We all Want Sweets Sometimes
Almost everyone wants something sweet now and again, and it’s possible to have sweets without the guilt or lethargy that usually companies a sweet snack. We’ll show you how to eat sweet snacks and avoid the sugar high (insulin spike) that results in the big downs (and lots of truly unhealthy side effects).
What Happens When we Eat Sweets?
When we eat something sweet, or, more specifically, a high-glycemic carbohydrate, we get a spike in blood sugar. This single action is accompanied with so many other processes that it’s daunting. For very clear and quite scary look at blood sugar, read Mark’s Daily Apple article on it here.
Assume, for a moment, you’re not exercising and you eat a simple carbohydrate, maybe candy bar or a vanilla latte. Within seconds, a spike in blood sugar causes a release of insulin from your pancreas. That’s a good thing. But when you’re not exercising, and especially if you don’t exercise regularly, excess insulin can cause drowsiness, lead to fat storage and cause deadly inflammation throughout your body. Additionally, your body is likely to think you need more energy which causes you to feel hungrier for more carbohydrates. Your body goes into a vicious cycle of carbohydrate craving and fat storage. Let’s look at how to avoid that process altogether and kill those afternoon lows once and for all.
How to Have Sweets without the Lows
Eating low-glycemic carbohydrates or combining higher-glycemic foods with fats can lower or slow the rise of blood sugar. This is a really good thing, and it results in less inflammation (think heart disease), less ongoing hunger (since you’ll feel full and satiated longer), and you’ll store less of what you eat as fat. To be clear, when you eat fat, it doesn’t immediately get stored in the body as fat. Sugar does. And the contributory role of sugar in heart disease has been clearly established. Heart disease is the number one killer in America.
From the US Center of Disease Control:
About 600,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths
So, let’s look at what you can do to snack in a healthy manner, avoiding spikes in blood sugar, keeping you full, healthy and fit.
Try these healthy snacks. They won’t give you the 3pm lulls like high-sugar snacks and they’re delicious
- Organic strawberries with walnuts – combining these two provides the perfect storm of antioxidants for a healthy snack.
- Organic strawberries have a very low glycemic load (3/250), are a great source of vitamin C, folate and manganese, not to mention being very hydrating.
- Raw walnuts have no glycemic load and are a great source of thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, manganese and phosphorus, and they’re really filling
- Date Balls
- Organic green apple with almond butter
- Organic green apples are high in fiber, helping you feel full longer and leading to more level blood sugar levels. They’re also super-hydrating and the sour taste is delicious.
- Raw almond butter helps to reduce the sour taste as well as adding a good source of healthy fat, protein, riboflavin,niacin, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium
These are just a few. We like buying whatever’s in season at our local organic market, keeping it fresh and adding to variety all year.
So, when you’re hankering for something sweet, grab a pear and a handful of nuts or nut butter, and make a healthier, slimmer, happier you!
Do you have any favorite combinations we’ve missed? Leave them in the comments. Thanks!
-z
Resources:
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/food-combinations-steady-blood-sugar-raise-metabolism-1670.html
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-saturated-fat-20131022-story.html
http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm
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