sugar and abdominal obesity

Question
Jenn
I am a 55 year old guy.
Although I am in good shape in terms of body fat percentage and cardiovascular condition,as I have always been a light healthy eater and physically active, I have always had a big belly.
I have tried elimination diets for gluten and lactose and red meat to no effect.
A friend suggested I consider my sugar intake.
Although sweets are only a small part of my daily calorie quota, I do have a sweet tooth and always have sugar in my coffee, and always have a small sweet after meals such as a cookie.
Also, I try to avoid white flour so I dont think its the carbs.
Could the actual sugar be the problem?
Yesterday I decided to cut out sweets and the cravings are driving me crazy. I'm not hungry-I just need a sweet, especially in the evening.
I broke down and had a cup of tea with one tsp. sugar which took the edge off, but I still need a cookie or something.
Do you think going cold turkey on the sugar will help?
Thanks!


Answer
Greeting Terry,

Although your questions, just as you have formed them, do not appear to directly pertain to my criteria (in the instructions listed in my profile) re: concerns about "physical regeneration", "food as your medicine", "upgrading your diet", etc. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that by your considering "going cold turkey on the sugar", that could possibly translate into upgrading your diet.

Your 1st question: "Could the actual sugar be the problem?" - Yes, it most certainly could be! Yet you will probably not know for certain until you completely eliminate it for some amount of time (ideally 30 days or longer). Sugar can be as addictive and in some case more addictive than any drug! It sounds like you have a drug-like relationship with sugar. If you think and feel that's okay for you then that mind set will allow you to continue having sugar in your diet in any one of the dozens of forms that it comes in. I don't know what your diet consists of (and have thought I'd ask people to assemble a 14-day log of their meals before they contact me). Virtually all processed food has some form of sugar. To completely eliminate it could require a small revolution in how you do your food. Some people need to have support to accomplish that. That support could include having a private nutrition therapy chef who takes over the kitchen and all the food; then only serving the client the meals as they need them (and practically locking them out of their own kitchen). This scenario can and does happen in the case of really hard core food addictions. These addictions definitely exist however I don't know if that's your case. But based on everything that you have shared all the sugar in your diet in all forms is suspect! I would encourage you to consider determining that for yourself.

Your 2nd question: "Do you think going cold turkey on the sugar will help?"
It possibly can help you, but unless you upgrade your diet it is doubtful that you will feel all the support that you need nutritionally, chemically, mentally, emotionally, etc. in order to make a successful "cold turkey". When we look at the successes in any drug, drug-like withdrawal we find the are sustained with improved nourishment and more often with additional nutritional therapy.

Your mention of "a big belly" does not tell me whether or not you are overweight and/or wanting to loose weight. That information should be included in order to understand what you are dealing with and to see a complete picture of what your goal/s may be. In any case I am reasonably confident that before you go "cold turkey" that will need to know and include the kinds of food that are the most nourishing for you. I suggest that you think of making a long term transition from all the processed foods that you now allow in your diet and replacing them with nutrient-dense foods.

What are nutrient-dense foods? For the most part these are the kinds of foods our great grandparents were eating on their farms before the rise of processed foods (that occurred a little over a hundred years ago). IMO the first foods of nutrient density especially for you to consider Terry, are the full-fat foods: all the whole, grass-fed, unprocessed dairy products; all grass-fed meats (including meat on the bone and organ meats) plus all the various lacto-fermented foods that our great grandmothers made from their garden harvests. If your metabolism is running on sugar now then before you eliminate that as your fuel you'll need to have the new fuel on hand and that new fuel can be all the high quality fats! Depending on how deeply you want to get into this you can find libraries of excellent information on the Internet available. One site is www.WestonAPrice.org

Getting into nutrient-dense foods will eventually get you into nutrient-dense farming as that is where these foods will be coming from. At the Weston A. Price site here:
http://www.westonaprice.org/localchapters/index.html#locallist
is a directory of Local Chapters that you can look up to find the closest chapter to you. The first duty of the chapter leaders is to support their community in accessing local nutrient-dense foods. They will help you identify the foods that you need! Many of the chapters have meetings and there you can meet others in your area, many of whom have dealt with the same or very similar sugar issues. You may even find a book or two on this subject on their book table (at least we had a book table at out chapter meetings). When you get to the point where you feel fairly confident that you have your new "high octane fuel" then I'd say let er rip! Dump the sugar and chew the fat!

The bottom line here is Be Very Well Nourished!


Best regards!

Chef Jem  

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