I have not posted on this topicfor some time and this is a good place to revisit the subject.
Excess use of sugar is presentlyendemic and built into our processed food chain to such a degree it isdifficult to avoid or even combat. Theactual danger is equivalent to the danger of smoking. Too much for too long and your health will deteriorateinto the diabetic syndrome disease. Fortunatelymost folks eventually get wise and curb its use at some point in their lives,usually a way to combat encroaching obesity.
The best solution would be toregulate it back out of the processed food chain to force consumers to makechoices. Even better, we could use bothglucose when energy is needed (much safer but not so sweet) in conjunction withstevia to provide natural sweetening. This is presently applied in five percent of Japanese soft drinks. My point here is that there is a top downregimen that could hugely reduce this public health curse.
Alternatively, we could chargeoff ten percent of the public health bill off onto the sugar industry to gettheir attention.
In the meantime it is up toyou. So a little advice is helpful.
First, it must be understood thatsugar tolerance is an acquired taste. Stopping cold turkey as suggested here has the benefit of both resettingyour taste buds and immediately forcing your metabolism to relearn how to usealternative sources of energy. It is notas radical as the Atkins diet, a version of which is almost mandatory if youare diabetic, but it does become necessary to use proteins almost exclusivelyfro snack food. There are issues therealso but the efforts of Herbalife to promote protein shakes have gone a longway toward making the process easier.
It is possible to get through aworking day with a breakfast protein shake and possibly a lunch shake followedby a full evening meal.
I would model one’s approachalong those lines. You will soon learnthat you will then find an occasional carbohydrate snack becomes quiteunwelcome because the aftereffects are noticible.
You will find that there is a lotto learn in terms of sustaining your non sugar diet, but it is worth the effortin improving health and strength.
Sugar Stokes Our Happy Place
Most of us have had childhoods chock full of sugar laden"rewards."
Scarcely is a child's birthday party complete without the gaudy,colorful, super-sweet theme cake that makes everybody psychotic immediatelyafter eating it. Every bakery I have ever been to with my children had theobligatory sprinkle sugar cookie at the ready to give out to children to forgea positive relationship. Teachers, grandparents, and yes, even parents, usecandy, ice cream and cookies to bribe or win children over. The promiseddessert is the rainbow at the end of a meal a child does not want to eat. Justthe smell of cotton candy and belgian waffles reminds us of happy times at astreet fair or amusement park when we were carefree kids getting sick on thetilt-a-whirl but enjoying it all the same.
It is no wonder we have such a positive association with sweets. Theyviscerally evoke memories of happiness and make us feel like good people. Each taste of sugar harkens back to feelings of love, approval, security andgood times. We are Pavlovian creatures. Once the association between sugar andapproval is forged we are victims of its lure.
We crave it physically, for its salivary yumminess in the mouth andmomentary rush of energy in the bloodstream, and psychologically for all thosehappy aforementioned associations.
Craving sugar is also biologically very natural. Carbohydrates (sugarbeing a simple form of carbs) are broken down into glucose in the digestivetract. It is the stuff that fuels our physical and mental activities. When weare tired, sleep deprived and overworked -- as, sadly, such a large percentageof our culture is -- we reach for sugar to provide us with a compensatorypick-me-up. Our physiology associates sugar with the energetic boost which kicksin quickly as the refined sugar surges into the bloodstream. Numerous studieshave shown that chronically sleep deprived individuals tend to a higher bodyweight than folks who value their sleep. The sleep deprived population tries tofight its fatigue with food, and the most efficient, and therefore attractive,food for someone desperate for energy is something sweet and sugary. Besides,refined sugar products surround us everywhere. When on the run, it is easier topick up a candy bar or soda from a vending machine than a banana from asupermarket.
If you did manage to score a banana to enjoy as a snack you wouldbenefit in many ways. Fruits are complex carbohydrates, along with vegetables,whole grains, potatoes and legumes. They are high in fiber, promote healthydigestion, give you a satisfied feeling and keep blood sugar stable. On theflip side, if you give in to eating some simple carbohydrates, such as candy,cookies, cakes, sodas, fruit juices, white flour breads and pastas, and mostcommercial packaged breakfast cereals, your body will experience a drasticspike in blood-sugar levels causing mood swings, cravings, compulsive eating,weight gain and eventually an impressive slew of chronic and degenerativeillnesses.
Wait a second, what happened to the happy, feel-good part about sugar?
Well, in the body, as in this story, it doesn't last long...
Refined sugars are unnatural. All the valuable constituents of a wholefood, such as vitamins, minerals and fiber are processed out of itleaving it in more of a chemical than a food form. This pure substancebasically slips through the digestive tract straight to the liver since thereis nothing for our digestive systems to "chew on." The liver isoverwhelmed and is not able to prevent a barrage of sugar from entering intothe blood stream which causes damage to the liver itself and all the cells ofthe body. This incomplete sugar metabolism creates toxins and interferes withcell respiration which leads to cell abnormalities and degenerative diseases. Frequentsugar intake will cause the liver to swell. The excess sugar from the liver issent back into the bloodstream as fatty acids and is cleverly distributedthroughout less active parts of the body like the belly, thighs, breasts andderriere. Coincidentally, 63.1% of American adults are either overweightor obese.
Most of us know that sugar is not good for you but have little idea ofhow much sugar they actually consume and how far reaching the harmfulconsequences really are.
The typical American eats the equivalent of about 31 teaspoons of sugarevery day. This daily sugar intake totals almost 500 extra calories -- about25% of the average person's caloric intake. This rate of sugar consumption addsup to about 2 to 3 pounds of sugar each week or 135 pounds per person per year.
These sugar calories are often masked in breakfast cereals that claimthey are heart healthy or full of healthy fiber. They are found in innocentlooking iced tea and sports beverages and snuck into condiments, salad dressings,crackers and commercial breads. A serving of McDonald's oatmeal, which istouted as a healthy breakfast choice, contains more sugar than a Snickers bar!It adds up even if one tries to avoid the obvious sugars in desserts andsweets.
Now, lets take this 25% of an average person's caloric intake comprisedof refined sugars and consider that these calories are not just devoid ofnutrients but they actually leech vitamins and minerals from the muscles andbones in order to be metabolized. Sugar consumption is what makes the vastmajority of Americans overweight and under-nourished. This one omnipresent,"feel good" substance is making almost every American sick. Refinedsugar and simple carbohydrates are enormous contributors to, if not entirelyresponsible for, all of these health conditions: heart disease, cancer, stroke,diabetes, hormonal imbalances, depression, anxiety, tooth decay, prematureaging, migraines, allergies, osteoporosis, digestive disorders, suppressedimmunity, kidney damage, and hyperactivity -- especially in children.
The positive associations we have with sugar-laden holidays and specialevents are a strong pull on our heart strings and our salivary glands. We maynever be able to over-ride them completely with the knowledge that sugar isreally bad for us. But there are steps that we can take and techniques toempower our bodies and minds that can enable us to break the addiction andarrive at happier and healthier boundaries in our relationship with sugar.
Ok, Go!
Giving up sugar is not difficult! It requires a resolute desire to doso, a period of complete abstinence to break the addiction, learning what tosubstitute for the times that one would normally eat something sugar sweetenedand then making a decision regarding any sort of reasonable sugar allowance.
There are two major motivators for people to change their diets. One isinspiration and the other is suffering.
Through inspiration we have the desire to change to better ourselveswith the wisdom of knowing that thoughtful decision-making and discipline willpay off down the road. Inspiration to create change reflects self love and selfrespect and a willingness to rise above our base desires to achieve somethinggreat for ourselves. Some people give up sugar for this lofty reason.
More often, people decide to give up sugar because they do not feelgood. Perhaps they are getting colds too often and are constantly strugglingwith fatigue. Frequent and migraine headaches are debilitating enough toencourage a change. The desire to have clear skin can even convince an imageconscious teen-ager to lay off the sodas and chocolate. More seriously thescare of a pre-cancerous pap smear, a diagnosis of prediabetes, or adebilitating digestive disorder will drive a patient to do whatever needs to bedone to turn his condition around.
Consider this: A patient with Crone's disease will notice significantimprovement to his condition in 24 to 48 hours after completely abstaining fromsugar. Drinking one soda per day can make a person 10 pounds fatter in oneyear. Imagine the potential weight loss for an overweight person that drinks 3cans of soda per day! Going cold turkey on sugar is guaranteed to even out andenhance a person's energy and mood, and enable more mental clarity. Eliminatingsugar will lower blood pressure for people with hypertension and normalizeblood pressure for people that have episodes of extreme hypotension because lowblood pressure and erratic sugar levels go hand in hand.
Quitting the sugar habit is powerful medicine!
Are those girl scout cookies in the cabinet drastically losing theirappeal?
Are you ready to quit? Here's how!
You need to go cold turkey for three weeks. Throw out all the sweets inyour house (or give them to your least favorite neighbor). This includes sodas,ice cream, cookies, pastries, candy, chocolate, sweetened cereals, granolabars, "nutrition" bars, many snack foods, etc. The only sweet thingsyou should have left are fruit, unsweetened dried fruit, and raw honey.
Natural sweeteners such as maple syrup, agave nectar, and brown ricesyrup, seem pretty innocent but are still unnaturally concentrated sources ofsugar when compared to the original food they are refined from. Brownrice is sweet, but you would have to eat buckets-full to get theamount of sugars that are in a tablespoon of brown rice syrup. Fruit juicespresent the same problem. An orange is good for you but a glass of orange juice(even freshly squeezed) contains the juice of about 6-8 oranges. That's toomuch for your blood sugar. So, you'll have to get rid of the juices too.
Go out and buy some delicious, fresh, organic fruit, and a nice varietyof it. You will crave sugar for the first 2-5 days and eating a banana, someberries or an awesome mango will give you a lot of satisfaction. Why organic?Because it's better for the planet, is not produced with toxic chemicals, andtastes much better! What is good for the planet is good for you.
Plan your meals and snacks with a regular intake of protein in mind.There is nothing better than a nibble of protein to alleviate a sugar craving.It is commonplace for vegetarians, and especially vegans, to have strong sugarcravings due to a deficiency of protein. Eggs, small portions of meats or fish,beans and nuts provide the body with satisfying slow burning fuel whichstabilize blood sugar and reduce sugar cravings.
If you are used to eating sweetened breakfast cereal in the morning youwill have to replace it with either a completely unsweetened variety orsomething entirely different. Unsweetened cereals are hard to find and maytaste a lot like compressed sawdust or shards of hockey pucks. You may want toget more for your money and opt for an egg and a piece of whole grain toast.(Better to get that from a local bakery than a packaged variety from thesupermarket. Bread from the supermarket shelf is likely to contain sweeteners.)
When you are sitting with your friends or family at the table afterdinner and someone mentions dessert... be strong! Stick with your resolutionand learn to decline. After doing this a few times, it becomes easy. It's justa habit. The hardest part for me is shunning the mini Kit-Kat bar that I've hadplopped down in front of me on my airline lunch tray. But I've learned to justtuck it under my napkin and remind myself that the pleasure I may get from itwill only last about a minute.
Good job! You've stood tough, nibbling on nuts when you had to, and nowyou have not eaten sugar for five days. At this point the strong craving isreally gone, and you have found nutritious and yummy foods to take the place ofdesserts and other sugary snacks. You will likely feel a greater mental clarityand sharpness. Bonus!
Some say that the standard amount of time it takes to entirely change apattern, addiction or habit is 21 days, other sources say 30-45 days. There areno hard and fast rules. If you were drinking a liter of soda and a box ofcookies per day it will take much more mental and physical reprograming thanfor someone that had one cookie after lunch each day. Both will crave the habitfor a longer time than the body will crave the sugar. I find that aftercompletely eliminating sugar (that means 100%) for 3 weeks, you will get upfrom the dinner table and realize that your brain did not even consider dessert.
When you reach that benchmark in quitting the sugar habit it is best tostick with it. Just one pastry with your coffee at Starbucks will find youconsidering another the next time. Hopefully, if you cheat, you will get aheadache from the sugar as your body reminds you that it is not doing thisanymore.
Yet on the rare occasion...since a giant piece of carrot cake can popup in front of you on your birthday accompanied by an embarrassing group ofsinging waiters, there is a grace in asking for more forks for your friends andhaving some, and enjoying it.
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