What does it mean when my sugar spikes b/c I eat a sweet treat?

What happens: When we eat, our body converts digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar or glucose, our main source of energy. Our blood sugar level can affect how hungry and how energetic we feel, both important factors when we are watching how we eat and exercise. It also determines whether we burn fat or store it.

Our pancreas creates a hormone called insulin that transports blood sugar into our body's cells where it is used for energy. When we eat refined grains that have had most of their fiber stripped away, sugar, or other carbohydrate-rich foods that are quickly processed into blood sugar, the pancreas goes into overtime to produce the insulin necessary for all this blood sugar to be used for energy. This insulin surge tells our body that plenty of energy is readily available and that it should stop burning fat and start storing it.

However, the greater concern with the insulin surge is not that it tells our body to start storing fat. Whatever we eat and don't burn up eventually gets turned into fat anyway.

The greater concern is that the insulin surge causes too much blood sugar to be transported out of our blood and this results in our blood sugar and insulin levels dropping below normal. This leaves us feeling tired and hungry and wanting to eat more. The unfortunate result of this scenario is that it makes us want to eat something else with a high sugar content. When we do, we start the cycle all over again.

What to Watch For

• Simple Carbohydrates: Because of their small molecular size, simple carbohydrates can be metabolized quickly and are therefore most likely to cause an insulin surge.
Simple carbohydrates include the various forms of sugar, such as sucrose (table sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), lactose (dairy sugar), and glucose (blood sugar). Watch for the "-ose" ending.

• Hidden Sugar in Processed Foods: Watch for "hidden" sugar in processed foods like bread, ketchup, salad dressing, canned fruit, applesauce, peanut butter, and soups.
• Sugar in Beverages: Be aware of the amount of sugar in beverages, especially coffee and soda pop. It can add up quickly, and most such drinks aren't filling.
• Fat-Free Products: Sugar is often used to replace the flavor that is lost when the fat is removed. And as if that's not bad enough, without any fat to slow it down the sugar is absorbed into your blood faster.
• Cereal Box Claims of Less Sugar: Many newer cereals do contain less sugar, but the calories, carbohydrates, fat, fiber and other nutrients are almost identical to the full-sugar cereals. The manufacturers have simply replaced sugar with other refined, simple carbohydrates.
• No Sugar Added: It doesn't mean that the product doesn't naturally contain a lot of sugar. 100% fruit products often contain concentrated fruit juice, still another form of fructose or sugar.
Table sugar (sucrose) is often said to provide "empty calories" because it has no nutritional value other than providing fuel for energy. Honey and other more natural sugars, on the other hand, are often considered to be healthier because of the trace vitamins and minerals they provide. Still, for weight loss purposes, all of these sweeteners can simply be treated as sugar.
-provided by caloriesperhour.com

What You Can Do

It is also important to understand what happens when you skip a meal or go on a crash diet. When you skip a meal your metabolism slows to conserve your energy. And when you lose weight too quickly for a few days, your body thinks it is threatened with starvation and goes into survival mode. So when I tell you 3 pounds in good in a week it is REALLY good and it is safe.  Too much too soon and your body fights to conserve your fat stores, and any weight loss comes mostly from water and muscle.

Regulating your blood sugar level is the most effective way to maintain your fat-burning capacity. Never skip a meal, especially breakfast, and eat healthy snacks between meals. Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs and the binges that follow, provides consistent energy, and may be the single most effective way to maintain metabolism efficiency.

When you will be away from home or work, plan your snacks and take them along so that you will be able to eat regularly and won't be tempted by junk food. This may be good advice for people who stay at home, too.  Remember that snacking can cause you to gain unwanted weight as well so make sure your snack are wholesome and full of protein.  You should never wait until you are starving b/c by then you may resort to grabbing just anything and that is the habit we are trying to change!

Some information above brought to you by Caloriesperhour.com

Three Easy and Simple Lunch Ideas

Meal 1. 

Two Smart Dogs, about 80s calories each all great protein.  I have one slice of low fat cheese on top and a nice side salad which I added some Boathouse farms low sugar dressing on.  It was a very filling meal and it was very easy.  It only took me about 5 minutes to put it together.

Meal 2.

Another very easy meal to throw together, now I did make the turkey burgers with beefy onion stew (dry) mix and green/red chopped peppers on the weekend so I would have them for the week to heat up and eat. I also made the pimento cheese, it is two types of low fat cheese with vegan mayo (which is low fat) and some pimentos.  This stuff didn't really take me that long to make and I still have the pimento left to finish eating (been 2 weeks since I made it) so you can imagine it really does last!  The greens came off the salad bar at Martins.  I just get a big thing of greens and mix them with meals through out the week.  Easy and took me all of 5 minutes to pull out of the fridge and throw together.

Meal 3. 

This is another easy fix.  I have one turkey burger (same home made ones from the meal above), one slice of low fat cheese.  I also threw in a little greek orzo pasta (from Kroger) and green beans with cherry tomatoes, low fat feta cheese and low sugar dressing.  Again I did make the turkey burgers ahead of time on the weekend for the whole week and I make green bean dish as well.  I did not make the orzo so that was easy but as you see I had way more meat and veggies than I had pasta.

Israeli Couscous Salad with Roasted Vegetables

This recipe was borrowed from twopeasandtheirpod.com

Doesn't this just look super yummy!!

1 small eggplant, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 small yellow squash, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped, seeds removed
1 small red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
3 cups water
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups dry Israeli Couscous
1/4 cup chopped basil
1/3 cup feta cheese

For the Balsamic Dressing:
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

directions:

1. To roast the vegetables: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, onion, and garlic on a large baking sheet. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and gently toss. Season with salt and pepper. Place the pan in the oven and roast for about 30-35 minutes, stirring vegetables occasionally. Remove vegetables from the oven and set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan, bring three cups of water to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt, stir in the Israeli couscous. Reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until couscous is just tender, with a slight bite, about 10 to 13 minutes. Drain into a fine mesh strainer and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine couscous and roasted vegetables. Stir in the basil and feta cheese.

4. To make the dressing: In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, mustard, and garlic. Add the oil in a slow steady stream, whisking constantly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour dressing over couscous and vegetables and stir until well combined. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Pineapple, Lemon and Pomegranate Blend-Free Detox Drink

No blender or juicer, no problem...

3/4 cup of unsweetened pineapple juice
1 lemon (squeeze out juice)
1 cup unsweetened pomegranate juice
3 cups of water

Combine all the ingredients and mix in a cup, fab!

A Tasty Snack Idea: Kale, Pineapple and Ginger Detox Drink

Combine:
1/2 c pineapple
2 large cucumbers
1 bunch of kale w/ stems (4 cups chopped)
1/2 lemon, squeezed
1/4 inch of ginger
1 bunch of mint (1/2 cup)

Combine all the ingredients and blend in a juicer if you have one.

This makes for a really healthy and yummy snack drink.

An Easy Snack

Fresh veggies are always a great snack.  Simply combine a ton of your favorite veggies like:

• Celery
• Peppers
• Radishes
• Cucumbers 
• Green Beans

And any other fav veggie you have.

• Combine the following: 
• Olive Oil (watch your serving size)
• Lemon Juice
• Salt and Pepper

Mix the above ingredients well and pour them over your favorite cut up veggies for a yummy, healthy, simple snack!

Cancer Prevention Tips

My top 12 cancer prevention strategies include:

1. Reduce or eliminate your processed food, fructose and grain carbohydrate intake.
2. Normalize your vitamin D levels by getting plenty of sunlight exposure and consider careful supplementation when this is not possible. If you take oral vitamin D and have cancer, it would be prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly.
3. Control your fasting insulin and leptin levels. (Improved insulin and leptin control is the natural outcome of reducing or eliminating fructose, grains, and processed foods from your diet.)
4. Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil or fish oil and reducing your intake of most processed vegetable oils.
5. Get regular exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks. If you have limited time Peak 8 is your best bet but ideally you should have a good strength training program
6. Get regular, good sleep.
7. Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are sorely underappreciated. However, some cancer specialists are now using nutritional typing as an integral part of their cancer treatments.
8. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.
9. Limit your exposure and provide protection for yourself from EMF produced by cell phone towers, base stations, cell phones and WiFi stations. On May 31, 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared that cell phones are "possibly carcinogenic to humans."
10. Avoid frying or charbroiling your food. Boil, poach or steam your foods instead.
11. Have a tool to permanently reprogram the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. Energy psychology seems to be one of the best approaches and my particular favorite tool, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique. German New Medicine is another powerful tool.
12. Eat at least one-third of your food raw.