Different forms of sugar
One of the main reasons we don’t know how much sugar we consume is because sugar has many disguises, such as brown sugar, corn syrup, honey, molasses, maple syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, dextrin, raw sugar, fructose, polyols, dextrose, hydrogenated starch, galactose, glucose, sorbitol, fruit juice concentrate, lactose , brown rice syrup, xylitol, sucrose, mannitol, sorghum, maltose, and turbinado. Essentially, any word on a food label that ends in -ose, or -ol is a sugar in disguise.
Carbohydrates
Why is keeping a low carbohydrate level so important? The explanation requires a little understanding of the basics of how food is metabolized in the body. Our bodies metabolize food in the same manner as the bodies of our prehistoric ancestors. The body preferentially uses sugar for fuel since the body doesn’t have to expend any energy to break it down for fuel. Next, the body will utilize simple carbohydrates such as pasta, bread, pretzels, and the like, simply because it doesn’t take much energy to convert these into sugar for fuel. Next, the body uses complex carbohydrates such as vegetables, brown rice, legumes, and whole-grain starches as fuel because the body has to expend energy to process these foods back into sugar in order to be used by the body. The body will then use protein for fuel, and use fat last.
Fat
The reason the body uses fat last is because fat is the perfect storage molecule for the body. Fat holds more than twice the amount of energy than either a carbohydrate or a protein, so the body, in its infinite greatness, will store those bits of energy (also known as calories) for a rainy day. For most of us in this country, that rainy day never comes and it is our hips and waist that suffer the brunt of this storage of energy.
