No sugar, low sugar, low fat, zero fat — food products that are bearing these words on the packaging can be very, very appealing to anyone who is trying to lose weight. Everybody knows that both sugar and fat can make the waistline expand and make elimination of unwanted pounds tricky. However, not too many people know that the consumption of these diet food products can actually be counterproductive, experts say.
Finding yourself in great disbelief? Then continue reading to find out why you should stay away from them.
Products that contain no sugar or have reduced sugar in them are sweetened with artificial sugar substitutes. What’s so nice about these sugar substitutes is they contain absolutely no calories, unlike sugar which packs 16 calories per teaspoon. If you think that consuming food with sugar substitutes in them can help you attain your dream figure because they have no calories, better think again!
Here’s the problem: the moment that you put something that is sweetened with sugar substitute in your mouth, the brain assumes that it contains the real deal — sugar. So what your brain does is it prepares your body by directing the pancreas to produce more insulin, the hormone that allows the cells of your body to utilize sugar.
It’s no secret that artificial sweeteners are several times sweeter than sugar, and this makes the brain think that you are consuming something that is loaded with sugar. As a result, a lot more insulin is produced to make sure that all the sugar that will end up in your bloodstream will be used up by your cells as energy.
However, no sugar ends up in the bloodstream, rendering the high levels of insulin in the body useless. There are a couple of reasons why this is something that can make you gain weight:
Because there are lots of insulin in the blood, your brain will tell you to eat lots and lots of foods with tons of sugar in them just to lower the levels of insulin in your blood — insulin gets used up each time it assists sugar molecules to enter the cells of your body. So in other words, you end up eating more than necessary, and everybody knows that overeating is a complete weight wrecker!
One of the roles of insulin is to help the body store fat for future use. Due to the fact that there are excessive amounts of insulin in the bloodstream resulting from your intake of foods with artificial sweeteners in them, your brain will think that your body is in some form of danger. This will prompt the insulin to convert any fatty acids and glucose in your body into fat cells, majority of which will be deposited in the midsection.
Now let’s talk about why food products that are low or zero fat can also sabotage your weight loss goal.
Fat makes food taste delicious. Take it away and anything that is served in front of you may taste blah, leaving you craving something else that is capable of pleasing your taste buds. In order to counter this, makers of food products that contain low amounts of fat or none at all rely on artificial food flavorings.
While some low or zero fat foods may taste nice because of this, there is another problem that steps into the picture, and it’s the fact that fat is also satisfying. Needless to say, food products that contain less fat or are completely devoid of it may fail to leave you feeling happy with your meal, thus causing you to crave something else — in particular something that contains fat in it. We all know that cravings can be hard to tame, easily leaving you overeating!
So what should someone like you who wants to lose weight do? Stick to real foods, the kinds that naturally contain sugar and fat in them. However, always keep in mind to consume them in moderation.
