Resources
Where to Shop
You won't necessarily have to start shopping at a different grocery store, but maybe different
sections of the store. You may have heard the advice to stick to the perimeter of the grocery store
when eating healthy. This is excellent advice regardless of hom much of a change you choose to
ake. If you think about it, it makes sense that these foods need to be on the perimeter because
they need to be refrigerated, unlike the junk in the middle of the store that is full of preservatives and
will sit on a shelf for months.
Most stores have a "Natural Foods" section nowadays. Check it out, but again, exercise
caution. Just because a food is "organic" does not mean it is a whole food, or healthy.
items like coconut oil, or almond butter. However, be careful not to get caught up in the "gluten free"
or "organic" aspect of the food there. Remember, a cookie is still sugary junk, even if it's made from
organic, gluten free ingredients. When in doubt about a food, click on the flow chart to the right.
And don't forget your local farmer's market! There are many locations in the Sacramento area. I only
wish we had started shopping at one sooner. Not only do you get the warm, fuzzy feeling of
supporting local farmers but most of the produce is the same price, if not cheaper than the
supermarket. And don't forget your totebag when you go like we did the first time-- you'll feel like
such a noob!
Food Nutrition Index
These are two useful nutrition indexes, one is from Self Magazine, here, and the other is
through the USDA, here. These sites are a huge help if you need to look up the nutritional content of
unlabeled food and produce.
Gluten/ Celiac Disease
gluten contamination.
Paleo / Primal Blogs
Here are just a few online resources for more information and recipes. Do some exploring and feel
free to share other websites that you have discovered.
RobbWolf.com - Take advantage of everything this website has to offer. Robb also has a weekly podcast where he answers questions submitted by those in the Paleo trenches.
MarksDailyApple.com - Another great website with recipes and articles, as well as some very useful graphs and charts.
Everyday Paleo - This site is a gold mine of recipes.
Balanced Bites.com - More information about food and how to avoid potential pitfalls of eating a real food diet.
Chris Kresser - Great source for Paleo related studies and articles.
The Whole 9 - This is a fantastic website for those in need of some tough love.
Contact us: 530-559-2283
dave@crossfitsac.com
Why Sugar
Sorry, things are going to get a little technical for a moment. There are three macronutrients that make up our food: protein, fat and carbohydrates. We need to eat all of these macronutrients, unfortunately, most of us eat more carbohydrates than we can handle. When carbohydrates are consumed they become sugar in the blood stream, or glucose. Glucose is very important since certain organs like the brain rely on glucose for energy. Glucose is also converted to energy that is stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen. Glycogen powers exercise. So the goal here isn't to eliminate carbohydrates all together; they help to fuel the body and also contain important vitamins and minerals. However, eating too many carbohydrates can lead to undesirable results like weight gain, insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes.
It is important to know that not all carbohydrates are created equal. That is, some become sugar more quickly than others. When a large quantity of carbohydrates are converted into glucose, the pancreas releases insulin to bring blood sugar levels back to normal. Insulin removes the sugar from the blood stream, leading it to be stored as glycogen and when that space runs out, fat. This is a completely natural process, the problems is when the body experiences spikes in blood sugar constantly throughout the day, day after day, year after year. This creates tremendous strain of the pancreas and can lead to Type 2 Diabetes. People with Type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of heart disease, Alzheimer's Disease and premature death. This is a road nobody wants to go down.
Keeping dietary carbohydrates low, by eating mostly vegetables, some fruit and no added sugar is the best way to help keep blood sugar levels consistent throughout the day, which means less sugar being stored as fat.
Sugar Doesn't Just Make You Fat
Sugar is very destructive. Here's just a small sample of the problems attributed to sugar from the blog of Nancy Appleton, PhD.
- Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
- Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.
- Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract, including an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
- Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.
- Sugar can cause food allergies.
- Sugar contributes to obesity.
- Sugar can cause premature aging.
You can read all 141 reasons why sugar is ruining your health here.
Oh yeah, and carbohydrates and sugar can be crazy addictive!
By now you get the picture. The less we eat of this stuff, the better off we are.
