Taming the sugar beast part 1

© Lloid | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

We eat so much sugar in the United States.  It is insaine to look at the amounts of sugar we eat in this country. It is really sad for our children to be in this situation. It can be turned around one person, one family, and one neighborhood at a time.

How? you may ask. Let me share some things I have learned.

1. Sugar substitutes are not it! This past week I heard and read several articles and TV shows about the dangers of Sugar substitutes. We all know they are not the answer, otherwise this discussion wouldn't be taking place. I will include links to the articles at the end of this post.

2. Corn syrup is not the same as sugar! I was surprised the other day when I was watching a TV show about going green. They were making plastic bottles out of corn. They went through the whole process from feild to bottle. I was surprised when about twelve steps into the process, the narrater announced that "we now have corn syrup". I was shocked that it took that many steps to make corn syrup. Then I was really shocked at the fact that it was only two or three more steps and they had plastic bottles.

3. Our brains need sugar (glucose) to function properly! It needs sugar that our body gets from the food that we eat. The problem is we are feeding our brains and bodies loads of processed sugar and artifical sweetners, not the real food that it is really needing. Our brain keeps signaling for real food, and we keep interpreting it as a need for sugar, and artifical sweetners only make it worse.


What is the next step.

                                                            © Jjmaree | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos


TO BEGIN TAMING THE SUGAR BEAST GIVE THE BODY WHAT IT REALLY WANTS
REAL FOOD!

Three tasks for this week:

1. No artifical sugars or sugar substitutes. Eliminate them all this week. No more diet sodas, no pink, blue, or yellow packets added to coffee. No more light yogurt.  What are you going to use instead? You can use a natural sweetner like honey, maple syrup, stevia, or just plain old sugar. Now hold on a minute! sugar! I thought this was about getting rid of excess sugar in our diet. Yes it is, and we will get to that in part two. For now, eliminating artifical sweetners is upmost important.

A word about agave nectar or syrup. True agave would be acceptable, but it is hard to find and is an aquired taste. The stuff sold to us in America as a healty sweet alternative is really overprocessed goo made from the starch of the plant in a very similar fashion to corn syrup.  It is like corn syrup, just begining with a different starch.

2. Eat a serving of fruit every three to four hours during the day.
This was advice I heard from Zonya Foco. She is a leading nutritionist. Our bodies and brains are craving real food. Fresh, frozen or canned it does not matter, except watch out for canned fruit in heavy syrup. Read your labels on the frozen fruit. Stay away from corn syrup. Canned or frozen in natural juices is best. This will begin to feed the brain with good whole food nutrition. It will help to stabilize your blood sugar, and your glocose level in the brain. The cravings will begin to diminish to a low rumble as opposed to an all out, in your face roar.

3. Journal. Write down everything that you eat for the week. If you can, also write the time of day, and what you were feeling at the time. This will aid in discovering patterns and cycles in your eating habits. Later we can evaluate, and work on breaking those cycles.

YOU CAN DO THIS STUFF! Or you can live with the ever present roar of your body trying to get the nutrition it needs. If nothing else try adding the daily fruit to your diet. Zonya swears by it.  It has helped me to tone down the amount of sugar that I desire. It is worth the try.

Links to relevent information


Zonya Foco health articles

Dr Axe artifical sweetners not so sweet at all

Dr Oz on artifical sweetners

how bad is corn syrup?

fructose evil or misunderstood

food for your brain

berries for the brain Dr weil

nourishing carbohydrates to fuel the brain

agave nectar good or bad?