Why Diets Fail (Because You're Addicted to Sugar) (6 page)

PROBLEM #6: LOW-CARBOHYDRATE DIETS ARE HARD TO STICK TO

So, if a low-carbohydrate diet seems to be the best bet for sustained weight loss, why isn’t everyone on one and losing weight? Herein lies the problem: what is good isn’t always easy. In one survey, 87 percent of respondents reported that they crave carbohydrates (like bread, pasta, and rice) about eleven times per week, suggesting the large role that they play in the diet of many people.
¹⁴
Given this finding, it is no surprise that a big problem with low-carbohydrate diets is that people seem to have a lot of difficulty staying on them.

Sticking to a low-carb diet is often hard because of “carb confusion.” There are several different low-carbohydrate diets out there, and different ways of counting carbohydrates. There are lots of different terms, like
net carbs
,
good carbs, bad carbs
, and
glycemic index
, which can be confusing, complicated, and sometimes even contradictory as you try to decide which foods to eat. Also, some low-carb diets are very restrictive, while others seem more relaxed. Deciding which foods are acceptable and which are not can be hard. A survey suggests that most people consider vegetables and whole
grains to be healthy carbs, but many people also think that fruit juices and jams or jellies are good carbohydrates to consume; however, as it turns out, fruit juices, jams, and jellies are
not
healthy carbs, as they often contain high amounts of added sugar.
¹⁵
One of the key reasons low-carb diets fail, which has been ignored up until this point, is
addiction
to carbohydrate-rich foods, which might be making adherence to low-carbohydrate diets difficult. In this book, we will simplify the carbohydrate conundrum and explain how you can eat a low-carbohydrate diet in a way that is easy to understand.

Understanding why diets typically fail can help you be more successful with changing your eating habits in the future. Knowing what you can—and can’t—control and recognizing why certain diets may not have worked for you in the past will help you to focus your efforts for the best results.

In the next chapter, we’ll help you take stock of your current sugar intake so you can start reducing it. It’s probably much higher than you think—and easier to cut down on than you might expect.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

List five of the different diet approaches you have tried in the past. Then consider each.

• What about each plan didn’t work for you?

• Do you notice a common theme?

By knowing which aspects of your previous dieting attempts may have contributed to their failure, you become aware of your weaknesses. You may also identify areas over which you don’t have much control, such as feeling like you have an addiction to sugary drinks or carbohydrate-rich pasta dishes.

STEP 2

Weigh In on Your Sugar Intake

“
A bagel is a doughnut with the sin removed
.”

—
GEORGE ROSENBAUM, FOOD-INDUSTRY ANALYST

The FDA has a long history of issuing governmental dietary recommendations, beginning all the way back in 1894, to help us know which foods we should eat and how we should structure our diets. The idea is to provide simple, useful information for individuals to employ in their everyday lives and food-intake decisions. Foods can be divided into three general categories to describe their contents: carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Most of us recall that, back in the 1990s, the FDA introduced the food pyramid, which emphasized that the majority of our food intake should come from carbohydrates, such as breads and pasta, with fats consumed very sparingly. Then in 2005, the FDA revised the food pyramid to reflect slightly less emphasis on whole grains and other carbohydrates (although these still dominated as the major food group). It
also recommended exercise and acknowledged that age, gender, and activity levels are all factors to be considered when determining healthy food-intake patterns.

Today the guidelines have been completely revamped, and we no longer follow a pyramid model. Instead, we have the food plate model,
¹
which suggests that half of our plate be filled with fruits and vegetables. Whole fruits and fruit juices are recommended. Grains (another type of carbohydrate) are recommended to comprise approximately one-quarter of our plate, and the same goes for protein. We are also advised to have a small portion of dairy products.

The food plate guidelines also caution people to avoid “empty calories.” Empty calories are often found in foods that contain sugars and solid fats, which are added to foods to make them more appealing. These calories are considered “empty” because they offer few or no nutrients; they are just calories that need to be burned or they will turn into excess body weight. What’s the biggest culprit in terms of empty calories in our food today? Sodas, which are sweetened with sugars like sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup.

What is interesting about empty calories is their appeal. These foods taste really, really good, and thus people want to eat lots of them. But they are not necessary for survival, so eating them excessively or in place of nutrient-rich foods does not make sense. This preference for foods that are highly palatable but lacking in nutritive value may form the foundation for what can develop into an addiction. If this is the case, trying to avoid eating them or attempting to eat them in moderation might be easier said than done.

The bottom line is that governmental food guidelines have shifted over the years, in part to incorporate developments in nutrition research and perhaps after recognizing that too many sugars and other carbohydrates are not ideal for a healthy body weight. We say “sugar and
other carbohydrates
” here because, technically,
sugar
is a general term used to describe what is really a carbohydrate. When most people refer to sugar, however, they are probably talking about table sugar—the white stuff you put in your coffee or use to whip up a batch of cookies—which is technically called
sucrose
. It’s important to understand the difference between foods (like complex carbohydrates) that break down into biochemical sugars and the more common table sugar (sucrose) because you’ll need to reduce or cut out both of these types of sugars in order to end your addiction. As we’ve said (and will cover in more detail in Step 4), both clinical testimony and scientific support suggests that some people who overeat sugars and other carbohydrates may have an addiction to them, and this addiction may explain why adhering to a low-carbohydrate diet and achieving a sustained weight loss can be such a challenge. So what is the connection between sugar, carbohydrates, and weight loss?

Breaking Down Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates can be complex, not only in their form but also when trying to understand all of the jargon that is used to describe them. In simplest terms, when talking about diet, a carbohydrate is a source of energy (for instance, calories) that includes things we commonly know as sugars and starches. This isn’t going to be a biochemistry lesson, but it is important to cover some of the basics regarding carbohydrate metabolism, as this background information will be important for you to keep in mind as you start to think about the kinds of foods you like to eat and the addiction-like behaviors that might be leading you to overeat.

SIMPLE VERSUS COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES

You are probably already familiar with some of the many terms associated with carbohydrates. In general, when carbohydrates are discussed, they are referred to as
simple carbohydrates
such as sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, and glucose, or as
complex carbohydrates
that make up things like breads and pastas. This division into simple and complex is not exactly a perfect model for understanding the nutritional value of carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates such as brown rice and many vegetables are often viewed as healthy carbohydrates, while simple carbohydrates such as table sugar and fruit sugar are less healthy. However, some complex carbohydrates, like french fries, are certainly not healthy, and some simple carbohydrates, like whole fruits, are an important part of your diet because they contain other important nutrients and fiber.

So what is the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates, and why does it matter? It turns out that there are key differences in the way that simple and complex carbohydrates are processed and broken down to be utilized by our bodies, which can affect the way that eating them makes us feel.

As we digest our food, our bodies break down all carbohydrates (both simple and complex) and obtain, among other nutrients, glucose.
Glucose
is the energy that is essential for life. It is the fuel for our cells and is used throughout our bodies. Some glucose is used immediately as energy. If it is not used immediately, our bodies store glucose in a different form, called
glycogen
. When we need extra energy, like when we rigorously exercise, our bodies can use the glycogen stockpiles and turn them into energy.

Simple carbohydrates are more easily and readily broken down by our bodies because their chemical structure is rather “simple”—it is made up of just one or two sugar molecules linked together. Simple carbohydrates break down in our bodies right away, and as a result they cause immediate increases in blood sugar levels. This is
why simple carbohydrates are sometimes referred to as
fast carbohydrates
. Conversely, complex carbohydrates contain three or more sugar molecules. As a result, our bodies take a longer time to digest them, and they don’t raise sugar levels in the blood as quickly as simple carbohydrates. This is why they are often referred to as
slow carbohydrates
.

THE GLYCEMIC INDEX

Many people find it more useful to think about simple versus complex carbohydrates in the way that they influence our blood sugar levels. Slow carbohydrates (complex carbohydrates) raise your blood sugar levels at a gradual pace and give your body a steady stream of fuel. Brown rice, lentils, oatmeal, whole wheat bread, vegetables, and fiber-rich fruits are examples of slow carbohydrates.

Fast carbohydrates (simple carbohydrates), on the other hand, enter your bloodstream at a fast pace and cause your blood sugar to spike and dip, which causes your body to produce large amounts of a hormone called
insulin
. Insulin is needed to turn the sugar in your blood into a usable sugar that can enter your cells. Insulin helps to convert blood sugar into energy or stores it for later use in other places (such as your liver or muscles). If you have too much excess blood sugar floating around, insulin can even convert it into fat stores. Eating a lot of fast carbohydrates such as white bread, donuts, and soda can increase your chances of having energy dips, becoming irritable, and getting hungry quickly between meals. These feelings are also associated with the withdrawal you feel when you go for periods of time without eating these foods.