No. it’s not eating carbs or sugars
It’s not eating too much fat.
It’s not lack of exercise. Exercise helps to lose weight but not the cause of weight gain.
The truth is.
It’s overeating in today’s world of abundance and ease of access.
Just look at the range of foods in your local supermarket, from all over the world.
The number of food outlets and the different types. You don’t have to leave your city to eat a different cuisine.
Look at these statistics of Singapore, a tiny nation which has a total land area of 721.5 square kilometres, the 2/3 the size of New York City.
Revenue in the Online Food Delivery segment amounts to US$203m in 2019 and is expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 15.2% reaching a market volume of US$358m by 2023.
The market’s largest segment is Restaurant-to-Consumer Delivery with a volume of US$191m in 2019.
Do you see now the underlying problem?
Are carbs/sugars bad?
Carbs and sugars have been blamed for women for putting on weight.
It’s not the type of nutrients to blame but the quantity.
Our body needs carbs and sugars for energy. It is a source of fuel for the body. But most people are overeating carbs and sugars.
In Singapore, sugar intake has increased to 60g per person daily. This is 140% more than the recommended 25g of daily intake. 25g of sugar is equivalent to 6 teaspoons of sugar.
Most of the sugar intake comes from pre packaged sugar sweetened drinks. For e.g. a packet of soy milk drink has 16g of sugar.
You may say you don’t add sugar into your coffee, tea and you avoid sweetened drinks - but you are unaware of the amount of sugars you take in through foods especially outside meals and processed foods.
Even the bread you buy from the supermarket has sugars. By the way, honey is still sugar.
Where are the hidden sugars?
A lot of processed food, cereals, baked goods, beverages have this additive called high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is an alternative sweetener.
It’s very prevalent in all processed foods because the manufacturers use HFCS to add texture, enhance the flavour and for longer shelf life. And it is much cheaper form of sweetener.
But HFCS is less desirable because of its high fructose content, which is a sugar molecule, like glucose.
Fructose is less desirable than glucose when consumed in excess. This is because glucose and fructose are metabolized very differently by the body.
While every cell in the body can use glucose, the liver is the only organ that can metabolize fructose in significant amounts.
When people eat a diet that is high in calories and high in fructose, the liver gets overloaded and starts turning the fructose into fat.
Fructose doesn’t suppress appetite as much as glucose does. As a result it promotes overeating.
Caution: excess sugars whether fructose or glucose will turn into fat storage.
Does knowing help you change your eating habits?
It’s knowing what are in the food you consume and the quantities you are consuming.
Eating desserts or foods with sugars is an addictive habit that is difficult to break. They taste good and they make you feel good while eating them - why these foods are called comfort foods!
So it comes back to the question of habits.
How do you break decades long habits to change to eat healthy, eat different types foods in the right proportions - what the mind and body requires but not in excess?
