Well, you should know by now that too much of a good thing is bad. This goes for sugar too. Now do not get me wrong and think "well if sugar is bad I should reach for the aspartame, Splenda, etc., etc". You could not be more WRONG. Those things are pure poison, I don't care if their marketing gurus tell you "it tastes like sugar because it is made from sugar". Yeah, sugar bound with chlorine, does that sound like it is good for you? Come drink my pool water, you will probably get less chemicals in that gulp! Look, the bottom line is, losing weight and getting healthy won't be easy. Why do you think I am not in perfect shape? Knowing the stuff and implementing it are hard to do. Years of bad eating habits have certainly caught up with me, I just am trying to detox and make darn sure my kids don't have the food addictions I do. Here's an excellent article on sugar http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/sugar.htm
One thing to think of is that sugar depresses the immune system. As we battle through cold and flu season and our kids constantly bring home bugs, each piece of candy they (you) eat only serves to bring your defenses down. You don't want that do you? But maybe you are asking yourself, well does that mean I can't ever have sweet stuff? Well, no that would be silly, and more importantly depressing. Here are some healthier alternatives:
1) Stevia - all natural sweetener, sweeter than sugar, sold in the supplement aisle because of the lobbying done by the sugar/artificial sweetener corps. There is a great conversion chart here for baking
http://www.sweetleaf.com/category.php?subcat=recipes&subpage=eq_chart It has no impact on the glycemic levels so it is safe for diabetics too!
2) Agave nectar
3) Real maple syrup
4) Dates
5) Other fruits (especially bananas)
You may ask what the difference is. Sweet is sweet right? No. Not all forms of sugar are the same. Natural ones that are not refined are more gentle on our systems and do not produce the insulin spike like the refined forms do (sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, high fructose corn syrup, regular syrups, etc). You don't want your body riding the sugar roller coaster, constantly spiking insulin. Eventually your body gets sick of that and then you get sick. Talk to someone with diabetes, I bet you will begin looking at your sugar consumption when you see the effects of that disease on a body. The goal here is to be as healthy as we can for as long as we can right? I love sweets as much as the next person (ok maybe more) but I have to look at the long term. So put those Girl Scout Cookies down and go grab a piece of fruit. I know, its not the same but your pancreas will thank you for it.
2 comments:
You have done a ton of research! Thanks for sharing. I really need to think more about what I feed my family.
So true! I've always felt if you have to it's better to use the real thing: butter over margarine, sugar over Equal,Splenda, or whatever they are pushing now (but I haven't tried stevia yet), but the more I read about sugar and it's effects the more it's scary. And the thing is it's in almost all packaged foods, just like salt and partially hydrogenated oil (killer!). Carry on Terri!, Aunt Sally again.
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