Even before you start reading, I bet you’re thinking this is going to be one of those boring, finger wagging articles on why sugar is so bad for you; and you’re kinda right. But I also bet, while you think you already know all about the horrors of sugar, you can’t answer these 2 simple questions:
“What is the maximum amount of sugar I should eat in a day?” 
“What happens when I eat it?” 
So for all the constant nonsense surrounding sugar, this article is all about giving you the facts you need, and facts you’ll actually remember.  

Per the American Heart Association, nobody on this planet should eat more than 37.5g of sugar a day, but most Americans eat about 82g of sugar a day…nearly 3x what is recommended as the maximum. 

• Women should not exceed 25g (or 6tsp) of sugar a day

 

• Men should not exceed 37.5g (or 9tsp) of sugar a day 

​​

• Children should not exceed 12.5g (or 3tsp) of sugar a day

Before we go further, let’s assume that you don’t want to eat more than 25g of sugar a day. To get a better feel of what 25g of sugar looks like, check out this short video. 

After a sugary snack, or a meal loaded with carbs, your blood glucose levels will begin to rise after only 15 minutes. Why is there glucose in your blood in the first place? Well, quite literally, you’ve eaten so much that it has nowhere else to go.  Too much sugar in your blood then makes you produce insulin (to clean it out basically). But if you’re always eating sugar, your body eventually goes nose blind to the heightened sugar levels. This in turn clearly makes you sick.
​ In a nutshell. 

​The idea that we get obese because we take in more calories than we burn is ludicrous. By this thinking, 20 calories of sugar would be no worse than 20 calories of brussel sprouts. If that doesn’t make sense to you it’s because that line of thinking makes no sense.

​In the 1950s advertisers were telling us cubes of sugar are better for you than fruit, and in the 60s we heard that “a calorie is a calorie”, which is patently false. In the 80s it was all about high fructose corn syrup, and in the 90s it was all about fat. Today there is still the highly held belief that obesity is caused simply by the overeating of calories, which I’m here to promise you isn’t true. 

Diabetes isn’t caused by obesity, but the Sugar Association sure would love for you to swallow that bitter pill. Men like Fred Stare who worked for the sugar industry, also worked for our government as part of a Sugar Commission. It was his sole mission to ensure that sugar wasn’t held responsible for the diabetes epidemic that was taking place in the early 80s. As a matter of fact, in 1986, the American Diabetes Association even agreed that fructose was an ideal sweetener for diabetics. By the 90s, even the American Heart Association was recommending we have candy as a snack instead of something with fat in it. 

The inquiry into whether sugar was safe or not started in 1978 and it was determined that sugar was safe in all its forms. In 1980 we had our first diagnosing of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adults, only 4 years later it was discovered in children. Today it is found in infants, 10% of our teens, and about 75 million adults. Most researchers believe it is from an overconsumption of sugar. Fructose is metabolized in the liver and produces high levels of fat. Not shockingly, those same 75 million adults who have NAFLD also have metabolic syndrome. 

Metabolic Syndrome is the precursor to diabetes. Many doctors will diagnose many symptoms as stand-alone illnesses, but should rather be viewed as pieces of a bigger whole. Symptoms like weight gain, high blood sugar, chronic inflammation, high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, or heart disease are all signs that trouble is ahead. 
Your doctor may look for elevated LDL particles in circulation, C-reactive proteins, or higher traces of uric acid. They will be looking for higher triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol in combination with other markers like obesity, high blood pressure and naturally, insulin resistance.  

​In 2011 a study was done where they fed 29 monkeys sugary drinks with their meals and 100% of them developed metabolic syndrome in only a year and a little over 13% developed type 2 diabetes.
What do you think is happening to us? Were those drinks fattening or were they full of sugar?

After metabolic syndrome has progressed, the patient is generally diagnosed with type 2 diabetes . Since 1980, when sugar was deemed acceptable, obesity rates have doubled, and now nearly 15% of the population has diabetes and are being newly diagnosed every 20 seconds. But diabetes isn’t a stand alone problem, it also creates kidney disease, increase risk of stroke, and even coma. 60% of amputations are due to diabetes. 

Sucrose and HFCS cause obesity and diabetes. These sugars are metabolized differently in our bodies than other carbs, and have a unique affect on our liver, blood, hormonal system, and entire body.   

So for all the constant nonsense surrounding sugar, this article is all about giving you the facts you need, and will actually remember. (repetition is mastery) 
4 grams of sugar = 1 teaspoon 
1 teaspoon of sugar = 16 calories 

• Women should not exceed 25g (or 6tsp) of sugar a day

 

• Men should not exceed 37.5g (or 9tsp) of sugar a day 

​​

• Children should not exceed 12.5g (or 3tsp) of sugar a day

​the average American only ate 2 pounds of sugar a year.
In 1970, we ate 123 pounds of sugar per year.
​Today, the average American consumes almost 152 pounds of sugar in one year. This is equal to 3 pounds (or 6 cups) of sugar consumed in one week! 

that Americans should get 10% of their calories from sugar. This equals 13.3 teaspoons  (or 53.2grams) of sugar per day (which is 2x more than what the AHA recommends). The current average is 42.5 teaspoons (or 170grams) of sugar per day! (credit to DHHS)

equals four grams of sugar. 
As an example, Yoplait has 26grams of sugar in one container, (or 6-7 teaspoons), which is 100% of what the American Heart Association says you should have in an entire day.

 1 in 8 American adults was obese, today the number is greater than 1 in 3.” 

Kelly West, the leading American authority on diabetes epidemiology- suggested that diabetes had already killed more people in the 20th century than all wars combined.” 

Mr. Glinsmann and his colleagues estimate of the levels of which sugar was currently consumed to be 42lbs of sugar per person per year, or the equivalent everyday of 1 1/2 cans of Coke or Pepsi.” 

now eating and/or drinking 2-3 times the dose of sucrose and HFCS that the FDA had officially found safe just 13 years earlier.” 

 lower-limb amputations in adults are due to diabetes- some 73,000 of them in 2010 alone.”  

 diagnosed with diabetes in 2012- that’s one case every 15-16 seconds.” 

 seven to eight adults in this country had diabetes- 12 to 14 percent, depending on the criteria used to diagnose it. Another 30 percent are predicted to get diabetes at some point during their lives.”

consumed 67lbs of sucrose and HFCS out of the 114lbs the industry made available- slightly less than 60%.” 

reports that obesity rates have doubled worldwide since 1980; in 2014, more than half a billion adults on the planet were obese, and more than forty million children under the age of five were overweight or obese.” 

is thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, as are estimated 75 million adults, perhaps, not coincidentally, the same number as our estimated to have metabolic syndrome. The condition has now been diagnosed in infants.” 

1 in every 4 patients admitted to VA hospitals suffers from diabetes.” 

estimate that as many in 1 in 4 Americans now have fatty liver disease, unrelated to alcohol consumption…”

Everywhere I go I'm talking to Members and Fans who are stressed out! There's a family party next weekend, a church get together, a BBQ or other event coming up. 
Every summer it's the same thing,  I stare into the mortified eyes of folks who are just trying their best not to eat the fruit roll-ups in the top right cabinet above the fridge. (I have no idea who that'd be btw) 
"I don't know what I'm going to do, I've been doing so well the last few weeks but this..." and the dread that overcomes them looks like someone just unplugged their life source from their back like robot doll. Shoulders droop, eyes fall down to their shoes, and I can feel the weight of their worry.
The question always boils down to "what can I eat?". And truthfully, I think that this question isn't a question. It's more a cry for help, begging for someone to save them from the doom of pies and mac n' cheese, your friend's best deep fried turkey, soda, chips, Aunt AnnaMarie's cherry pie or.... you get the idea. 

Then there's the images that appear. You know the ones, where everybody keeps telling you to eat, that "it's okay.. come on!" or that you HAVE TO try so-and-so's homemade fat and sugar delicacy. And here you stand, alone like a pillar in the masses of paper plates, chewing sounds and the fragrance of burgers and dogs in the air. Alone on the dance floor.
Fast foward to when everybody's eating and you're just sitting there with a few raw carrots and a cup of water you got from the sink inside. Or worse, you imagine yourself giving in and sitting at that same table, but this time your "the fat girl" who's eating pie and neglecting the salad. You feel like you're going into a war without a winning  chance. 

When people ask me "What should I eat?" They're usually really asking me "How do I overcome my fear?" 

If you'd like some basic Tips for Surviving a Summer BBQ, click HERE. If you'd like your superficial question of "What can I eat?" answered, keep reading. 

Instead of using hamburger or hot dog buns, go bun free! Dig in lazy Heather's pre-made salad and grab the biggest lettuce leaves. Perfect for a super messy and awesome sandwich, minus the flour and yoga mat putty. (you do know that's why your Walmart buns never go bad right?) You can also slide a hotdog down the middle of a lettuce leaf's crack to hold it in place... hey look... you're the one who asked here pal, I'm just giving you the answers. You're the one taking it to a weird level. Lastly, you can make a burger salad! Lettuce, tomato, cheese and fresh veggies with a chopped up burger on top. Aren't you glad I didn't call it a tossed salad? You sicko. 

If there's a BBQ, there's sure to be the classic and reliable cooler of ice that doubles as a stool for the chairless participants. And what happens the second you arrive at John's house with your well meaning tofu salad? He points you right to the cooler to "get a couple of drinks...." and proceeds to shout out various drink selections over the music and through the wading crowd.
You know what lies beneath that rectangular cover... mounds of ice  and water loaded with the usual suspects: beers, Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, and sometimes, by well meaning souls, you'll find some flavored water or apple juice. And that's where it starts. Just one sip and a chain reaction inside your body begins. 
So be the cool guy who trashes the tofu and brings homemade lemonade! All you need is water, lemons and sweetner like raw sugar or honey, and a freezer. Make a large pitcher the night before, freeze for a few hours and boom you're done. I've done official lemonade research and it's a proven fact that everyone on the planet loves nothing more than ice cold lemonade made from scratch. No, the answer wasn't beer or sweet tea... I should slap you with my lettuce wrapped dog!

Admit it. When you think of a cookout, you think of burgers, ribs, hotdogs, and other hunks of flesh on the grill. And just because Tiffany's all into hunks of meat, doesn't mean you have to be. There are other ways to get just as much pleasure from your barbecue without all the... hamburgers and hotdogs. You can grill carrots, asparagus, peppers, mushrooms, onions, squash, and zucchini to name a few. Feel like making it into "a group thing"? Make skewers for the grill and watch how fast they get taken and enjoyed instead of Oscar's wiener. Less fat and ground up bone with all the grill pleasure and no regrets. But, if you can't help yourself....

Everybody always forgets about the poor chicken and fish options. Did you know they make up at least 30% of the cookout meat options? It's not just about the burgers, even if that's all you see on tv. 
Choose to have some plain grilled chicken. Choose to have Hawaiian Salmon on the grill with pineapple. Mix it up and realize you have choices out there, it doesn't have to be burgers or nothing at all. There are quite literally, a lot of fish in the sea. 

Sure, everybody wants the 3-layer cheesecake with chocolate sauce dribbled on top. Hell, I'd like some myself. But want I don't want, and I'm pretty sure you don't want either, is a fat gut the next day.
There's nothing worse then waking up in a sugar drunk stupor wondering what happened last night. As you look down at the crumpled clothes at the foot of the bed, you see the stain. The cheesecake stain, and like a horrible laughing nightmare the evening flashes before your eyes. People laughing, solo cups clanging and your fork softly and intently pushing into the creamy thickness of cheesecake on your plate. 
As you fully realize the error of your ways, you get up and look yourself in the mirror. No longer are you innocent like you were yesterday, and as you stumble to get dressed, realize you no longer fit into your $46 dollar denim jeans you wore last week. The horrors! 
So instead, don't do what I did, don't make my mistake,  make the smart choice of abstinence. Choose to indulge in something more mouth watering without all the questions of "how long will it take to walk off 4 slices of cheesecake?" in google. 
Fresh cut berries and fruit with real home made whipped cream is to die for... add some all natural chocolate shavings on top and I didn't just die, I went to heaven. Too complicated? There's always watermelon, pineapples, or homemade fruit parfait with yogurt, granola and berries. You have other choices, so don't let anyone force you into any cheesecake you don't really want to eat.