What makes Pussy Fat

Hi My Faithful Followers,
I have had a few emails from friends that are asking about what sugars they can and cannot have, are artificial sugars okay instead etc etc. 

So this post is an education on some facts about sugar and what makes pussy fat. I have taken quite a bit of the info directly from David Gillespie's second book Sweet Poison Quit Plan and hope it helps those of you wanting answers to questions. 


First let's look at food labels. All of the following ingredients seen on food labels contain sugar (or are converted to sugar once consumed) and must be avoided:

• agave syrup (90% fructose)
• corn syrup (55% fructose)
• fructose 
• honey (usually 40% fructose)
• maltitol (converted to fructose by your body)
• mannitol (converted to fructose by your body)
• maple syrup (up to 40% fructose)
• mollasses (usually 40% fructose)
• polydextrose (90% dextrose, 10% sorbitol)
• sorbitol (converted to fructose by your body)
• sucrose (50% fructose)
• golden syrup (usually 40% fructose)

So throw them out if in your cupboard or don't buy if you see on a food ingredient label. You will become a staunch label reader very quickly looking for the added sugars, percentage of sugar etc.

Now not all news is bad. These ingredients when listed are allowed:

• dextrose (another name for glucose)
• glucose
• lactose (converted to galactose and glucose by your body)
• malt (converted to glucose by your body)
• maltose (converted to glucose by your body)

So what is the difference I hear you ask? (Told you I had perfect hearing even if the sight is questionable). Let's go back to basics here....a very simple law of nature. Carbohydrates (complex sugars) are broken down into simple sugars by our digestive system - metabolism. There are only ever three important simple sugars:

• glucose
• fructose
• galactose   

All of the other sugars you are likely to encounter (as above for example) are simply combinations of these three simple sugars.

Glucose is by far the most plentiful of the simple sugars. Pretty much every food (except meat) contains significant quantities of glucose. Even meat (protein) is eventually converted to glucose by your digestive system. Glucose is our primary fuel - no glucose means no us. We need glucose to survive.

Galactose is present in our environment in only very small quantities and is found mainly in dairy products in the form of lactose (where it is joined to a glucose molecule i.e. glucose + galactose = lactose).

Fructose is also relatively rare in nature. It is found primarily in ripe fruits, which is why it is sometimes called 'fruit sugar'. It is usually found together with glucose and it is what makes food taste sweet. As well as fruit, it is naturally present in honey (40%), maple syrup (35%), and agave syrup (90%).

So these are the building blocks of all the sugars in the above lists in different combinations and percentages.

So what exactly is sucrose then? Sucrose (sugar) is what we think of when someone says table sugar. It is composed of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Brown sugar, caster sugar, raw sugar and low GI sugar are all sucrose.

Let's take this one step further and include another dirty word on everyones lips - carbohydrates. How do they fit into this picture. All carbohydrates (and this includes the glucose part of sugars) except fibre and fructose are converted into glucose by your body. Glucose is the body's primary source of energy. Fibre is not normally digested at all; we need it to help mitigate the damage being done by fructose.  So carbohydrates are good for the body as they provide the fuel to keep us going - as long as they do not a large amount of fructose. Remember what I have said in earlier posts. Fructose is converted into circulating fat, so it is the only sugar you really need to worry about.  

So if you look at the above "not allowed's" and the "allowed's" you can see that the not allowed's contain somewhere in their composition fructose or are converted to fructose, and the allowed's contain only glucose or are converted to glucose only. This means we basically have to throw out all processed foods (bottled, tinned, and packeted) as most contain sugar (50% fructose). Yes. I hear you say but sugar is also 50% glucose. I agree. But we have no way of extracting the glucose out of the sugar without also taking in the fructose. And that is why sugar and its many forms is a no-no. 

Fructose ingested predominately makes fat. Immediate conversion to circulating fat would not be such a big deal it we didn't eat much fructose. 1 or 2 pieces of whole fruit per day is allowable; our bodies can cope easily with this as long as it is whole fruit (meaning plus fibre) and not just fruit juice (meaning sugar only and no fibre). But we now eat an awful lot of fructose every day. In 1810, the average Australian's primary source of fructose was the occasional piece of ripe fruit. And you could only get the fruit when it grew; there were no refrigerated aircraft flying bananas from Brazil to Australia in the middle of winter. The fruit, plus the bit of honey amounted to, at most, 1 kg of fructose per person per year.

Thanks to World War 11 and the introduction of fruit juices, cereals and soft drinks consumed by the bucket full, saw the 1960's figures rise to 24 kg of fructose per person per year. And by 2000, that figure had risen to 33kg .... Holy shoot!!!! And this is really damaging our bodies. I bet none of you knew that we had increased our sugar/ fructose annual consumption that much!!! Scary isn't it.

And as for artificial sweeteners, they may help some of you when going through the withdrawal of sugar (if you ignore the risk of any potential side effects) so that you can break the habits built around consuming sugar. But at least 8 recent studies conducted (1989 - 2002) have shown that people who ate and drank low-calorie foods were no thinner over time than the rest of the population. So it is advised that if you don't think you can go cold-turkey off the sugars, then use the artificial sweeteners for 3 to 4 weeks weaning yourself slowly over this time. But don't take them long term. They are the 'methadone' of the sugar drug world.

Well I hope this has cleared up some of the questions and confusion. Once again I thank David Gillespie's book 'Sweet Poison Quit Plan' for the facts and research.

Night all...sweet dreams, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite.....Noels