How much sugar do you consume?

Its not just weight gain you have to worry about with sugar, its the fact that our bodies werent designed to take in the amount of sugar that we consume in the modern western diet.

Seriously if you read a few labels on food you will find that sugar is added into almost everything.

The amount we eat from sweets and desserts and fizzy drinks etc plus the amount we unknowingly eat in other food means that our blood sugar levels get really high in a really short space of time, which leads to all sorts of serious health problems, waaay too many to list.

GoatySimpson mentioned xylitol as a sugar alternative and I agree its one of the best, another good one is stevia but its expensive and not to everyones taste......Xylitol is good but too much can give you the sh*ts lol.

Lastly if you are training regularly getting rid of sugar will probably make you train better, the high blood sugar level you get from eating sugar makes you feel great and energetic for about half an hour or so but then your blood sugar is going to drop dramatically after that which will leave you feeling like crap in the gym, not to mention how damaging it is to your body with it constantly going up and down like that.

EDIT: Trust me, anyone who doesnt believe me, just quit sugar for a week and see how you feel, you'll probably crave it (and carbs) like crazy, feel unenergetic and basically feel like you are mildly ill. Its my honest opinion that most people are to some extent addicted to sugar. After 2 weeks or so of no sugar you will start feeling better and your body will stop craving sugary foods.....

 

All food not required by the body is stored as fat, so sugar is no different.

TBH, this is a stupid thread. Sugar is just empty calories, if you eat too much it will eventually give you bad teeth and type II diabetes (maybe) but it won't effect your boxing any more than any other surplus/empty calories.

 

so is sugar-subsitutes, such as splenda, alright to have?????

 

I agree with you that a little sugar every once and a while is perfectly fine. I can't stand those anal health douche bags that won't enjoy a good meal on the holidays, or just because.

However there is no factual scientific evidence that links "Splenda" or the like to health problems.



P.S. However... again, I think the less unnatural chemicals one puts into their body the better off they probably are.

 

****, that's a lot of sugar.

I don't drink coffee or have sugar on my cereal, so I'm alright in that department. :tong

 

Yeah, people here are making out sugar to be a lot worse than it is. Have those sugars in your coffee after your workout and it will help your recovery.

 

I have never understood the purpose of people doing things like this. It would be shocking if these large amounts of whatever perceived evil food were consumed in one sitting. You consumed that amount over a week, month or year or whatever. So it means ****, it has no relevance to anything.

 

This is not scientifically backed, just personal experience, but for me, cutting sugar does seem to make a big difference in my performance. I've been trying to cut all sugar out (except for what I get from fruit or veggies) and when I'm sticking to that perfectly, I feel fantastic. I'm not as diligent when I don't have a fight scheduled, but I usually regret it when I slip up, especially if the sugar comes in HFCS form. That stuff makes me actively ill these days. A piece of fruit post-workout works just as well for me as anything sugary. Maybe even better.

Next step is cutting out artificial sweeteners, but I've been trying to kick the diet coke for about a year and can't seem to get through the day without caffeine. The rest of my diet is fairly chemical-free so I'd love to get the aspartame out of my routine too. I've tried green tea but I usually have to drink a huge amount of it to get as much as I do from a bottle of soda. So if anybody's got tips for getting enough caffeine without a) drinking coffee; b) drinking your body weight in tea; or c) drinking a bunch of artificial sweeteners and chemicals; please share.

 

If you need some caff with no sugar or artificial sweeteners, and do not want to drink coffee try some green tea with some honey for sweetening it up. Or as earlier suggested, xylitol is another healthy alternative for sweetening things. Molasses is actually pretty good too.

 

I honestly am not able to give a **** about what I eat unless everything else in my training is perfect.

I work on a calorie deficit generally, so unless I'm noticing something wrong with me I tend to let my diet take care of itself.

That said, if I was trying to optimize my performance I'd try to get all my sugar from food rather than junk and/or actual sugar.

 

Have a bad caffeine addiction, like my coffee sweet, thats the majority of the sugar I eat but I don't see much point in cutting it out, never notice any "performance" differences except that lack of sufficient carbs and sugar makes me run out of energy more quickly, IMO, I have a feeling my metabolism even in my mid-30s uses all that stuff up quickly and it isnt stored. I guess the only thing I would be concerned about is maturity onset diabetes from the way your body deals with all those strange peaking and dropping glycogen levels.

 

Sugar is useless and does absolutely nothing for us. That said, it is delicious. My solution is to avoid sugar like the plague 95% of the time, and when I do crave sugar, to get something super tasty like cheesecake, rather than something mediocre like coke.

If you eat well 90-95% of the time, who cares about the other 5-10.

 

I have watched some SCARY stuff on sugar. Basically the lower the life expectancy? The more simple sugar is consumed. Basically past all the horrible crap it does with insulin triggering fat storage and addictive eating it also makes cholesterol "flat and sticky" clogging arteries and such.

Most artificial sweeteners are even scarier. Known poison pushed through with political connections. Only thing I know of as a good substitute and most importantly ALL NATURAL is Stevia. Been used for YEARS in the East so safe and tastes decent.