5/4 Foodie Friday

Coach Heidi helps Ben get into a great overhead squat position. 
Our nutrition prescription is to eat meat, vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Sugar is one of the most addicting substances on earth. It lights up our brain's happiness zones and spikes our insulin. It can derail our best efforts at eating high quality food, and it makes us fat. Sugar affects a whole bunch of our hormones and can send us into a hangry spiral in just a few hours after consuming it. Too much sugar puts on us the path to Type II Diabetes and a variety of metabolic diseases. 
Sugar added to food has absolutely no nutritional benefit. It's primary purpose is to make food sweet (so we eat MORE of it) and to prevent or delay food from spoiling. Naturally occurring sugar, like fructose in fruit, can be a great source of energy and it doesn't have the same affects on our bodies because (when you eat the fruit, NOT DRINK IT) it is bound with fiber to slow its absorption. Fruit juice however is a serving of insulin spiking fructose because there is no fiber in juice. 
Sugar is a difficult substance to avoid, it's in most packaged and processed food. If you eat something out of a box, bag, bottle, or can, it likely has sugar. Check out this short informative Ted talk on sugar in food. 

As the video shows, there are many names for sugar, and it's important to read labels and get familiar with all of sugar's pseudonyms. Here's a handy sheet from the Whole30 program on all of the names of sugar. 
​Now that you know what you're looking for you can avoid added sugar. Of course, I think the easiest way to avoid sugar is to eat whole, real foods, not things that come in bags, boxes, bottles or cans. Remember our simple food rules? Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. I'll cover the not too much idea next week. 

So, now you're all sad because you realize that NO SUGAR means no chocolate. Well, not so fast. Here's a legit and yummy Paleo recipe that you'll turn to again and again. Try not to turn to it too often, however. These Fudge Babies are a treat and not a regular component of an ass-kicking-CrossFit-Paleo lifestyle. Click on the image for the recipe. BTW - these fudge babies are also vegan. 

Click Here for The WOD