On 60 minutes last night Sarah Wilson talked about the 'evils of sugar'.
Don’t get me wrong, I
love sugar ... chocolate, lollies, cakes, alcohol etc. But there is so much evidence on how sugar is a mood
changer, and can act like a drug.
Sugar is addictive.
Put a bowl of lollies on the table and stop yourself from eating more
than one.
Sugar is addictive
to rats. Sugar binges changed the levels of the rats' brain chemicals that
control how much they want and like something. When their sugar was taken away,
the rats did pretty much whatever they could to get sugar again. That is why sugar addicts get grumpy if they
don’t get their sugar.
(If you want me to
be all scientific and reference my sources for this information, I will, but I
thought I would ‘lighten up’ when writing this!)
When you are stressed and tired sugar is even more
appealing, because it seems like a quick pick me up and a feel good reward, the
immediate hit makes you feel better. However, it is also a downer and can put
you to sleep (and rot your teeth!).
I love sugar, but I try to control it to a reasonable
amount: I have dark chocolate a lot – I love the Whittakers 65% with almonds, Lindt 85% Excellence, Oxfam fair trade organic dark Belgian (70%). All
fair trade and have a good policy on palm oil and limited additives.
So; what does sugar do to you that is so bad?????....
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It ages you
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It depresses the immune system
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It depletes your nutrient store
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It contributes to high cholesterol
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It acidifies the body
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It stresses the liver and increases liver fat
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It can trigger autoimmune responses like
asthma, arthritis, headaches, yeast infections
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It can contribute to anxiety and depression and thus aggression
and moodiness
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Makes PMS worse (Gawd- worse!!!!)
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Causes mineral deficiencies
What Sarah pointed
out on the program (http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2012/06/i-quit-sugar-on-60-minutes/) is how sugar is in so many foods that we take for granted; put in as an
added product. And it has a multitude of names to make
you think it is not sugar:
Corn syrup, Dextrose, Fructose, Galactose, Glucose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Honey, Invert
Sugar, Lactose, Malt, Maltodextrin, Maltose, Molasses, Panocha, Rice Syrup, Sucrose,
Treacle.
And that is not even considering the other stuff that goes into processing food, rather than just the food itself.
From today I am going to try and be mindful of what I am buying and making. I will let you know what the best stuff is
that I have found, not just food but other things as well.
P.S. To start with; I can recommend Jalna's Vanilla and Cafe Latte
yoghurts. Yes, they have added fruit
juice (fructose) and milk sugar (lactose), but they are a better alternative than the cane sugar (and added
chemical) varieties.
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