The truth about sugar isn鈥檛 so sweet
Who doesn鈥檛 love sugar ? Most people will probably agree right away.
Others may say, 鈥淣o, not me鈥 don鈥檛 eat sweets.鈥� Perhaps, but let us look closer at what your body treats as sugar. There are long comprehensive lists of substances that have the same effects as sugar, or that turn to sugar in the body, but for the sake of brevity, let蘑菇视频 look at what are often the most common. You may find that you are indeed a sugar addict, and just don鈥檛 know it. In fact, serious research, and experts in the field assert with certainty that sugar, especially white refined sugar, is more addictive than cocaine.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFC) has been in widespread use since the early 1970蘑菇视频, and its popularity is due to the fact that it is perceived as sweeter than table sugar, and it costs significantly less to produce because corn is heavily subsidized. HFC is in virtually all processed foods: foods with labels and packages.
White breads, pastas, grains, and potatoes. These have been stripped of fiber, which makes their simple carbohydrate (which turns to sugar) content instantly accessible to the body. This is what makes them 鈥渁ppealing,鈥� and what makes them deadly over time. More on this below鈥�
There are any number of disguised refined sugars in processed foods under a myriad of names including dextrose, brown rice syrup, cane sugar, coconut palm sugar, molasses, disaccharide, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, malt, maltitol, maltose, palm sugar, saccharose, beet syrup, sucrose, sucrosweet, trisaccharides, xlose, just to name a small few! The idea is processed foods greatly increase your chances of eating gigantic overdoses of sugar.
Now, why is processed sugar dangerous, and why do we (many or most of us) crave it? Fair questions. The answer is that we are supposed to crave it鈥UT鈥hat we are craving is real carbohydrate in the form in which nature provides it. This is a far, far, FAR cry from the refined, bleached, irradiated, genetically modified, massively overused food-like-substance (credit to Michael Pollan) contained in processed foods. Sugar in nature is bound up in fiber, and contains essential minerals. This is similar to why true sea salt is far superior to refined table salt. Not the same substance at all. The sugar in nature, and according to mother nature蘑菇视频 infinite wisdom, is proportioned and in a form that is meant to be consumed by humans and other plant-eating species. The sugar in processed foods is stripped of all minerals and fiber, so it goes straight to the liver and the bloodstream. This is arguably the single cause of 99 percent of human illness, especially in 鈥渄eveloped鈥� countries.
Refined sugar, and foods that the body treats as such, cause a catastrophic reaction in the body, including feeding bad gut bacteria such as Candida, stressing the liver (the body蘑菇视频 cleansing organ), spiking the levels of the hormone insulin, which is indisputably linked as a cause of adult-onset diabetes, and dementia (Alzheimer蘑菇视频). I t also is proven to raise triglycerides, and thereby greatly increase the incidence of heart disease.
If there is a SINGLE thing that you can do to improve your odds at a longer, and more importantly, a more pain-free life, it is cut out white and refined sugars, and foods that are treated as such. Alternative sweeteners? My research suggests that the only sweetener that does not upset the insulin, and that has no known toxicity, is stevia 鈥� pure stevia. I grow it in summer, and use it like lettuce, and in winter I buy 100 percent stevia 鈥� no added chemicals. Be sure to read the labels; many stevia products have added nasties. All other alternative sweeteners such as agave, saccharine, and Splenda have a toxic chemical soup, and they affect the insulin reaction.
Insulin蘑菇视频 job is to get the sugar out of the bloodstream, and into the cells for fuel. But when you are consistently overloaded on sugar, the cells become resistant 鈥� a condition called insulin resistance, which is pre-diabetic. If we consume sugar with fat and salt 鈥� which is quite common: white bun, beef, ketchup, fries, mayonnaise (contains corn syrup), sugary drinks with carbonation (which destroys stomach acid) 鈥� we are pretty much committing intentional destruction to the precious hormone and bacterial balance of our bodies.
Now please don鈥檛 feel attacked or guilty. As children we were bombarded with advertising and holidays centered around these goodies. It is a cultural norm for many persons in America, and now sadly spreading internationally. The truth is out 鈥� it is being presented in books, lectures, and video. Sugar is the scourge of the modern health crisis, causing all the aforementioned conditions plus childhood maladies including obesity and diabetes. This is serious business for you and your children. Please educate yourself so you can begin to heal, and so you can save your children and grandchildren a future of disease and unnecessary pain. I recommend the book 鈥淪weet Poison鈥� by David Gillespie on the topic, or 鈥淓nd of Diabetes鈥� by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Also watch the movie 鈥淧rocessed People,鈥� which is available on Netflix, and also on Youtube last time I checked.
The solution to most or all of the maladies is the knowledge that we as an industrial culture created them! And so one day at a time, one person at a time, one meal at a time, we the people can fix this entirely reversible epidemic.
Until next time, be well, and live with passion and purpose.