After much deliberation you decide that it’s time you lost some weight. You’ve looked at your current diet and decided that you want to make some changes. The first to go is sugar. No more sugar in your coffee, and from now on you’re going to examine every packet for any sign of sugar. You are convinced that this will do the trick!

What exactly is sugar? Well, it’s a chemical. That may sound a bit odd, but it puts it in its rightful category. It has no protein, no carbohydrate, no fiber and no enzymes. In fact it is made up of ‘empty’ calories.

When you eat sugar, you put your body in a bit of a dilemma. In order to metabolize the sugar it has to borrow nutrients from other cells. When your brain gets the message that its reserves are being depleted, it sends out hunger signals. Your reaction is to come to its rescue – usually with some high-calorie food. The result is weight gain.

Having stopped taking sugar you may feel the need to have something sweet – you’d be unusual if you didn’t. If you choose a sugar supplement like saccharin or aspartame you are making an error.

One thing that has been puzzling scientists is that despite the growth in the consumption of sugar substitutes, there has been no reduction in levels of obesity, in fact the situation has become considerably worse.

Recent studies have found that far from helping you to lose weight, artificial sweeteners actually help you to put on weight!

Scientists at Perdue University carried out experiments with animals, some of whom were fed food containing natural sweeteners and others with food containing artificial sweeteners. Over the same period those animals fed with artificial sweeteners consumed more calories and gained more weight than those fed with natural sweeteners. Why? Because our bodies have learned to associate sweetness with food loaded with calories. When the calories don’t materialize we continue to eat to make up for the shortfall in expected calorie intake – the result – weight gain. You can’t fool your body!

So what about sugar? The best thing to do is to reduce sugar intake gradually, but most importantly, avoid artificial sweeteners.

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