The 14-Day No Sugar Diet(3)

Nutrition researchers from the University of Copenhagen found that basing meals around high-fiber plant foods like those used in the 14-Day No Sugar Diet meal plan improved feelings of satiety. That means making a few simple adjustments to your dinner plate can keep you from succumbing to the call of cookies and ice cream an hour after supper. Study participants felt fuller longer than those who consumed meat protein meals. In fact, the subjects who ate protein from beans and peas consumed an average of 12 percent fewer calories at their next meal than if they had eaten meat. Think about that: Meals with meat are typically very satiating, but this study showed that high-fiber plant protein was even more effective at keeping post-meal cravings at bay.

You’ll Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity

According to a double blind clinical study published in the Journal of Nutritionin 2010, obese, insulin-resistant people who drank two blueberry smoothies daily and did nothing else to change their lifestyles or diets boosted their insulin sensitivity by 10 percent or more. This is important because being resistant to insulin can lead to type 2 diabetes. (Check out chapter 8’s delicious low-sugar smoothie recipes.) Remember, you want your body to be sensitive to insulin, so you can metabolize blood sugars more efficiently.

You’ll Cut Your Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes in Half

Excess weight is the single most important cause of type 2 diabetes. In fact, being obese makes you up to 40 times more likely to develop diabetes than someone who is a normal weight. But by following the 14-Day No Sugar Diet, you should be able to safely lose enough weight to dramatically cut your risk. Remember what those diabetes scientists found? Losing just 7 to 10 percent of your body weight can cut your chances of developing type 2 by 60 percent. Make that your goal. Even a 5 percent reduction in weight delivers significant benefits.

You’ll Have More Energy

Fatigue is a common complaint of people who eat lots of sugars and have high blood sugar. But managing high blood sugar by limiting certain foods can cause exhaustion, too, because cells are being deprived of fuel. The balancing act needs to be done right. Our structured meal plan will help keep your blood sugar stable while maintaining a high energy level throughout the day so you won’t need caffeine or chocolate pick-me-ups to get you through the doldrums.

You’ll Strengthen Your Muscles

Every time you see a sugar bowl, a box of sugary cereal or a bottle of juice containing HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), I want you to think “muscle shrinker” because that’s what sugar is. Scientists have recently linked refined sugar intake to age-related muscle wasting, a condition that doctors call sarcopenia. After age 30, your muscle mass and strength naturally start to decline. A poor diet full of sugary, processed foods can speed up the progression of sarcopenia. And muscle loss can speed up the progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes. Do you see how diet impacts muscle and muscle impacts your health? You truly are what you eat! Recent research by scientists from the University of Delaware and the National Institute on Aging suggests that reducing starchy, sweet and processed foods may help us hold onto our precious muscle and strength. And when you have more muscle mass, uptake of glucose improves, reducing your risk of insulin resistance.

You’ll Improve Your Heart Health

A 2012 study by Johns Hopkins Medical School researchers showed that a diet that’s low in carbohydrates could improve artery function. Also that year, an analysis of 23 clinical studies published in The American Journal of Epidemiology found that keeping blood sugar stable with a low-carbohydrate diet is effective at reducing risk of metabolic syndrome and heart disease. Compared to people on a low-fat diet, low-carb eaters in this study significantly reduced their total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides levels and improved their HDL (good) cholesterol. The 14-Day No Sugar Diet will dramatically reduce your reliance on high-carb processed foods that lead to heart problems.

Your Belly Will Shrink

Carrying a big belly is the number 1 risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Fortunately, there’s a well-documented remedy for too much belly fat: a reduced-sugar diet. By changing your habit of eating high-calorie sugary carbs, your body will respond by burning fat stored around your middle for energy instead of all those sugars from processed carbs. Researchers compared losing weight through a low-fat diet and a low-carb diet in subjects over the course of a six-month diet plan. Each test group ate the same number of calories in their diets; only the carb and fat content differed. It turned out that the low-carb dieters lost an average of 10 pounds more than those on the low-fat diet. What’s more, the researchers found that belly fat loss percentage was much higher for the low-carb group than the low-fat group.

You’ll Feel Happier

By shrinking your belly fat, you’ll reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol that’s associated with a build up of visceral fat, the dangerous fat that surrounds your organs. In the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, researchers found that middle-age women who had more visceral belly fat also had more hostility and symptoms of depression. According to a different study of 12,000 people by researchers at the University of Warwick, improving the diet by adding more servings of fruits and vegetables incrementally improves feelings of happiness. Most dramatically, people who went from eating almost no produce to eight daily portions of fruits and vegetables boosted their psychological well-being as much as they would if they went from being unemployed to employed.

You’ll Think Clearer