The REAL American Sniper

As we continue to examine the three pillars of health (sleep, diet, exercise), we are going to start digging into the most controllable variable of all three: DIET.  

What exactly do we mean by “controllable”?

Think about it. Sometimes we simply can not exercise (possibly due to injury, or a scheduling conflict that is beyond our control), and many people struggle mightily with the actual act of falling asleep (as good as their intentions of actually going to sleep might be, they struggle with insomnia). But food? We have complete control over the nutrients that we decide to put into our mouths for consumption. Nobody is putting the proverbial gun to our head when we tear into that bag of Funions or the 30 rack of Bud Light (although it does taste so good when it hits the lips!).

BUT, don’t confuse “choice” with “easy”.  Of course it can be difficult (and not as much fun) to eat well. And not surprisingly, the majority of the country agrees with that statement. A full two thirds of Americans are statistically overweight or obese. Obesity is a $150 BILLION dollar per year problem….and if you’re keeping score at home, that’s a total of a 10% tab on YOUR health care bill (yup….we’re all paying for it). The good news? That number will double in 10 years…ugh.

Bad times.

And the main culprit in the majority of our diet-related problems? The one that is picking-off Americans left and right, sniper-style, in the form of diabetes and cardiovascular disease?

SUGAR.

Sugar is killing a crap-ton of Americans, and it’s certainly ruining the potential results that you could be getting from your workout.

The topic of diet and nutrition is a huge one, and we can’t cover all of it in one blog post. We could spend a ton of time talking about the aforementioned health crisis in this country. More specific to this group, we could talk extensively about eating to PERFORM; using food for fuel, and examining how approaches like Paleo eating can help us optimize our workouts.

But for now, we are going to take a quick, very basic look at sugar, and why you need to have a better understanding of it.

If NOTHING else, here are four things I want you to know:

1)   You need to understand INSULIN. Insulin is very simply the body’s “traffic cop” that tells it what to do regarding fat storage and fat burning

2)   The more sugar is detected, the more insulin is released. The insulin traffic cop tells the body: “store your fat…hang onto it, and don’t do anything with it until I get rid of all of this sugar”

3)   Within this cycle, when the body needs to BURN FUEL, it will burn the sugar first, NOT the fat that is stored in tissues and around organs

4)   The more sugar is consumed, the more the cycle continues. The body can become INSENSITIVE (or resistant) to insulin, and we get fatter and fatter.  We have a name for this: Type II Diabetes

While there is certainly more to the story, let’s stick to the big picture for now:

More sugar = more insulin = we STORE more fat instead of burn it = we’re an overweight country

THIS is where millions of Americans get totally confused. “The label says no fat!  I’m eating healthy!!!!!”

No……..you’re not.

The food labeling in this country is an absolute joke and a disaster. If you are in the middle aisles of the grocery store (not on the periphery where most of the whole foods are) and you see “low fat”, “heart healthy”, keep walking. I guarantee you that there is lots of sugar in that bad boy.

“Sugar free”, you say? Then look at the label for "aspartame". Or glucose. Or sucrose, maltose, fruit juice, dextrose, raw sugar, starch, honey, corn syrup or any other kind of syrup.

“You don’t understand….I drink DIET Coke”!! There is nothing “diet” about Diet Coke. One of the primary ingredients in Diet Coke is aspartame,  which is an artificial sweetener. Artificial sweeteners are worse for us than sugar is!

Guys….aspartame is making us fatter.

Aspartame is making us fatter!

Aspartame is making us FATTER!!!!!

(I’m either having a mini-stroke here or am about to go Full Jack Nicholson in The Shining)

ASPARTAME IS MAKING US F#@*ING FATTER!!!!!!

(….ok....I’m good now)

Try this one: consuming one soda per day increases your risk of diabetes by 29%.

“But I drink soda, and I eat sugar free stuff, and I’m thin!!”

Sorry, you’re not off the hook. Remember that Insulin Traffic Cop? He directs the body to store fat around the organs as well…especially the liver. This is not “love handle” fat, it is organ fat.

Again…….not good.

We can go on forever with this but I believe the point has been made. Sugar is bad, mmmmmmmmkay?

This DOES NOT mean we try to stop cold turkey; not necessary and certainly not sustainable. We just need to consume less of it. Guidelines from the American Heart Association are 6 to 9 teaspoons of sugar per day. Where are we at right now? Twenty-two teaspoons.

If you want to optimize the hard work that you are putting in at the gym, or even be just a little more healthy, you gotta put down the Chunky. Drop the yogurt (yup….lots of sugar). Step away from the "Diet" Mountain Dew.

This is not “new” news, and most of us already know this. But hopefully now you understand a little more as to WHY it is so important.

Next time we’ll take a look at Integral Development. What it means within the context of CrossFit, and how we can work on it.

-Mike