Sugar the deadly legal drug

[devineone]

I met with a dietitian at my job back in early August to plan out my food choices.  I was already aware of the dangers of sugar from reading this book back in the late 90's called Sugar busters".  That book was OK but I didn't really pay much attention then. The dietitian recommended a book I'm currently reading that was written in back in 1975 by William Dufty called "Sugar Blues". 

Man, reading this book has really been an eye opener!   He compares refined sugar to any other drug.  He said it was a chemical that was processed and unatural.  He said that to kick sugar cold turkey one would experience withdrawal symptoms similiar to the same symptoms a person would experience if they were withdrawing from any other drug. (Especially if one was a heavy consumer of refined sugar),

" After all heroin is nothing but a chemical.  They take the juice of the poppy and they refine it into opium and then they refine it to morphine and finally to heroin.  Sugar is nothing but a chemical.  They take the juice of the cane or the beet and they refine it to molasses and then they refine it to brown sugar and finally to strange white crystals.
Sugar blues

Personally I think everything in moderation but I didn't realize until I seriously started cutting way back on my sugar intake how hard it is to avoid refined sugar, and I'm not just talking about sugar you buy to sweeten foods.  Sugar is in just about every processed food and drink, it has insinuated itself into American diets and it's the main culprit behind a lot of illness.  Too much sugar causes the pancreas to work too hard, producing insulin and too much insulin in the blood stream causes all sorts of problems too numerous to get into.

One thing I prided myself on was not drinking sodas, but I loved apple juice, 100% no added sugar.  The dietitian told me to give up the apple juice.  We've all heard the comercials that say 100% juice no added sugar and that leads us to think that it's healthy because it's 100% fruit juice and that's "good sugar".  It doesn't matter to your body where the sugar comes from.  Too much sugar is still too much and your body will still process fruit sugar the same way regardless of the source.

Drinking a glass of apple juice is the equivalent of eating 4 or 5 apples in one sitting, the same with orange juice or any other juice.  The dietitian said it is better to eat the fruit and not drink the juice because you're just drinking  too much sugar and taking in unecessary calories.

So since August, I've made a conscious effort to watch the sugar intake.  I drink milk and water, and flavor the water with lemon juice or a drop of cherry or lemon extract or even cucumber slices (they make the water taste a little like melon). I buy organic milk by the 1/2 galllon It's expensive but worth it because it's hormone free. I also buy organic eggs.  which is about 2 dollars more than regular eggs.

I have a juicer so I can make my own fruit juice and control the amount of sugar I drink.

The breads are another giant I have to tackle.  I was told that wheat as it is now was made to feed livestock and because the human population grew so rapidly, people started eating it but it's not good for us and it is a simple carb which means the body converts it straight to sugar.  I was buying stone ground wheat bread, but the first ingredient says whole wheat flour and that is still refined (not as bad as white bread but not much better)

Whole grains are the best grains to consume. Whole grains have a texture, a roughness and a little weight to it, you can see the actual grains and they will fill you up. Grains such as millet, barley, rye, buckwheat, oats, brown rice, wild rice.  Needless to say they can get expensive if you buy from a grocery store so I'm looking into online places where I can buy this wholesale or at a discount.

The dietitian told me that wheat produces an allergic reaction but one many people don't recognize as an allergy.  Sometimes people can get a headache, feel sluggish, that's the body breaking down the wheat and the reaction from it. 

I love chocolate, and it's hard for me to give that up, but I've started reading the gram count in chocolate bars.  The dietitian cautioned that I shouldn't eat more than 8 to 10 grams of sugar a day.  The average chocolate bar contains at least 17 grams of sugar and that's just in the regular size bar.  The jumbo sized bars have more than double that amount!  Artificial sweetners aren't good for the system so I buy at least 70 to 80 percent cacao.  And contrary to popular rumors caffeine is not found in cacao.  I've also purchased the the semi sweet baker's chocolate.  They're tiny and I won't eat that many of them.

The last time I went to the dentist for a cleaning in the spring, they scraped and cleaned the tartar from my teeth.  Now I brush twice a day and floss my teeth but I still had tartar build up, not a lot but it was there especially the bottom inside portion of my teeth. Now I've noticed that I don't see it anymore.  Cutting back on sugar reduces tartar build up on the teeth!  I found this out by contacting my dentist.  (They didn't volunteer this information when I was there for my cleaning, they just told me to brush and floss which I do anyway) not until I told them I was cutting back on the sugar and noticed the tartar didn't come back did they tell me the connection between sugar and tartar. Maybe I should have known this already, duh on me since I didn't. 

Spread the word.  Sugar is a drug, it will kill, there is a multi billion dollar industry that does not want consumers to know this!  Read the labels of food and practice caution!  Too much sugar has a negative cumulative effect on the body.  A lot of ill health can be traced to over consumption of sugar.  It's much more harmful than just causing tooth decay.

During the holidays I'm going to eat and enjoy. I mean ain't no way I'm going to miss the goodies, but I'm going to exercise caution and not eat as much as I once would have eaten.  I've noticed that now that I've cut way back on the sugar, when I do consume it, I can immediately feel the effect.  My stomach feels bloated, even if I've eaten just a small amount, I've also noticed I don't want it as much anymore.

I'm glad I've cut back on the sugar for health reasons and I'm also pleased with the external results too.  Clearer skin and  I've lost a few inches from my waist (down from a 29 to almost a 26 now) and this was since August!

[devineone]

This is a good website to find more information about whole grains and how to incorporate them into your daily eating.

http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org/

In reading this information, I've found that Whole wheat flour is considered whole grain in the states, but if you buy bread that says whole wheat, it doesn't really indicate how much whole grain is in the bread and often the bread is darkened with molasses to make it appear to be whole wheat grain when it really isn't.

It's sad that in order to be healthy people have to put so much effort into "avoiding" bad products and pay more money for regular food items like milk, eggs and bread. Once upon a time, people could just buy food without worrying about the harmful ingredients in it.   Now that it is known that enriched products are not good for consumers why is it still being manufactured and sold?
 
My sister-in-law is pregnant and she was close to having gestational diabetes because of the white rice she consumes.  The Dr put her on brown rice and cautioned her about other foods she should eat.

I think certain products should be recalled, discontinued.   Eventually people will come around and get used to eating the brown rice and whole grain bread if that is all they have to choose in the stores, then the price will come down because more people would purchase it.  Healthy food choices shouldn't be regarded as a speciality items.  Organic eggs shouldn't cost nearly 2x as much as hormone laced eggs after all they're hormone free  which means less was used on the eggs so they should be cheaper? .

With rising health care costs and obesity being the main culprit that results in a lot of ailments from diabetes, to HBP, stroke, heart attacks, I think it's time someone in charge takes a good hard look at the food produced, consumed and made available in this country.  A lot of it is killing people off before their time and contributing to unecessary illnesses that could be avoided if foods that are known to be unhealthy were made healthier or discontinued altogether.     

I buy low sugar preserves (when I've run out of my sister's homemade preserves).  The difference in the amount of sugar is huge.  Low sugar preserves have about 4 to 6 grams of sugar per serving.  Regular preserves have more than double that amount!  The thing is the low sugar preserve taste just fine, it is sweet enough so why even offer the preserve with the higher sugar content per serving?  Just doing little things like reducing the sugar would make a big difference in so many products currently being processed and sold!

Michelle Obama is known for being physically fit and health conscious, wonder if this would be a platform she'd be interested in bringing to the forefront in a way that it hasn't been brought before.

[Bambi eyes]

This is good information Devineone.  I try to be careful about my sugar intake also, especially since my mother was recently diagnosed with Diabetes and that is what her mother (my grandmother) succumbed to.  I worry about my daughter though.  She loves sugar.  She used to steal the sugar packets from the restaurant table when we would go out and I'd find them opened and emptied in her room later on.  Of course I didn't know she'd taken them to begin with, and was shocked at what I found.  This was many moons ago when she was just a tiny tot.  She is aware of the danger as I've told her numerous times but doesn't seem to care. She's stopped eating sugar packets since she got caught, but eating candy is just like eating sugar from the pack, so I don't feel she's really doing any better.   I happen to love 100% Grape Juice, not the cocktail, but the pure Grape Juice.  It is sweet as can be, so I started saving the old plastic container of the previous juice and filling it half way with the new bottle of juice and then adding bottled water to that.  It is still sweet and still tastes good and I get two jugs of juice out of one bottle.  I used to load up my tea with two packs of honey, now I drink it plain.  I used to be the ultimate lover of apple pie alamode but haven't had that sweet duo in who knows when.  My daughter just called me from college yesterday talking about how she's out of snacks and will be needing me to send her some.  I got to making up a list of low sugar type snacks I can send or take to her.  The thing is everything has sugar....EVERYTHING, so short of going to the health food store which I KNOW she's not going to happily eat, I will have to encourage her to stick with nuts/seeds, and veggie type snacks.  The problem is she loves cake like snacks...so maybe some choc chip cookies with low sugar carob chips instead of Toll house chips and then halving the amount of sugar in the recipie will do the trick....Diabetes is a nasty disease, unfortunately kids today think they are invincible and that because they are young they can sort of dodge the unhealthy bullets better than the rest of us can.  I am going to email her with these posts so she can read yet again another warning...maybe this one will sink in.  Thank you. 

[devineone]

This is good information Devineone.  I try to be careful about my sugar intake also, especially since my mother was recently diagnosed with Diabetes and that is what her mother (my grandmother) succumbed to.  I worry about my daughter though.  She loves sugar.

Wow, wonder what made your daughter want sugar like that when she was a tot.  I'm glad that you caught that while she was a tot.  I don't remember being especially warned away from sugar when I was growing up.  Candy was considered a special treat for us growing up.   I think I actually ate healthier as a kid  than I did when I was in college.  We ate dried fruit for snacks, prepared by my grandmother.  (Boy were we "K"ountry like Little House on the Praire.    We had sweets but they were mostly homemade, pies, ice cream and cakes on special occasions.  I don't remember them being overly sweet but then I didn't have much to compare it to.  I remember getting money from my mother once or twice as a kid and I went to the local store (A really small Mom and Pop store front) and just gorged on candy and was sick for days.  My body wasn't used to all that sugar and went crazy.  However as I got older, I did eat more sweets especially in the later teen years because I had more freedom and my own money to buy what I wanted and I wanted what the other kids were eating so I could fit in more and not be so "kountry" with my homemade snacks. 

She used to steal the sugar packets  She is aware of the danger as I've told her numerous times but doesn't seem to care. She's stopped eating sugar packets since she got caught, but eating candy is just like eating sugar from the pack, so I don't feel she's really doing any better.

Yup, sounds like your daughter has the Sugar Blues.    Maybe this book (It's only about 7.00 on Amazon might inspire her to give up the junk food.  Unfortunately by the time the youngsters, realize the effects of over-indulgence of sugar, they are already experiencing health issues related to eating too much sugar.  Still it's not too late to change their eating and their body will respond to that in a positive way. 

I happen to love 100% Grape Juice, not the cocktail, but the pure Grape Juice.  It is sweet as can be, so I started saving the old plastic container of the previous juice and filling it half way with the new bottle of juice and then adding bottled water to that.  It is still sweet and still tastes good and I get two jugs of juice out of one bottle.  I used to load up my tea with two packs of honey, now I drink it plain.

These are excellent steps Bambi.  If only the produce industry could just make their fruit juices less sweet, we'd all be better off.  Since I've started reading the sugar grams per serving, I realized how much sugar I was taking in daily.  When I was drinking apple juice thinking I was being healthy by avoiding sodas, I may as well have been drinking the sodas as the effect of the sugar spiking my insulin levels in my body was causing all sorts of problems.   I drink plain tea as well though occasionally I do like a little skim milk in certain flavors.  I like Bigelow brand caffeine free flavored teas but my favorite is The Republic of Tea  http://www.republicoftea.com/

I used to be the ultimate lover of apple pie alamode but haven't had that sweet duo in who knows when.

You can still enjoy apple pie, just make a few modifications if you make it yourself,.  You can even make your own quick version of it.  Just make a tart and don't add any sugar to the apples, or if you do, cut back on the amount of sugar.  You can simply buy a whole wheat pie crust, slice and  boil the apples just until they are softened, pour into the pie crust, along with some of the juice from the boiled water, flavor them with cininamon and nutmeg, and sprinkle just a little brown sugar on top and bake it.  When it's done, eat it with frozen yogurt.  I may be leaving out some recipe steps but this is a way to enjoy your favorite dessert and cut back on the sugar.

My daughter just called me from college yesterday talking about how she's out of snacks and will be needing me to send her some.  I got to making up a list of low sugar type snacks I can send or take to her.  The thing is everything has sugar....EVERYTHING, so short of going to the health food store which I KNOW she's not going to happily eat, I will have to encourage her to stick with nuts/seeds, and veggie type snacks.  The problem is she loves cake like snacks...so maybe some choc chip cookies with low sugar carob chips instead of Toll house chips and then halving the amount of sugar in the recipie will do the trick....

It's true Bambi, you don't realize how much sugar is in foods until you're trying to avoid it.  The thing is, with cake and cookies, even if you remove all of the chocolate chips from the cookies, she is still eating a simple carb that once digested into her body, will be converted into sugar. Still by removing the chocolate chip,you're removed a "layer" of sugar.  Most cookies are made with enriched white flour with sugar added to the flour mix to make up the cookie dough. So even though you've gotten rid of the candy part (chocolate chip), the body is still getting the sugar, just in another form, (the cookie itself).

Maybe she would like oatmeal raisin cookies with semi sweet chocolate chip morsels.  That is a better alternative than regular chocolate chip cookies.  Even though you use flour to make the oatmeal raisin, you would use more of the rolled oats.  1 part flour, 3 parts oatmeal.  This is better for her body as opposed to a cookie made entirely with enriched white flour as the main ingredient in the batter. Grains that are not stripped (enriched) are not quickly converted into sugar in the body.

Maybe try snack sized ziplock bags filled with semi sweet bakers chocolate morsels and kashi.  She may like dried fruit too.  Do you think she'll outright reject any of this without trying it?  Shoot I remember when I was in college and broke, if I got hungry enough and the cafeteria was closed, I would eat whatever I could get my hands on.    Try to keep introducing her to this food even if she shows a disinterest, just be persistent because it's for her own good.  She may never like it, but at least the seed would be planted and she'll know.

Diabetes is a nasty disease, unfortunately kids today think they are invincible and that because they are young they can sort of dodge the unhealthy bullets better than the rest of us can.  I am going to email her with these posts so she can read yet again another warning...maybe this one will sink in.  Thank you. 

Yes Diabetes is a nasty disease and in some cases Type II diabetes can be avoided with proper eating.  Everytime our blood sugar level goes too low or too high, the pancreas floods the body with insulin in order to bring the blood sugar level back to normal.  Over time, (like bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics), the body can become resistant to responding to insulin.  Not eating enough (crash dieting, skipping meals) is bad because it causes the blood sugar levels to drop too low and insulin is produced.   When we eat too much foods that are simple carbs and sugary foods, this raises the sugar levels too high in the body so insulin is produced to bring the sugar levels back down. 

If your daughter can somehow be made to see that what she eats now will affect her down the line in the not so distant future, then she may be inspired enough to change her eating habits.  Maybe volunteering at a hospital where she takes care of people suffering from various ailments may inspire her to be healthy. 

Maybe she'll meet up with some friends in college who enjoy healthy eating and they will influence her.  But you're being a great Mom in being on top of this.  I still cringe when I see Moms feeding their kids Mickey Dees, chips and candy for snacks.

[Tranquility68]

wow Bambi your daughter's in college already???...I remember when she was in high school!   Lawdy be I'm late to the game again....

Luckily my daughter got hooked on the supersize me shows and she stopped fast food a few years ago and soda just this year.   I make sure we have plenty of cut up veggies,  nuts, hummus, ww crackers, dried fruit, etc....even though they can have a lot of sugar too.  We also dilute juice with sparkling water, gives us that "zing" w/o all the dangers but yeah we got to watch it closely.

When I visited my Uncle a few months ago his feet were swollen like Shrek and he had a nerve to be eating ribs, burgers and then he served us fresh peaches but he threw a slab of pound cake and ice cream on top of it ...

[Bambi eyes]

She may like dried fruit too.

LOL... just reading this makes me laugh.  Her idea of dried fruit is a fruit roll up.  LMAO!

wow Bambi your daughter's in college already???...I remember when she was in high school!   Lawdy be I'm late to the game again....

Yeah Tran... I've been trying to keep you in the loop, but seems like things just picked up speed toward the end and before I knew it myself, she was gone.    Now after all that talk of how I can't wait for her to go, I miss her like crazy.   I guess we're never satisfied... but she'll be home for the holidays just around the corner and already I see a major jump on the maturity scale... voice has changed, very direct, says what she has to say without whining, and even had the nerve to scold me for not keeping the house as tidy as I used to when she was living at home... tables turning swifty I declare I declare... never thought I'd see the day when she'd be chidding me about keeping the house neat and putting away the dishes.     

But yeah... she's not a fast food eater, but more of a ring ding, entenmann's cakes, and cookie dough bites candy muncher.  She just loves the sweet stuff and I do believe as Devineone mentioned she may be addicted to the stuff.    Right about now I've got my mind on a nice slice of Juniors Devils food cheescake that I saw being prepared on the food channel.  Juniors makes the ultimate cheesecake in the universe, so I can just imagine what that devine treat will taste like.  I might have to run over there after work to grab a slice for the ride home.