Stress, The Food Industry, Blood Sugar & More!

This strange biological framework you are encased in right now is the only thing you can, and always will, depend on. If you take good care of this finite figure, you will be spoiled with a longer & more fulfilling life. Your body was designed to heal itself. With over 50 trillion cells that makeup the human body, we are malleable biological machines. How we interact with the environment alters our design and destiny.

Different environmental stressors erupt daily that your dynamic body has the power to adapt against. Emotional stressors (i.e. financial burdens & relationship issues), structural stressors (i.e. arthritis & surgery), biochemical stressors (i.e. allergies & toxicities), and lastly, we deal with electromagnetic stressors, such as overtraining & poor sleep.

With all these things bombarding us on a daily basis, it makes it extremely difficult to pause, take a deep breath, & smell the flowers. We get stuck in an endless cycle. We need to be more compassionate for our mishaps, and with simple adjustments, we can easily attain a balanced body.

Visualize your ideal self. Physically, how do you appear? Thinner, muscular, & toned? Mentally, are you more logical, positive, & sharp? What about socially? Do you interact the same with others once you grasp a higher level of living?

Now that this vision is apparent, I will tell you one thing that you can cut back on that will completely shift the tables in your life. This compound in excess is linked to inflammation, obesity, accelerated aging, & is the major contributor to disease worldwide (America gets the golden ticket). The culprit?

Sweet Sweet Sugar.

Table sugar (sucrose) is not all evil. Big pharma holds hands with big agriculture which further strengthens big brother. The FDA is one of the major contributors to this madness. They allow companies to taint many of the foods you commonly see on the shelves of every grocery store. Big corporations legally can pile toxic amounts of sugar in your food (and "food-like" products).

Here's the dirty list:

- General Mills

- Kellogg's

- Campbell's

- Mondelez (formerly Kraft)

- Coca-Cola

- PepsiCo

- Nestle

- ConAgra

- Foster Farms

- Fairlife

- Tyson

These companies and more manifested deceitful & corrupt practices for the almighty dollar. They don't care about society's health. They simply crave cash. They load their foods with sugar, preservatives, chemicals, coloring agents, fillers, binders, glutamates,... the list continues.

The only way we can see healthy change in this country is through individual effort that molds into a whole. One-by-one we can maneuver the food supply towards rich, wholesome, organic, & colorful ingredients for our children & future generations.

---

Fructose is a monosaccharide that is known as "fruit sugar." When this binds with Glucose, it forms the disaccharide Sucrose. Fructose (which High-Fructose Corn Syrup contains over 55% of) is the driving force for disease and mortality (check out the article, Just One More Bite for more on this). The key is to balance the consumption of these sweet, tasty, mouth-watering demons in your diet. Once you do this, your body will follow-up by further balancing your energy, mood, brainpower, sleep, & hormones.

Fluctuating levels of blood sugar throughout the day sparks ups-and-downs in energy levels, mood, mental clarity, & causes uncontrollable cravings. You need to create that state of equilibrium by keeping healthy glucose levels between 75-95 mg/dL in your blood. Prediabetes kindles between 100-125 mg/dL and unfortunately over 1/3 of Americans in 2019 have this issue (90% of prediabetics have no clue they have it).

Roughly 2 hours after a meal, your blood sugar should dip back down to a normal range (70-95 mg/dL). A major sign of insulin resistance is when the hormone insulin does not operate as it should by lowering blood glucose levels after a meal. This leads to weight gain, and even worse, heart disease, diabetes, or death.

To get your special human cells to work at full capacity, you need oxygen & glucose to work together efficiently & fairly to form plenty of ATP, or energy. Yes, you can survive without glucose because there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate, but it can become problematic long-term.

You do not want your body to run on massive amounts of oxidation (only protein & fat in diet) because it will lead to rapid aging. Plus, for most individuals, it is extremely hard to sustain a diet without any source of carbohydrates. I believe cycling on and off ketogenesis is a fantastic approach to amplify insulin sensitivity & combat oxidative stress.

I like to do a modified keto diet throughout the day until the evening after working out. Towards the late evening I'll carb-load & consume around 200g of complex/fiber-rich carbohydrates. Or I'll stick to an even better approach by going full keto for 6 days out of the week and when Saturday rolls around, I dive into around 200g carbohydrates. This improves overall energy (mentally & physically), fat loss, & allows one to tap into deeper sleep.

---

If you sustain low levels of blood sugar weeks on end (below 75mg/dL), it can make it quite difficult to pack on lean muscle mass. By having enough glucose in your blood, it allows your body to use more amino acids/protein to rebuild muscle tissue & not have to rely on the body to convert protein into glucose endogenously, which actually creates more stress on the body.

The key is to consume slow-release glucose foods as a primary carbohydrate source. Fiber-rich carbs not only improve the microbiome and increase satiety, it gives you a steady source of fuel. Enjoy starchy carbs like sweet potatoes, steel-cut oats, & lentils, non-starchy carbs such as broccoli, spinach, onions, & mushrooms, and finally aim for more slow-release fruits like berries, apples, pears, & melons (enjoy on occasion but go easy on tropical fruit like pineapple & mango because they're high in fructose). If you focus on these nutrient-rich foods and push aside fast-absorbing junk foods (sodas, juices, breads, candy, chips, etc.), you will never crave pancakes drenched in syrup for breakfast again!

Another key is to steer clear from the polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs (corn, peanut, sunflower, soy, canola, safflower oils, etc) because these fats clog-up your cells preventing the transfer of glucose (from insulin) into the cell to be stored. Therefore, glucose chills out in the bloodstream elevating blood sugar & eventually contributes to the development of visceral fat (around organs: big no-no). PUFAs are major endocrine disrupters as well, which dysregulate your hormones and they basically eat away at your organs & tissues.

The foods on my no-go list include:

- most industrialized, packaged, & processed snacks

- fried foods

- almost all fast food joints

- frozen dough (pizza, biscuits, rolls, etc.)

- microwavable meals

I want to make it clear that it is perfectly fine & dandy to consume high-glycemic foods. Allowing yourself to indulge on occasional treats will make sticking to a lifestyle-diet much easier. Restrictions lead to collapses. To minimize the toll it takes on your blood sugar, pair the high-sugar snack with other foods that will slow the breakdown in the digestive system. For example, stack the white rice with fiber-rich greens & a solid protein source like black beans or salmon. Food-combining is a critical component of how your body processes sugar.

---

If you listen closely, your body will tell you exactly what it needs at any given moment. It could be rest, hydration, nutrients, movement, or soaking up some sunshine.

The phenomenon of self-healing is a symbiotic relationship with you and your cells.

Put greatness in & the body will give you greatness back.

~ Take the time to honor your temple's needs.