Monday 11 June 2012

Oh......... S......... UGAR



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?????....
©       It ages you
©        It depresses the immune system
©       It depletes your nutrient store
©       It contributes to high cholesterol
©       It acidifies the body
©        It stresses the liver and increases liver fat
©        It can trigger autoimmune responses like asthma, arthritis, headaches, yeast infections
©       It can contribute to anxiety and depression and thus aggression and moodiness
©       Makes PMS worse (Gawd- worse!!!!)
©        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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