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JJ Virgin: [00:00:00] Hey there. This is JJ Virgin. And thanks so much for joining me on my anti diet podcast. This is for you. If you want to get off the diet for life merry-go-round and learn how to use diets like they should be used as a short term therapeutic tool for healthy weight loss, gut healing, reducing inflammation and detoxifying.
If you'd rather watch this episode, I did put on makeup and do my hair. So check it out on my YouTube channel.
The number one question I get asked about is sugar. I'm trying to lose weight and get healthy. What should I eat? What shouldn't I is sugar really bad for you? Why? What about natural sugars? What's the deal? Well in this video, I'm going to share five steps to lower the amount of sugar you eat. Even if you have a sweet [00:01:00] tooth.
Hey, there, I'm JJ Virgin. I'm a four times New York times bestselling author and fitness hall of Famer. And for my whole career. I've been helping people lose weight and look and feel better, fast and in a healthy way, by the way, which is important for keeping that weight off for the long haul. So you want to make sure you don't miss the ways to get there too.
So let's stay connected. All you have to do is hit like on this video and subscribe to this channel. Now, if you haven't been able to quit sugar, it is my mission to help you get off. I mean, it seems simple, right? Everybody knows. If you want to lose weight or get healthy, you have to eat less sugar and no, you can't just eat sugar on the floor.
That's not low sugar. Nice try. Honestly, if you have a sweet tooth, you really, really, really. Want to listen to this, you can absolutely [00:02:00] do this. Even if you tried everything before and it hasn't worked, even if you think it's impossible for you and these tips are going to not only help you get rid of that sweet tooth, they're going to help you keep the weight off for good, because my guess is even if you're able to drop a few pounds, They pop right back on.
Right? So in these five steps, we'll get into everything from lowering your sugar impact, which is truly life-changing to which specific foods to add to your plate, to finally flip the switch, to help you drop that fast and keep it off. Now don't discount that last one either. It's super important and it's part of the secret sauce.
So let me help you get there. If you struggle with. And this approach is agnostic. It works if you're paleo, if you're keto, if you're vegetarian, if you're a vegan or anywhere in between. All right, first, why is cutting out sugar so hard? I mean, you know, you shouldn't eat it, but even if you're doing everything right, and you've cut out the [00:03:00] obvious culprits, like cookies and muffins, you're hit with.
You eventually cave. Now, the reason isn't because you lack willpower self-discipline I mean, you don't binge on salmon. Do you? You're biologically addicted to sugar and willpower doesn't apply here. We know sugar is a drug that lights up the reward center in the brain, high doses of sugar, hijack our metabolism and make us fat, sick and old and sugar is in everything.
80% of food products, meaning not actual food products have added sugar, even if they have natural sugars like honey or agave. In fact, a label can say no sugar added and still be loaded with it by adding in fruit juice, concentrate, which is really straight sugar. Now, if you're like most people you're either confused by sugar or you're controlled by it or worse yet, both which is exactly where most food manufacturers want.[00:04:00]
So let's see if that's true, honey, versus table sugar, which would you choose? Probably saying honey, I mean, you know, those cute little plastic bears, what possibly could go wrong with that? It's comes from bees. All right. Okay. It's the table sugar.
That was a trick question. And that's where the confusion comes in is natural sugar, really any different, like what's the difference between natural sugar and table sugar? They're both natural, really natural sugar is sugar. They become glucose and fructose. And what about artificial? Artificial sugar, artificial sweeteners.
They are way, way worse, more on that. So no sugar added is one example of where it's sneaking in. But even when you catch on to that, it's also sneaking into that glazed salmon. You ordered out trying to eat healthy. It's sneaking into that balsamic vinegarette. [00:05:00] What now I can't eat salad. Of course you can.
But that balsamic vinegar is basically sugar syrup. It's sneaking into the marinara sauce where the first ingredient is sugar. Not to mention these really cheap tomatoes and it tastes crappy, hence adding the sugar. So let's get into specific things to do that will get you off sugar for good step one, go low sugar impact.
Now the issue with sugar is really knowing which sugars to choose, which to lose and how much to eat. And that varies. That varies depending on the nature of your genetics, your lifestyle and what type of health issues you might be dealing with. So here's the thing, it's not actually about the sugar itself is about the impact that sugar has on your body.
Some sugar like fructose hits you like the road runner hit Wiley E coyote. In fact, fructose goes straight to the liver where it tells your body to start making fat. And since it didn't raise blood sugar along the way, it also doesn't trigger satiety signals, [00:06:00] which means you're making fat and you are still hungry.
So fructose is the worst. It accelerates aging, it causes fatty liver disease. It actually makes your gut leakier and you just end up hungrier in a few hours when you eat it. Artificial sweeteners are similar artificial sweeteners cause calorie dis-regulation. So you can't correlate the degree of sweetness with the calories you're eating.
So that means. You overeat the havoc, this all wreaks on your system sets you up for insulin resistance, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. If you have a big problem with sugar, but you're saying, yeah, but I don't have cancer or heart disease or diabetes. I don't have dementia or osteoarthritis issues.
Yeah. You don't have them yet. It's just a matter of time because if you look at any of those diseases and you look at it with this correlation, you know, they all. With high sugar. If your fasting blood sugar is just 10 points over where it should be just 90 instead of [00:07:00] 80 on a regular basis, you have a five times higher risk of dementia dementia, five times, five times.
I mean, that is frightening. Isn't it. So I created the sneaky sugar inventory and I linked to more info on it below. It will take the thinking and the hand-wringing out of going from high sugar impact. The ones creating inflammation and causing you to hold on to that extra weight, especially around your belly.
To medium sugar impact foods that will help you ditch the cravings and allow your body to heal. And. To a fat burner, so you can lose fat fast. It also shows you exactly where sugar is sneaking in and which swaps will reduce it. You can flip that switch and go from being a sugar burner to a fat burner and just two weeks.
So here are a few easy swaps to lower the sugar impact so that you're going to lower, that impact that sugar is having on you. And finally start to drop the extra weight and keep it off. Okay. That sweetened peanut butter. Yeah. Check it in your [00:08:00] little pantry. Flip it. It's got sugar in it. Swap that sweetened peanut butter and swap that jam for unsweetened nut butters.
Swap those refined gluteny grains for beans and quinoa. Swap the French fries for butternut squash, air fries. And if you did not get an air fryer during the pandemic, hello, there's a reason everyone bought them. Amazing. Swap the dried fruit it's candy. Let's call it what it is for whole fruit or frozen berries.
That fruit on the bottom yogurt, which is basically syrup, swap it out for plain almond, Greek style yogurt, and add some berries on top. Also swap out anything with no or low fat on the label because those foods, I guarantee you're eating way more sugar than you're thinking of. When it says low fat think high sugar, I mean that fat free raspberry vinegarette that you're putting on your salad to be good.
Well, you just turned your salad into a Sunday. So let's go to step two, add healthy fats. Now you're going to load up on monounsaturated fats and omega-3 [00:09:00] fats. These are all known as the good fats. There are things like avocados and olive oil and flax seeds and almonds and walnuts and wild fish, all this yummy stuff like this.
And besides keeping you feeling satiated. They're great for your heart, your cholesterol and your overall health. I mean, they can help lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. They can lower blood pressure. They can lower LDL cholesterol and help raise HDL cholesterol. They can lower triglycerides that are associated with heart disease and fight inflammation, like all great stuff, plus they taste great.
And one other part of your plate here. That's super important is step three, eating clean lean. Now you're going to get your clean, lean protein from humanely raised animals like grass fed and finished beef and wild caught salmon. You'll also get some great healthy fats there too. And if you're a vegan, vegetarian things like lentils and quinoa. Why do you want to eat clean protein?
Well, it boosts your brain health. It helps with satiety. It helps balance your blood sugar. It helps with muscle building and repair and it [00:10:00] helps crush the cravings. And finally, the rest of your plate. Super important. Step four, you're going to increase your. Now, if you've been eating a low fiber diet, you increase your fiber over time, not overnight, but we are going to be having lots of non-starchy vegetables, which are loaded with fiber to slow the impact of their carbs.
So what are those artichokes and asparagus and broccoli and onions. And then also some low sugar impact starchier carbs. And those would be things like wild rice, winter, squashes, root vegetables, legumes. Now, why do you want to get fiber? Well, I'm glad you asked, because honestly, if this was a drug, every doctor would be prescribing it.
It helps maintain good intestinal health. It feeds the good bacteria in your gut. It lowers cholesterol levels. It helps control blood sugar levels. It supports weight loss. It helps you feel fuller longer, and it helps detoxify you. Fiber is so amazing. It's it's great for the garden in your gut. Remember when you're feeding those?
Bugs in your [00:11:00] microbiome, which got killed off by a high sugar impact diet, right? Cause those bad bugs live on sugar, which is what feeds candida, the good bacteria. So key critical for having great health more on high sugar, high sugar can flare up the inflammation in your gut and then colitis and leaky gut can come in right behind it.
So the reason that something like whole fruit has low sugar impact, but fruit juice has high sugar impact. It's all because of the fiber, the fiber and the whole fruit slows down the release of sugar into your bloodstream. So it's not like the sugar and fruit juice that goes, boom. And hit your bloodstream like a dam breaking.
All right. Finally, step five now, do not skip this step promise, practice. Self-love all right. Let's be honest. Many of us use food to fill a void. So you may need to think about how you nurture yourself and try to find some replacement activities. So what else would you fill your soul with besides [00:12:00] baking?
What else would give you the endorphin response besides cookies? For me, it's high intensity interval training because when I do hit training high intensity interval training, it's like a two for one. I get the endorphin response and I get the benefit of a boosted metabolism. Now it doesn't take long to do this, literally a couple of minutes and you can get that, which is amazing.
And the more you do the less likely or to sabotage your good work and do that sugar, that's going to put the pounds back on you and make you feel lousy. Find that thing that makes you feel good and gets you better at the same time. And one other thing during this whole process, have some compassion for yourself.
Now we're just skimming the surface. So if you want more, there's so much more in my book, the sugar impact diet for now you're off and running. I know if you follow this, you are going to lose fat fast, and you'll finally keep it off too. So don't forget to like, and subscribe. So you [00:13:00] get more healthy lifestyle, Intel tips and tricks.
See.
Thanks again for being with me this week for more info on this and other health topics I cover or to rate and review, find me on Instagram, Facebook, and my website, JJvirgin.com. And don't forget to subscribe to my show. So you won't miss a single episode. Go to subscribetojj.com.