Clients I work with often make the mistake of thinking that Gluten Free Food PRODUCTS are not only healthy, but Weight Loss Inducing. That’s a Big Mistake.
Gluten Free Food Products are missing the damaging gluten protein – that’s true. But Gluten Free products like pasta, bread, cereal, and cookies, are made with High Glycemic, very easily digested and absorbed, SIMPLE SUGARS.
When we eat Simple Sugars, our blood sugar levels and blood insulin levels skyrocket, and damage happens, always. Whether the simple sugar is from white flour, brown flour, rice flour, or corn flour, i.e. gluten-free or NOT, simple sugars flood our blood stream quickly and easily wreck havoc – every. single. time.
I love to say that a Carb is a Carb is a Carb. No matter the source, our gut digests Carbs to the single sugar/simple sugar GLUCOSE, which then goes through the small intestine wall and into the blood stream. When our blood sugar and insulin levels are high our arteries become damaged, our brain accumulates plaque, our blood becomes thick and sticky, and proteins and fats in the blood and affixed to the body ( our thyroid, our intestine walls, our skin..) become “Glycated”, or damaged – permanently.
These Simple Sugar Gluten Free Products also make us fat. Here’s how: when our blood sugar is high, anything above 100mg/dcl, insulin is released from the pancreas to lower it. Some blood sugar can go into muscle cells (or not), a tiny bit of blood sugar can be stored in the liver (or not), and ALL THE REST OF THE EXCESS IS REMADE INTO TRIGLYCERIDES. Triglycerides = Body Fat.
Glucose/blood sugar/carbs don’t make ANY part of us, not our hair, our eyes, our bones, our teeth. Carbs are just an energy source, and we can’t even store very much. Excess ALWAYS gets made into Body Fat. Always.
Another undesirable result of High Blood Sugar from Gluten Free Products: Insulin Resistance. When you have insulin resistance, your body’s ability to literally use FAT FOR FUEL is SHUT DOWN. Instead, your body burns sugar. Period. This isn’t healthy or normal. WebMD says at this point at least 34% of all Americans are fully Insulin Resistant. Imagine what the number would be if it included everyone who was hovering at full Insulin Resistance?? 50%? 60%? More? We’re 70% overweight in the country; the correlation between ANY belly fat and insulin resistance is very high. Got Belly Fat?
If you diet and exercise, and can’t lose weight, you’ve got a problem. It’s not normal. When you’re a Sugar Burner, your body sets itself up to mostly burn glucose. Even in the absence of food, it still wants to burn Sugar not Body Fat. This means that when Sugar Burners cut calories, or increase exercise, the body would rather break down muscle tissue and convert it to glucose than burn body fat. It’s easier, and the body ALWAYS does what’s easier.
If you want to quit burning so much sugar for fuel, and start burning your fat stores, you’ll have to (1) cut out the grains and sugars, even gluten free grains, and (2) up your healthy fat intake. Seriously, if you want your cells to become acclimated to burning fat, there’s a whole set up of enzymes and protocols that go along with that. As long as there’s excess sugar in your body, from any source ( gluten free products, grains, and sugars, sometimes even fruit) YOUR BODY MUST BURN SUGAR. It takes a real consistency of effort before your body believes you and sets up fat burning mechanisms in your cells.
Something that struck me in the book Keto-Clarity, was how many doctors were quoted as saying that before several decades ago, because the average American diet was much lower in carbohydrate, and higher in healthier fats, it would have been normal to burn both Glucose and Fat throughout the day and night. Low states of Ketosis, where ketone bodies were burned, would also have been very normal. There’s entire cultures that ran on Ketone bodies and fatty acids easily and with great health, throughout the world, throughout history and even today. ( For instance, very Northern and Desert cultures with little access to plants or grains)
If you can’t lose weight, there’s a good chance you’re insulin resistant, you’re a sugar burner. Even if you DON’T need to lose weight, but eat a high carb diet, you’re a sugar burner; inflammation is happening.
If you want to STOP burning so much sugar and START BURNING YOUR FAT STORES, Contact me and let’s get started. It’s time to turn your metabolism around and make it work FOR you, not AGAINST you.