Sugar Busters Diet
Julia Trotter
Background of Diet
SugarBusters! was founded by Samuel S. Andrews, M.D., Morrison C. Bethea, M.D., Luis A. Balart, M.D., and H. Leighton Steward. Together, they wrote the book and came up with the concept for a "Healthy Life Style" that reduced the amount of sugar in peoples diets to allow them to lose weight when paired with exercise and a healthy amount of food.
Requiremnets
- Sugar Busters! involves eating high fiber vegetables and whole grains. The fiber in both of these food products has a beneficial effect on your digestive process and overall health.
- Fruits are encouraged onSugar Busters! and are excellent as snacks
- Meats are an important source of protein but should be lean and trimmed. Sugar Busters! is cautious about fat.
- Encourage reduced fat foods
- Hydration is important and everyone is encouraged to drink six to eight glasses of water daily.
- No missing meals
- Moderation in portion size
- Late night snacking is not allowed
- You should strive to exercise at least twenty minutes four days per week so that you will raise your resting heart rate
- You can eat from all food groups, but we encourage you to make the best selections within each food group Sugar Busters!
- It's not required to follow their plan exactly, but is said that the closer you follow it the better your results will be.
Positive Effects
- The diet helps to eliminate consumption of refined sugar
- This diet does not involve calorie counting
- The diet cuts out many foods that are clearly unhealthy
- The diet encourages exercise along with the diet.
- In the short term, the Sugar Busters plan is likely to result in weight loss because it eliminates many foods, including baked goods and other sweets. And your food choices will be better, such as substituting whole grains for white bread, for instance.
- stresses eating healthy foods, such as whole grains, legumes and beans, and lean meats. And cutting out refined sugars in processed foods is a plus. However, Gans believes the diet is too restrictive.
Negative Effects
- The diet also eliminates some valuable minerals and nutrients
- This diet is not suitable for vegetarians
- Weight loss is probably down to the automatic calorie reduction and not the 40/30/30 ratio
- The diet restricts some fruit and vegetables, which are essentially healthy for us.
- The long-term outlook is problematic because the Sugar Busters diet lacks the tools to help you make long-term lifestyle changes.
- On the other hand, there are consequences to cutting out too many carbohydrates from your diet. “If you eliminate a lot of the carbs you normally eat, you won’t have energy,” says Gans. “Our brains need glucose to function. You may become irritable and tired.”
Example of a day on the diet.....
Breakfast
1 large orange
Hot oatmeal made with water, no added sugar or margarine
Lunch
Sandwich of turkey breast and regular Swiss cheese on rye bread with Dijon mustard,
light mayo, lettuce, and tomato
Snack
12 grapes
Dinner
Whole-wheat pasta with meat sauce made from lean ground beef
1 cup steamed yellow and green zucchini
Salad of Romaine lettuce, snow peas, and pine nuts with regular oil and vinegar dressing
1 cup sugar-free, non-fat frozen yogurt