Sugar. Sugars, which are often called ‘simple sugars’, are made up of only one or two structural units. Monosaccharides (mono meaning one and saccharide meaning sugar) are made up of a single carbon ring. These include glucose, fructose and galactose. Glucose is the major monosaccharide in the body and is also known as dextrose or blood sugar, fructose is found in fruits and galactose is only present by itself in nature in very small amounts. Two monosaccharides joined together are called a disaccharide (di meaning two). These include maltose, sucrose and lactose. Maltose is present in sprouting grains and is made up of two glucose units bonded together. Sucrose, more commonly known as table sugar, consists of glucose and fructose. Lactose consists of glucose and galactose and is the sugar present in mammalian milk.

Starch. A carbohydrate containing many monosaccharide units is called a polysaccharide (poly meaning many) or starch. More commonly known as ‘complex carbohydrates’ these are the storage forms of carbohydrates in plants – amylase and amylopectin.

Fibre. Contrary to popular belief, fibre is not just one substance. Rather, the term is an all-embracing one for a number of components found in plants, which include cellulose and other insoluble fibre components and gel-forming or soluble fibres such as pectins, gums and mucilages found in fruits, oats and barley. All fibre is made up of multiple saccharide units and nutritional scientists now prefer to call fibre a non-starch polysaccharide (NSP).

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At one time, scientists believed that eating was a single process. Hunger and satiety were thought of as opposite sides of the same coin, just as inhaling and exhaling form one complete breathing cycle. In the past few years, however, we have come to look at eating as a series of processes that operate somewhat independently of one another. Hunger, in other words, is a somewhat separate system from satiety.

The discovery of these separate systems changed the way we think about eating disorders. Experts used to believe that anorexia involved a malfunction only in the hunger feedback loop. Although patients usually admit feeling hungry, they somehow condition themselves to ignore those signals. Perhaps the signals are faulty in some way—they may be too weak or are sent along the wrong pathway.

But we now have evidence that anorexia also involves malfunctioning satiety feedback loops. For example, an anorexic’s stomach will often be slow in passing food along—a condition known as delayed gastric emptying. It has been well demonstrated that the slowing of stomach emptying in anorexia increases the perception of fullness or satiety. Thus in these people even the presence of a small amount of food in the stomach may trigger satiety signals. Other studies confirm that an anorexic’s feelings of hunger and satiety do not necessarily correlate with the actual amount of food in her stomach. Bulimia, too, may arise from abnormalities in both the hunger and the satiety systems.

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She’s living proof that it works.

“I tried everything to get rid of those 10 pounds,” said Ileen, 49, of Elmira, New York. “I ate low-fat snacks. I worked out three times a week. I lost weight, but it always came back.” Then, after reading magazine articles that described how small lifestyle changes can produce big results, she decided to find out if little things really do count.

“I started parking the car at the far end of the parking lot instead of in the closest spot,” she says. “I used the stairs instead of elevators. I made two trips carrying the groceries instead of one.”

She didn’t even notice what was happening until her clothes got so loose that it prompted her to step onto the scale. “I couldn’t believe it—those 10 pounds were finally gone,” she says. That was more than 3 years ago. The weight has stayed off ever since.

She still works out and eats healthfully. The key to keeping off extra pounds, she says, is to take extra steps whenever possible.

“I shifted my attention from thinking about what I should or shouldn’t eat to thinking about how great I feel when I move my body,” Ileen says. “Now I see even the littlest things, like walking a quarter-mile to the supermarket, as opportunities, because they feel so good.”

WINNING ACTION

Let your feet help you achieve your goal weight

Throughout your day, look for opportunities to incorporate extra steps into your routine. If you’re expecting a lengthy phone call, take the call on a cordless phone and walk around while talking. If you use public transportation, get off a stop or two before your destination and walk the extra distance. If you need to use the rest room at work, go to another floor—and take the stairs. The possibilities are endless.

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