The Sugar Addiction

The Sugar AddictionI was watching “Hungry for Change” this weekend, and it was validating to hear other health experts say what I’ve been saying for a while:  sugar is as addictive as cocaine or heroin.

Seriously, it’s one of the hardest things in my work as a health coach:  to get people off of sugar.  People are like, “Nuh uh, you stay away from my sweets and my chocolate and my bread!”  Bread is glycemically equivalent to sugar, so a bread addiction is a sugar addiction, as well.

We all (I hope) know that sugar consumption leads to our obesity problem, but it also is a major contributor to chronic diseases and conditions because it is extremely inflammatory (oxidative) within the body.

Even if people know this, there’s definitely a cognitive dissonance when it comes to sugar, probably because of its addictive nature.  I’m always astounded at the amount of sugary foods on display at school parties and PTA functions.

I’m not saying I never indulge, but it’s an occasional treat, not a daily or a many-times-a-day thing.  I’ve discovered through years of being hypoglycemic (at least since a teenager) how to manage my sugar cravings so they’re not controlling me and my emotional reactions. Plus, I don’t want to become a type 2 diabetic like my mom was or my other family members are.

I can always tell when something I’ve eaten has sugar in it because I get very agitated and antsy – what does this do to our kids?

Chef Jamie Oliver makes an excellent visual point by dumping out a wheelbarrow full of sugar on a TED stage to demonstrate the amount of sugar that a child gets from just flavored milk in a 5-year period.  How much sugar do you or your children eat every day?

 

Stress and Food Choice

Stress and Food ChoiceYou’ve heard it before:  everybody is super-stressed these days.  Personally, I think a lot of it has to do with technology creep into our daily lives.

Technology was supposed to make our lives easier, and it does, but it also has allowed work and distractions to creep into our personal lives, causing stress because there is no separation and no boundary between the two.

I grew up in a family that had a chemical/technical translation business in the home (before there were personal computers!), and it was dysfunctional enough then without the separation of work and personal lives.

I think it’s worse for people these days.  No one really goes on a true vacation any more because everyone brings their smartphones with them, which allows employers, clients, soccer teams, etc., to reach them even during down time.

So what can you do about it?  Here’s one very important thing you can do, and I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, because if you’re stretched for time with an overloaded schedule, it’s one of the things you’re likely not doing on a daily basis:  cut out the processed food.

Stress and food choice can be like a chicken-or-the-egg game:  which came first?  Processed food can exacerbate stress, and stress can lead to processed food cravings.

What Is Processed Food?

When I say “processed food”, I mean anything that comes in a bag, box or can.  I also mean 99% of all restaurant food and prepared foods because these typically contain ingredients that I don’t consider healthy, such as added sugars, preservatives, additives, canola oil, soy oil or other vegetable oils.  (Want more info about these unhealthy oils?  Check out the Weston A. Price Foundation.)

The main reason to cut out processed food is because doing so will have an enormous impact on your health, both now and in the future.  You’ll feel better, have more energy and get sick less often.  You’ve probably heard this before, but why is this the case?

Processed foods typically contain refined sugars/carbohydrates and refined oils, two of the most unhealthy “foods” there are.  Not only do they cause inflammation, which is a key component of any chronic health condition, but they also cause reactive hypoglycemia, which stresses your adrenal glands, which reduces your ability to handle stress and lower inflammation, which means you crave carby/bready/sugary foods that can raise your blood sugar quickly.  It’s a vicious cycle.

In addition to being nutritionally deficient, these “foods” also cause nutritional deficiencies in order to metabolize them.  It takes something like 50 molecules of magnesium to process one molecule of sugar.  With Americans consuming 130 POUNDS of sugar every year, it’s no wonder most people are magnesium deficient these days!  Magnesium is a critical mineral that is essential for relaxing the central nervous system.

Here’s What You Can Do

So here’s what you do:  once or twice a week, cook a big batch of something that’s easy to throw together, like chili or stew.  Eat half during the week, and freeze the other half for later.  Do the same with whole grains, like brown rice or quinoa; you can freeze whole grains, too.  (Need recipe ideas?  Click here.)

Every day, you’ll need to cook fresh vegetables.  Sounds hard, but it’s not, and it really doesn’t take too much time.  My favorite ways for cooking them quickly are roasting with a little olive oil and sea salt, steaming or sautéing with garlic, olive oil and sea salt.

Try this for a week or two, and see if you don’t feel better.  I’m betting you’ll be able to handle stress a whole lot better than you did before.

SUGAR AND CHRONIC DISEASES

“A growing body of research suggests that sugar and its nearly chemically identical cousin, HFCS, may very well cause diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, and that these chronic conditions would be far less prevalent if we significantly dialed back our consumption of added sugars.

Big Sugar used Big Tobacco-style tactics to ensure that government agencies would dismiss troubling health claims against their products.  This decades-long effort to stack the scientific deck is why, today, the USDA’s dietary guidelines only speak of sugar in vague generalities.”  Read more…

SOURCE:  Mother Jones

RECOVERY FROM AUTISM IS POSSIBLE

Recovery from autism is possible.  Most, if not all, cases have gut dysbiosis, which is fed by the Standard American Diet (SAD) full of sugar and processed foods.

BOOST YOUR MOOD WITH 7 DOSES OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Anyone who’s spent time with a cranky child – or adult – after they’ve eaten too much candy can tell you: food definitely affects your mood.

Though we often crave sweet “comfort foods” when we’re feeling down, the truth is that sugar usually makes things worse. Spikes and crashes in blood glucose levels leave us feeling irritable, anxious, and tired a few short hours after we indulge. (New research suggests that unhealthy eating habits may even diminish your mental acuity and decision-making abilities.)

Cutting down on refined sugar is obvious. But what if there were foods that could actually boost your psychological wellbeing in the long run? According to a new study from the University of Warwick and Dartmouth College, the answer is surprisingly simple: look no farther than the produce section at your grocery store or farmers’ market.

Researchers analyzed the eating habits of about 80,000 people living in the UK and found that the more fruits and vegetables people ate, the happier they were. Controlling for other variables (such as the remainder of subjects’ diets and a range of demographic, economic, and social factors) researchers found that emotional health rose with fruit and vegetable consumption in a dose-response pattern – each additional portion of fruits and vegetables correlated with an increase in life satisfaction. The sweet spot, so to speak, was about seven servings a day.

Even more surprising was how huge the improvements were: eating more fruit and vegetables corresponded with an increase in .25 to .33 life-satisfaction points. If that sounds small to you, here’s some perspective: being unemployed produced a loss of .9 life-satisfaction points. In other words, eating lots of fruits and vegetables affects your mental wellbeing one-third as much as losing your job!

It’s still unclear exactly how this works, and correlation definitely doesn’t imply causation. But the physical benefits of eating fruits and vegetables are so overwhelmingly conclusive that this study should only act as further encouragement to fuel up on produce throughout the day. Your mood may thank you!

Have you noticed that food affects your mood? Are there any specific foods that you proactively consume or avoid?