This book sounds really interesting...

[BellyBelly]

Sweet Poison: Why Sugar is Making Us Fat
Author: Gillespie David

David Gillespie was 40kg overweight, lethargic, sleep-deprived and the father of four, with twins on the way. He knew he needed to lose weight fast, but he had run out of diets - all had failed.

After doing some reading on evolution (why weren't our forebears fat?), David cut sugar - specifically fructose - from his diet. He immediately started to lose weight, and kept it off. Slim, trim and fired up, David set out to look at the connection between sugar, our soaring obesity rates and some of the more worrying diseases of the twenty-first century, and discovered some startling facts in the process.

Sugar was once such a rare resource that nature decided we didn't need an off-switch - in other words, we can keep eating sugar without feeling full.

In the space of 150 years, we have gone from eating no added sugar to more than a kilogram a week. You would need to run 7km every day of your life just to no put on weight as a result of eating that much sugar.

Two decades ago 1 in 14 adult Australians were obses; that figure is now 1 in 5.
The 'natural' sugar in one glass of unsweetened fruit juie per day for a year is enough to add just over 2.5kg your waistline.

The more sugar we eat, the more we want. Food manufacturers exploit our sugar addiction by lacing it through 'non-sweet' products, such as bread, sauces, soups and cereals.

Sweet Poison exposes one of the great health scourges of our time and offers a wealth of practical and accessible information on how to avoid fructose, increase your enjoyment of food and lose weight.

Sounds like something I would enjoy reading, will have to get myself a copy I think!

[kelebek]

This is really interesting Kelly, when I was trying to loose weight I also read that it is easier & faster for our bodies to process fat then sugar cause sugar has to turn to fat for the body to process. That, particularly in Aus, you are better of eating full fat food cause you feel fuller quicker & our portion sizes for less fat foods tend to be more because there we know there is less fat. Less fat foods also tend to have added salt & sugar to make up the taste,
viva la full fat foods I say.

[C~Q]

This is really interesting Kelly, when I was trying to loose weight I also read that it is easier & faster for our bodies to process fat then sugar cause sugar has to turn to fat for the body to process.

Where did you read that?! That is completely false lol! I haven't got time to post now, i've got kids running around my feet but i'll be back soon

[Matryoshka]

Also check out "potatoes not prozac" - fantastic book which explores the relationship between sugar/mood/weight and addiction.

Sugar acts on the body like a drug, it works on exactly the same receptors as opiods in the brain.

But try cutting it out and its almost impossible unless you go raw - i tried this a few years ago and sugar is in virtually everything on your supermarket shelf. And what happens is you accidentally consume some, even a tiny amount and it sets off huge cravings for more.