Be sexier & stronger with less sugar….

Today's Post: Monday, 6-22-2009

Today, the NewsMax email I get had a story that reported that a recent study at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that consuming sugar caused blood glucose levels to rise, stimulating insulin production. The researchers also found that insulin cut testosterone blood levels by as much as 25 percent.

Since normal testosterone levels help people be sexy, be energetic, focus better, feel better, and stay or get strong due to its growth hormone effects AND men tend to have 1.5 % less testosterone per year after age 30, if you are over 30 you’d likely be better off and prefer to not have it drop MORE than that.

Interestingly, it isn’t just sugar, but the rate it enters your blood stream and how quickly your body uses any insulin it produces to lower high blood sugar and for the insulin itself to then drop in its level that determines how much insulin you have in your system.

If you eat a lot of sugar by itself or refined grains or some starchy foods like potato with no skins, your blood sugar surges, your insulin then surges also, and if you don’t get enough exercise overall and enough vigorous exercise such as running, interval cardio, playing a competitive sport, or strength training, your insulin begins to become less effective and then stays high.

We already know this process makes you fatter and tends to produce or produces type 2 diabetes.

But we now know from this research it cuts your testosterone levels too.

What’s the solution?

1. Eat better – or much better.

2. Take supplements that help your body process sugars normally.

3. Exercise every week. And include at least two or three sessions of vigorous exercise such as running, interval cardio, playing a competitive sport, or strength training as part of your exercise each week.

We already knew that doing these 3 things will make you much less fat; slash your risk of type 2 diabetes; and sharply lower your risk of heart disease.

Thanks to this new research, we now know it will make you sexier as well!

1. Here’s some tips on eating better.

Studies show that people who drink diet soft drinks almost always eat more sugary things as a result.

We said this in a recent post.:

“So, to do the job, eliminate all soft drinks—both regular & diet; eat or drink nothing with high fructose corn syrup in it since it’s not only a kind of sugar and often in the worst foods for you, about a third of it is contaminated with mercury. Then simply eat smaller servings of foods with natural sugars or table sugars and eat them far less frequently. Instead of two or three times a day or more eat them two or three times a month.’

In addition, stop eating or virtually never eat foods made from refined grains. Eat some exclusively whole grain foods; and eat some nonstarchy vegetables, health OK protein foods, or health OK fats and oils instead of refined grain foods. Or, you can buffer very small servings of refined grain foods by eating them with nuts, or extra virgin olive oil, or nonstarchy vegetables. Health OK oils and fiber tend to slow the sugar boosting or glycemic effects of refined grains.

Unfortunately, in most people white rice, white potatoes with no skin, and even brown rice tend to produce the same effects as refined grains.

And, all these foods boost your blood sugar MORE than sugar!

Lastly, eat a lot more nonstarchy vegetables, health OK oils, and health OK proteins instead of these high glycemic foods. THOSE foods give you enough blood sugar but they do it slowly and do NOT cause the sharp increases in insulin or frequent high levels of insulin in the blood that cause these negative effects.

Our recent post on Thursday, 6-18, had some ideas on which vegetables work for this AND help prevent cancer.

Health OK proteins include: wild caught fish and seafood from unpolluted areas; some whole grains; beans and lentils, nonfat and very lowfat dairy products; beef fed only grass; very lean grain fed poultry and meat in small amounts; eggs; and nuts that are raw or dry roasted but have nothing else added to them -- & if you are not allergic to them.

Health OK oils include nuts as we just described; wild caught fish and seafood from unpolluted areas; beef fed only grass; extra virgin olive oil; avocados; and purified fish oil supplements.

2. 400 mg a day of magnesium; 200 or a bit more mcg of chromium polynicotinate; and 200 to 600 mg a day of alpha lipoic acid help your body process sugars quickly with less of an insulin surge and can help also.