When you ingest processed sugars your blood sugar levels will become elevated. The body responds to this by releasing insulin, a hormone that rapidly reduces blood sugar levels. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle and fat tissue to take up glucose and store it as glycogen in the liver and muscle.

Insulin stops the use of fat as an energy source. When insulin is absent, glucose is not taken up by body cells and the body begins to use fat as an energy source. Glucose is the body’s preferred source of fuel so when it is present in the blood stream (this will depend on the Glycaemic Index of the carbohydrate of the food consumed) insulin is released and the sugar is always used. To burn fat we want to choose foods that do not allow large amounts of insulin to be released, hence leaving the body with enough energy rather than riding a sugary roller coaster.

When blood sugar begins to get low most people eat tend to crave something sweet and drink coffee, soda or eat chocolate before they reach a hypoglycemic state. Unfortunately the feedback mechanism that tells the brain blood sugar has returned to normal is slow and your body cannot allow the brain to go without fuel so a survival response is triggered where powerful stress hormone ‘cortisol’ is released and triggers the release of stored glycogen from the liver to be released to raise blood sugars. This results from an inflow of blood sugar from the liver and also from what you just ate.

Many people live unprepared and poor fuelled lives like this daily resulting in a roller coaster ride of energy all day, every day. This creates a big problem as the body begins to be insensitive to insulin as the adrenal glands become tired from the sugary junk they are dealing with. They then become exhausted from continually releasing cortisol and the hormonal system becomes unbalanced due to the stress of eating processed sugars. This can lead to major health issues of some degenerative disease, depression and many chronic illness, infection and allergies.

Our ability to resist disease decreases because the sugars we are eating have replaced the necessary nutrient dense foods our bodies are designed to thrive on.

Use sugar alternatives such as;

Honey- unprocessed and unfiltered. There are major benefits are listed herewww.benefits-of-honey.com/health-benefits-of-honey.html.

Fruit- Fruit sugars ‘fructose’ are taken up by the body differently and because of the thick waxy substance of fruit the molecules are tougher for the body to digest compared to refined sugars and therefore tougher for the body to metabolise and better for fat burning. And of course there are many anti oxidants, vitamins and minerals to benefit from when eating fruit.

Underground veggies- Sweet potato and other underground veggies like carrots etc will give a beautiful natural sweetness to foods and kill cravings whilst giving you a serve of veg and low GI carbohydrate.

Hopefully this article has helped you understand that fat burning is more than just reducing fat. Eat foods that fuel your body and help in keeping the fat burning light on !