Even though they share a name, not all sugars are the same. Both natural and artificial sugars are present in the food we consume and avoiding them is not as simple as it may seem. JJ Virgin is the author of a book which explains how you can protect your health by eliminating sugar from your diet.
The name of her most recent book is The Sugar Impact Diet: Drop 7 sugars to lose up to 10 pounds in just 2 weeks. In this book she explains the differences of the types of sugar we consume and how they affect our health. She also states that all-natural sugars are not that healthy as many people think. For example, natural fruit juice, raw cane sugar, agave and other natural sugars can still damage your health.
JJ Virgin said: “Sugar is really public enemy number one. That’s why I chose to focus on it. I don’t think added sugar is really the problem; I think it’s what’s in a lot of our food that we don’t recognize [as sugar].
Whether it’s having apple juice (which is worse for you than a soda), or having a yogurt sweetened with fruit juice concentrate, or whether you’re just thinking that fruits are free for all, these are all creating problems.
I wanted to create a structured program that could help someone break free of those sugar cravings, drop the weight forever, and then let them go back and [do a food] challenge… in order to connect the dots between what happens when they drink one of those big fruit smoothies that are supposed to be so healthy.”
Stop sugar cravings by making your body burn fat as a primary fuel
JJ Virgin also explains that the sugar has the same effect on the body no matter the source or form of it. She says that whether you drink a smoothie or eat a muffin or fruit sweetened yogurt, your body gets the same information – they contain SUGAR!
Eliminating sugar completely may be difficult at first because you will feel cravings but once you get rid of it you will feel more energized and focused. To achieve this, the first thing you should do is to teach your body how to use fat as a fuel.
This may be a difficult challenge for many people however JJ’s book can be very helpful. The book will teach you how to help your body gradually switch from burning sugar to burning fat as a fuel.
JJ explains: “There’s got to be a transition period, where you go from sugar burner to getting your body to be able to start to burn fat again. “You have to taper down from where your starting point is, which is what I call a Sneaky Sugar Inventory, of things you would never think about (like sundried tomatoes and marinara sauce) that we’re just using like crazy not realizing how much sugar this is actually adding into our food.”
The sugar impact: A new way of looking at sugar
To find your starting point if you want to perform a sugar cleanse, you must first measure yourself and determine your waist-to-hip ratio. Then, make a list from all the foods you consume without knowing you are harming your body.
It is very simple. Just read the labels on EVERY food you buy. You will be surprised when you learn how many foods contain too much sugar such as pickles, marinades and condiments. The book also lists the foods you will never think of as being rich in sugar.
“It looks at fructose grams, glycemic load, nutrient density, and fiber. Bad are fructose and glycemic load; good are nutrient density and fiber,” JJ explains.
“Depending on where the food falls, it can either be low, medium, or high-sugar impact. The reason this was so important to me is I keep looking at programs out there, and they either focus on fructose… glycemic index, or glycemic load.
That can be very confusing because it makes things like agave sweetener look great. It makes milk look great… People go, ‘We should have fructose because fructose is low on the glycemic index.’
The difference between glucose and fructose is that fructose does not trigger insulin, leptin or ghrelin response in the body. The body will not recognize fructose as sugar and it will store it in the liver where it turns into fat.
The most common symptoms of sugar overload include weight loss resistance, fatigue, joint pain, headaches, gas and bloating and sugar cravings. You can get a clearer picture of the impacts of sugar on your body by tracking your waist, hip and weight and keeping yourself away from the sugar. This way you will also train your body to turn to fat and use it as a primary fuel.
3 cycles of the sugar impact diet
1st cycle
You will start to adapt your body and the process of switching from high sugar impact to medium sugar impact of foods will last for 1-2 weeks. For example, you will eat quinoa pasta instead of plain pasta.
JJ recommends measuring the time between meals. You should also wait at least 2 hours or longer before eating another meal to avoid insulin spikes. As soon as this period is over, measure your sugar impact to see your progress.
2nd cycle
Once your symptoms are reduced you can move to the second cycle. This cycle includes resetting the taste buds and increasing the sugar sensitivity making you able to taste the sweetness of the food.
“What I’m doing is I’m getting rid of all of the fructose. We’re getting down to five grams or less [per day], just as low as possible because you don’t want your body to be good at processing fructose. One thing we know is that the more fructose you eat, the better you get at handling fructose, which means the faster it goes to your liver, the faster you start making fat, and the more fat you make.
If someone’s used to eating fruit, they eat more fruit, they eat more fruit, and they can handle it. If you never eat any fruit, and you ate a bunch of fruit, you’d be bloated, you’d be gassy, and it’d be horrible. I take fruit out altogether except for things like lemons, limes, avocado, tomato, and olives. And we go down to all low-sugar impact foods. But you’re still eating great stuff. You’re eating wild salmon, grass-fed beef, kale, avocado, nuts and seeds, a little quinoa, legumes, and lentils.”
Switching from burning sugar to burning fat usually happens in a few weeks. If you have a high insulin/leptin resistance this transition could take longer but it will happen eventually.
“The reason it can happen so fast is number one, you’ve got to do that initial one-week [taper] period,” she explains. “Whenever you look at a program, you want to jump right into the most intense part, but you can’t because you’ll fail.”
3rd cycle
This is where the real challenge happens. You introduce medium and high sugar impact foods which will make you overwhelmed with sweetness and bloated. As a result, your body will reject these foods and you will no longer crave them. It may seem illogical but you can reduce sugar cravings with the help of sour foods.
JJ says: “It’s a sweet tooth strategy. One of the things that I do in these books is I try to keep it simple and give people simple strategies. But I’m always thinking, how am I healing their gut with this? How am I improving their gut flora? How are we reducing inflammation?”
Healthy snack alternatives
Nuts are an excellent snack choice to satisfy your hunger. You can include them in salads, particularly macadamia nuts or pecans. They are rich in good fats and low in protein which eliminates the possibility of high intake of protein.
JJ says that it is very important to eat in moderation no matter how healthy the food is.
“If you know something’s your trigger, don’t bring it into the house. It doesn’t matter if it’s healthy or unhealthy. But I think if you put them into little serving baggies, that’s a perfect way to go with it. I also like that because most people aren’t home all day long, so I say, ‘Put one in your car. Put it in your purse. Put it in your office so that you have them scattered around if you ever get in trouble.’
Another healthy snack that is much harder to overdo is dehydrated kale chips. I’m in the process of planting six dozen kale plants on my property to create a surplus for this very reason. That way I can have kale chips year-round. Roasted Brussels sprouts are another alternative that you can’t really “overdose” on.”
The maintenance phase
There are very few people who don’t use sugar as a body fuel. You can determine if you are one of those who use sugar by paying attention to how often you feel hungry. You are definitely burning sugar if you feel the need to eat every two hours. This is because sugar burns fast and your body will soon use all of the fuel. If you are burning fat, on the other hand, you can spend even 6 hours without feeling hungry.
JJ’s program has a high success rate. However, once you cleanse your body from sugar how long can you maintain it that way? Will you stop eating sugar forever and maintain your body in this condition?
“The maintenance phase is different from the weight loss phase. It’s like dating and marriage. Totally different beasts, right? During the maintenance phase—for weight loss—it’s about setting new goals and doing different fitness activities. The biggest thing that I want someone to do is to connect the dots between what they’re eating and how they feel. It’s to lose that sweet tooth that they had and reclaim their sugar sensitivity so they really say, ‘Oh, wow, that’s how sweet a blueberry really is.’
[In the maintenance phase] you’ve got to mix up your exercise; you’ve got to mix up your food… Food is information. You want your food to tell your body to burn fat not sugar, keep steady energy, great focus, and reduce inflammation. It’s the same with exercise. Exercise can be therapeutic or destructive. I do no endurance training at all. I do not believe in endurance training. I did so much endurance training [when I was younger, yet] I was always slightly overweight. I was never lean.” – explains JJ.
She also prefers high intensity training more than endurance training. Endurance training is not that efficient exercise form if you want to lose weight. High intensity training on the other hand causes metabolic changes, it promotes muscle growth and also increases the fat burning process.
One of these metabolic changes include boosting the human growth hormone which does not happen if you are performing endurance training.
JJ recommends exercising while you fast because this way you will repair, restore and rejuvenate the muscle tissues. This advice contradicts the popular belief that you should load your body with protein and carbohydrates before exercising in order to build muscle and boost your performance. So, you should really think about which approach is more beneficial and choose the one that suits your weight loss and fitness goals:
“I kind of play with both of them. Because if you eat a little bit before you work out, you can generally work out harder. If you’re doing resistance training, a lot of times you’re better off having a little bit [of food] before. If you’re doing burst training, ideally here’s what you would do: on burst-training days, do it first thing in the morning. It doesn’t take long anyway. It’s 15 minutes at the most. Ideally, do that a couple of mornings a week, two or three mornings a week. You do your resistance training two times a week, have a little bit of food before; have something really good afterwards, and you’re set.”
More information
If you have tried losing weight at least once in your life you have probably noticed that no matter how much you cut back on your calories you are still not losing any weight. However, if you eliminate gluten, processed fructose and pasteurized dairy you will definitely see the results. Eating the wrong foods is much worse than not counting calories. Also, it is very important to know what is the fuel your body uses, sugar or fat? You should remember that you need to cut the fructose-filled foods which make you eat more and store and use sugar as fat.