The Sugar Blockers Diet

Use these seven rules to tap into the power of foods that can naturally slow sugar absorption, so you can keep eating meals you love.

Break Your Sugar and Starch Addiction

In the world of fantasy wish lists, wouldn’t it be great if–instead of prompting us to snack all the time–our bodies would just use up fat we have already stored?

One major reason this doesn’t happen has to do with our diets. When you consume starch and refined sugar, these foods enter the bloodstream quickly, causing a sugar spike. Your body then produces the hormone insulin to drive that sugar from your bloodstream into cells. But over time, excessive levels of insulin can make your muscle cells lose sensitivity to the hormone, leading to type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Your fat cells are another story: They always remain sensitive. Insulin spikes lock fat into them, so you can’t use it for energy.

How do you break this cycle and get your body to work optimally again? Happily, you don’t need to go on an extreme diet. The first step is just to reduce the blood sugar spikes that produce sharp increases of insulin. The substance in our diet that’s most responsible for these surges is starch–namely, anything made from potatoes, rice, flour, corn, or other grains. (Think pasta, lasagna, white bread, doughnuts, cookies, and cakes.) You could cut out these foods entirely. But wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to solve the problem without completely eliminating these carbs?

It turns out there is. You can blunt the blood sugar-raising effects by taking advantage of natural substances in foods that slow carbohydrate digestion and entry into the bloodstream. No matter what kind of sugar blocker you use, your waistline (and health) will win in the end.

Adapted from The Sugar Blockers Diet: Eat Great, Lose Weight–A Doctor’s 3-Step Plan to Lose Weight, Lower Blood Sugar, and Beat Diabetes–While Eating the Carbs You Love, by Rob Thompson, MD, with the editors of Prevention (Rodale, 2012).