The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet: The 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula That Resets Your Metabolism To Lose Up to 5 Pounds a Week by Yuri Elkaim Read Free Book Online Page B

cholesterol (the most dangerous kind), leading to dangerous blood tryglicerides and cholesterol levels, fat around your vital organs, and, ultimately, heart disease. 37
    •Fructose increases blood levels of uric acid, leading to gout and elevated blood pressure. 38
    •It causes a buildup of fat in the liver, potentially leading to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. 39
    •It causes insulin resistance, which ultimately leads to obesity and type 2 diabetes. 40
    • Fructose doesn’t tell your brain that you’re full, making you eat more total calories. 41
    •Excess fructose consumption may cause leptin resistance, throwing body fat regulation out of whack and contributing to obesity. 42
    When I talk about fructose, the most common question that arises is whether fruit, which contains fructose, is bad for us. The short answer is no. Fruits aren’t just watery bags of fructose; they are real foods with a low energy density and lots of fiber. That fiber slows the release of fructose from the stomach into the liver. Since fructose metabolism is a rate-dependent process, the natural fiber found in fruit is the key. Knowing this will help you understand why eating an apple is much better for you than drinking apple juice. In fact, did you know that, ounce for ounce, apple juice and Coca-Cola have the exact same amount of sugar? Yup, 0.11 gram of sugar per milliliter. Crazy, right?
    If you’ve followed my work, you’ll know that I’m a huge proponent of juicing. But I’m not talking about juicing fruit. Why? Because when you juice fruit, you remove the fiber and create liquid fructose, which—although it may contain some good vitamins and minerals—is a health disaster in the making. If you’re going to juice, and you totally should, focus on juicing vegetables. You can add in one apple or a pear for a touch of sweetness. But please don’t juice five apples or two melons, okay? You’re just asking for trouble.
    So, to recap, eating fruit in its whole form is fine. Juicing it is not. And that holds true for those bottled, so-called healthy juices you find at Starbucks or your local grocery store. Look at their labels, and you’ll see that they contain a truckload of sugar. Look at their ingredient list and you’ll see why. Take Odwalla’s Original Superfood Fruit Smoothie Blend as an example. Although it’s cleverly disguised as a healthy green smoothie, it really isn’t. Its ingredient list looks like this:
    Apple Juice, Peach Purée, Mango Purée, Strawberry Purée, Banana Purée, Spirulina, Soy Lecithin, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Kale, Wheat Grass, Barley Grass, Wheat Sprouts, Jerusalem Artichoke, and Nova Scotia Dulse. 43
    And it contains soy! A green smoothie whose first five and thus more prominent ingredients are fruit juices and fruit purées? That’s not much of a green smoothie, if you ask me. It’s really a 450-milliliter dose of 49 grams of liquid sugar (more than in Coca-Cola), with just 2 grams of fiber. That’s certainly much less fiber than you would get if you made a blended smoothie at home.
    If you made a predominantly fruit-based smoothie (in a blender, not a juicer) at home, you would get a lot more fiber. Let me illustrate by showing you one of my favorite (although higher-carb) green smoothies. In it, I put:
2 cups kale or spinach
½ cup cilantro
1 apple
1 banana
1 pear
Juice of ½ lime
2–3 cups water
    When I calculate the nutrient breakdown (using cronometer.com), I get the following amounts of sugar and fiber.
    Sugar = 50 grams (about 25 grams of fructose)
    Fiber = 14 grams
    That’s a much different story than the bottled juice smoothie. Yes, this smoothie is higher in sugar, but much of it is buffered by a good amount of fiber. That’s the difference when you make things from scratch versus relying on sneaky food companies.
    FAT TRIGGER #6:
    Too Much “Frankenfood”
    Throughout this book, I’m going to drill something into your head: For the most part, being fat is not your fault.