As a cardiac care nurse at Baylor Medical Center at Irving, Lesa Coleman knows the importance of a healthy diet.
In a typical day she will eat oatmeal for breakfast with a banana, two small snacks and two small meals. Coleman said she eats less now than she ever did.
It was Coleman's son, a Marine, who made her realize she needed to eat better and lose weight.
"We were going out for breakfast at Ihop, we were going to have the pancake everything and he ordered a grilled chicken spinach salad," said Coleman. "And I said, 'Oh, you eat like that?' and he's like, 'Yeah, of course, what else.'"
That was the moment Coleman decided to cut refined sugar out of her diet. In the process of cutting out refined sugar she has lost 50 pounds, which took about a year and her husband has dropped 40.
"Sugar was toxic to me," said Coleman. "We hardly ever eat out. We just prefer to eat our own food. My husband is just a good cook. I didn't want anyone elses food."
For some, cutting out sugar may seem like a difficult undertaking, but there is a simple way to get started.
"It's not that hard if you just go with the nothing sweet, nothing white and stick to that," said Dr. Michael Rothkopf, with Baylor Medical Center at Irving. "You are going to eliminate 90 percent of the foods that are basically high glycemic index foods."
Instead look for foods which have a low glycemic index. Those foods include fruit, vegetables, foods high in protein, don't forget about fish, chicken and lean meats. Pass the bread, baked potato and starches.
Rothkopf recommends paying attention to what you eat instead of counting calories.
"Lets make sure we know what is going in the mouth and that's it's not sugar, flower, not simple starches," said Rothkopf. "Lets get some nutritious food in there that, number one will satisfy our appetite and number two is going to help us burn off some of this fat."
Remember, experiment, try something different and read labels, because you never know where sugar will pop up.
