Absurdly Delicious Gluten Free Paleo Granola Recipe

Hi Stacey

Rice malt syrup is a blend of complex carbohydrates, glucose and maltose. It’s 100 per cent fructose-free, which is the most important factor. Fructose is poorly metabolised by the body and puts a huge strain on the liver. See my guide here: http://liveenergized.com/alkaline-foods-2/9-reasons-quit-sugar/

Particularly this:

Remember: sugar is composed of two molecules… glucose and fructose.

Glucose is by far the lesser of the two evils because it can be metabolized by every cell in the body and if we don’t get it from the diet, our bodies make it. In fact, our bodies do actually use glucose for energy (along with fat, and to some degree protein), so some glucose is needed – but best sourced from complex carbohydrates rather than raw direct sugar.

However, fructose is different. Fructose is a big stressor to the body.

Why?

The only organ that can metabolize fructose is the liver, because only the liver has the capacity to transport it (17).

If you’re super athletic or exercising a lot every day, you’re fine because the liver will turn the fructose into glycogen – a storage form of glucose in the liver – because you’re burning so much energy.

However, if your liver is already full of glycogen (which is true of most people who eat too much sugar, and even if they exercise a regular amount), the fructose will be turned into directly into fat. (18).

The second way sugar directly increases fat on your body is because it messes with your insulin levels, making you insulin resistant.

When we eat a sugar-rich meal, or suck down a soda, glucose levels go up.

When there is excess glucose in the body, the body recognises this as toxic and rapidly releases insulin to clear the glucose from the bloodstream and into your cells.

Without insulin our blood would easily become toxic.

With a health balanced diet this mechanism works perfectly, as it has evolved to do.

However, we’ve broken this mechanism with our modern, sad western diet – packed full of sugar, carbs and grains that spike blood sugar like nothing else.

When the system is broken cells become resistant to the effects of insulin, meaning the body has to produce more to get the same effect. And then because you become resistant (insulin resistant) you have to make more, and more, and more…

The worse it gets, the worse it gets.

This is what leads to type 2 diabetes.

Aside from clearing glucose from the bloodstream, insulin is also responsible for sending signals to our fat cells telling these cells to collect fat from the bloodstream, store it and to avoid burning the fat that is already being carried.

So guess what happens when we have a ton of excess insulin in the body all of the time?

When insulin levels are chronically elevated, much of the energy in our bloodstream gets deposited as fat and stored.

And this leads us to the next issue…

When sugar consumption indirectly causes even more fat by messing with…

When you become insulin resistant and have excessive insulin production as discussed above, the body then has a hard time accessing the stored fat as energy.

So we not only stop accessing stored fat for energy, but there is a second problem: the brain starts to think that it is hungry when it is not.

Herein starts the ‘indirect’ ways sugar causes fat gain. It totally messes with your hormones. Four hormones in particular (as well as insulin of course):

Hormone Disrupted #1 – Adiponectin:
According to Dr Sara Gottfried (bestselling author of The Hormone Reset Diet and expert interviewee in my Alkaline Base Camp membership):

“Adiponectin is literally the hormone that tells your body to burn fat for fuel. It’s like your body’s “fat burning torch.”

Multiple studies have shown that the more of this super hormone you have circulating in your bloodstream, the more fat you burn. Research shows that low levels of adiponectin are associated with a higher incidence of obesity. In fact, according to Dr. Leo Galland, Director of The Foundation for Integrated Medicine, “A lack of adequate adiponectin is emerging as a significant factor in people’s inability to melt flab and stay slim.” (19)

The frustrating thing about adiponectin is that the more fat you have, the lower your levels.

Hormone Disrupted #2 – Ghrelin:
Ghrelin has been dubbed the “hunger hormone” and the more you have floating around in your boyd, the hungrier you will be, even when you’ve eaten enough.

Sugar completely messes with your ghrelin levels. If you find yourself feeling like you’re always trying to ignore cravings and especially if you still feel peckish after a meal, you almost certainly have elevated ghrelin levels (20)

This is especially true at night – and because ghrelin activates your brain’s reward mechanism to sweet foods and sugar, it makes the quit sugar/lose weight battle ten times harder.

Remember at the start of this guide when I said ‘It’s not your fault’ – this is exactly one of those reasons why.

Hormone Disrupted #3 – Leptin:
Leptin, like ghrelin, is a great hormone when working and released properly, in proper amounts, at the right time. Leptin decreases hunger.

However, again, like ghrelin, when there is high sugar consumption and weight gain – the signal for leptin production gets seriously messed up. (21)

Generally, the more fat you have, the more leptin you make; the less food you’ll eat; and the higher your metabolic rate (possibly). Conversely, the less fat you have, the less leptin you have, and the hungrier you’ll be. Basically, for weight loss — the more leptin the better.

Sounds good right? If you gain weight you’ll make more leptin and eat less. Well that’s how it’s supposed to work.

But when you eat a lot of sugar (especially fructose) you quickly become leptin resistant, just in the same way that you become insulin resistant. (22)

And as they guys at Precision Nutrition put it – It’s a vicious cycle:

1. Eat more, gain body fat.
2. More body fat means more leptin in fat cells.
3. Too much fat means that proper leptin signalling is disrupted.
4. The brain thinks you’re starving, which makes you want to eat
5. You get fatter. And hungrier.
6. You eat more. Gain more fat.
7. And so on.

Leptin resistance is similar to insulin resistance (and they also share common signalling pathways). Insulin resistance occurs when there’s lots of insulin being produced (for example, with a diet high in sugar and simple carbohydrate), but the body and brain have stopped “listening” to insulin’s effects. When you quit sugar, this leptin resistance will return to normal very quickly.

Hormone Disrupted #4 – Cortisol:
Cortisol is our stress hormone, and excessive sugar consumption causes it to be chronically elevated (23).

Excess cortisol ramps up your cravings for more sugar – creating a vicious cycle and leads to overeating and constant hunger.

The obvious result of this is that you will gain weight (24).

Plus, cortisol causes your body to actually break down your muscle tissue for energy instead of stored fat – giving you the OPPOSITE effect than what you really want. The less muscle you have, the lower your metabolism will be and the more fat you’ll gain.

And here another vicious cycle starts because elevated cortisol levels cause a larger percentage of fat to be stored in the abdominal area (visceral fat). And the more visceral fat you have, the more cortisol you will produce, leading to more cravings for sweets, less fat being used for energy, more fat being stored, which means more cortisol produced and on it goes…

Bottom line – if you want to lose weight you HAVE to drop sugar instantly.