Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Are desserts killing us?

I know what you're thinking. Oh no, she's going after our desserts now. Is nothing sacred? You know I've got to. I made a promise to educate and inform and help people live a healthy lifestyle. Plus - I'm going to tell you a little bit what the others won't tell you.

So, are desserts killing us? 

Uh. 
Yes. 
There I said it. What did you expect? If you come here, expect honesty and no sugar-coating [I know, I had to use it].


So, what's the big problem with desserts? Where to start...
  • Excess sugar - a typical piece of chocolate cake has 15g of sugar, cupcake has 16g, ice cream has 23g. Sugar overload. What does sugar do to your body? It slows it down. Slows down your ability to burn fat, slows down your hormones [ladies], slows down your metabolism. It's the worst thing in the world for you if you want to lose weight. 
  • High in calories - a typical piece of cake would be 400-600 calories. Same with cupcake and ice cream. Seriously, my ice cream can't be that much, you say. Really? Read the food label. What's the serving size? Measure that out. Now measure out how much you normally put in that big ol bowl. Come on, do it. If you have three 1/2 cup servings, then you have to multiply the calories X 3. 
  • No nutritional value - typical ingredients include: sugar, sugar and more sugar. White flour. Nothing natural, nothing that you can pronounce. But what about chocolate - that's good for you, right? Oh, don't even get me started with the marketing-and-advertising-bs-detrimental-to-your-health-dark-chocolate-skam that we have going on. 
Okay, so it's not a healthy food group for you. Let's put those issues aside for now and address what I think is even bigger than those reasons above:

It's addicting and it's an emotional battle to fight your body. 
  • Cravings
  • Addictions

How long have we been told - ladies - that chocolate will solve your PMS? At least help it? Does it really? Could it possibly be that our hormones and metabolism are so damaged by sugar and we are so addicted to it that we will just throw up our hands and eat it. It can't hurt, right?

Wrong. 


It can hurt. And it does. 

People tell me all the time "I need to cut back on desserts" or "I know this is so bad for me" or "I know I should not eat this". This is followed by a trip to the dessert buffet where they load up on the sugar special of the day and bring it back to eat.

We need to start listening to our inside voices. Especially regarding sugar. If you KNOW that it's bad for you, then STOP eating it. If you KNOW it's a problem and you can't lose weight, then STOP eating it. Buck up, put your blinders on, and move on. Not eating one little dessert is NOT going to kill you.

But eating them all the time will.

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