fruit is one of the only naturally occurring foods that contain a high amount of fructose and because fructose is associated with both weight gain and other diseases, there are a few things to consider when introducing fruit into the diet. If you are more than 15 pounds overweight or suffer from insulin resistance, consider limiting your consumption of the fruits that contain the highest amounts of fructose. If you are relatively athletic and not more than 15 pounds overweight, you can consume fruits until you are satisfied. Remember that our hunter-gatherer paleo ancestors ate little in the way of fruit. Additionally, the fruit they did consume differed significantly in sugar content from our modern fruit today. Some research suggests that fruit in the Paleo era contained less than half of the sugar that modern fruit contains today. Just be aware that any fruit you consume may have a detrimental effect on weight loss.

Sugar Addiction.

Have you ever found yourself at a mall, smelled the aroma from Cinnabon and had the instant urge to run to the food court and eat one? Do you ever feel “stuffed” after a meal containing sugar but find yourself craving it only a few hours later? Have you ever felt “hungover” the day after consuming a few meals that were “high” in sugar or refined carbohydrate content? Based on the statistics showing the rapid increase in sugar consumption and the molecular composition of foods containing sugar, it is no surprise that sugar can become addictive.

Research supports the conclusion that sugar is addictive. In one study in 2007, rats were given the choice between consuming a calorie-free sweetener and cocaine. 94% preferred the sweetener over the cocaine.[16] In another study in 2010, another group of rats were fed a diet that was similar in type to what we find at fast food restaurants – high in carbohydrates and high in fats. The rats would endure extremely cold temperatures and electric shock just to get to the food.[17] As the research suggests, eating foods high in sugar can produce symptoms that are associated with addictive behaviors, like bingeing, withdrawal and craving.

One of the reasons that food containing sugar is so addictive refers to the degree that sugar and refined carbohydrates are palatable to us. In the book, “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite,” they define the term:

In everyday language, we call food palatable if it has an agreeable taste. But when scientists say a food is palatable, they are referring primarily to its capacity to stimulate the appetite and prompt us to eat more. Palatability does involve taste, of course, but, crucially, it also involves the motivation to pursue that taste. It is the reason we want more.[18]

The more palatable or desirable a food is, the more you will crave it. When it comes to sugar, we have a natural tendency to want to eat more of it. This comes from our biological makeup and desire for this type of food even after it is consumed in large doses.

Do you ever wonder why you don’t crave a large plate of asparagus? It’s because you don’t get that immediate “high” when you eat a plate of vegetables. Sugar and refined carbohydrates cause an immediate boost in blood sugar which makes us feel “good” for a short period of time. From a biological perspective, the consumption of sugar also causes a release of serotonin and dopamine. These are the “feel good” chemicals in the brain; they elevate your mood. Research suggests that people addicted to alcohol, cigarettes and other illicit drugs also feel the same high that sugar and refined carbohydrates provide .[19] The problem is that, the more dopamine and serotonin is released, the more your receptors in your body will desensitize and require more dopamine and serotonin in the body to feel the same high. As you become more and more desensitized to the release of the “feel good” chemicals, the more sugar you need. This in turn causes you to store more body fat. Cravings like this will continue until you either get another sugar “fix” or eliminate sugar from your diet entirely.

Sugar addiction can also be triggered by emotions. Scientific studies suggest that people tend to have stronger cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrates than other foods and that these cravings are often associated with feelings of fatigue, anxiety, or depression. Do you ever eat sugar or refined carbohydrates when you feel happy, sad or depressed? This is because you are addicted to the feelings that result when you consume a food high in sugar content. People tend to “reward” themselves with foods high in sugar when they feel they have done something good. This can be a result of growing up receiving sugary foods as a treat or on a special occasion. The point to remember is that you don’t want the sugary food – you want the feeling that you get shortly after you eat it.

Sugar addiction can also be triggered by your environment or through external cues. Do you feel the need to eat sugar when you walk into a store and see rows and rows of cakes and candy? Do you find yourself eating sugar late at night or in bed while watching television? What about when you smell baked goods like doughnuts and fresh bread? These are all environmental triggers that make you think that you need sugar. These are both learned and biological and can be undone by eating the Paleo Diet.

Ways to Beat Your Sugar Addiction. Eating the foods listed on the Paleo Diet will allow your body to naturally break free from your sugar addiction. However, there are some additional things you can do while you attempt to break free from the sugar cycle:

– Get adequate sleep. When you feel tired all of the time, your natural tendency when eating the Modern American Diet will be to get an energy boost by eating refined carbohydrates and sugar. Research shows that people that sleep less eat more and also burn fewer calories.[20] Aim for at least eight hours of sleep per night. Our Paleo ancestors slept between 10 and 12 hours per night, going to bed when the sun went down and rising when the sun came up. By removing all sugar and refined carbohydrate from the diet and eating a Paleo Diet, you will be providing your body with a constant stream of energy from your fat stores. This will eliminate many of the ups and downs in energy that the Modern American Diet causes.

– Practice Deep Breathing. When you feel the urge to eat sugar or refined carbohydrate, take a moment and breathe in deeply through your nose and out through your mouth. Repeat this process ten times. Studies suggest that practitioners of deep breathing exercises have lower tension by reducing their heart rate and lowering their overall state of arousal.

– Drink Plenty of Water. Dehydration can cause you to feel out of sorts and cause your body to feel hungry when you may actually be thirsty. Add a glass or two per day until you are drinking at least eight to ten glasses per day. No need to go overboard, but keeping hydrated will lessen your sugar cravings.

– Make a List. Keep a list of all of the reasons that you are not eating sugar. For example, you could write down that you are not eating sugar to lose ten pounds, to fit into an outfit or to feel better. These need to be personal benefits that you will get if you stay away from eating sugar. Keep the list on your phone or on a piece of paper. Whenever you feel the urge to stray from the Paleo diet and eat sugar or refined carbohydrates, read this list and visualize the benefits that you will receive. Remind yourself that this is just a craving and that it will pass. The more you do this, the better you will get at avoiding sugar cravings.

– Distract Yourself. Whenever you feel the urge to eat sugar, come up with a list of things you can do to distract yourself from your cravings. Watch TV, go out for a run or cook yourself a healthy, BeginnerPaleo friendly snack. It’s important when you are going off of sugar to have food in the house, in the car and at work that supports your new, healthy eating style.

– Don’t Eat Sugar Substitutes. Remember, these are artificial foods and not a part of the Paleo Diet. Eating them instead of sugar won’t reduce your cravings.

Putting it All Together and Dumping Sugar.

You now have all of the tools and information to take the first and most important step in your BeginnerPaleo journey. You have the knowledge and reasons why you should eliminate all added sugars from your diet. Our Paleo ancestors ate virtually zero sugar which is a far cry from the current modern intake of more than 150 pounds per year. Doing this will ensure that you have a solid foundation to start losing weight and is the most important step to put you on the right path to becoming successful at implementing the BeginnerPaleo Diet. Added sugar has no nutritional value and contributes to weight gain.

You must be vigilant when attempting to rid your diet of added sugar. This means that you must read the labels on all foods you buy.

[1] http://www.details.com/style-advice/the-body/201103/carbs-caffeine-food-cocaine-addiction

[2] http://www.marksdailyapple.com/a-metabolic-paradigm-shift-fat-carbs-human-body-metabolism/#axzz1wBxJskQY

[3] http://paleohacks.com/questions/123128/what-does-fat-adapted-mean#axzz22VE5crcm

[4] http://www.marksdailyapple.com/a-metabolic-paradigm-shift-fat-carbs-human-body-metabolism/#axzz1wBxJskQY

[5] http://naturalbias.com/how-sugar-can-ruin-your-life/

[6] http://thevreelandclinic.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/see-the-amazing-statistics-on-sugar-consumption-in-the-u-s/

[7] http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf

[8] http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf & http://www.cdc.gov/NCHS/data/hestat/obesity_adult_07_08/obesity_adult_07_08.pdf

[9] http://paleodietlifestyle.com/10-reasons-why-fructose-is-bad/

[10] http://www.ucsfcme.com/2009/slides/MPD09001/14LustigSugar.pdf

[11] http://www.ucsfcme.com/2009/slides/MPD09001/14LustigSugar.pdf