When I was brainstorming for this post I wrote the word sugar on a piece of paper and used a spider diagram with ways and events we (and our children) are constantly bombarded with sugar. Here's what I came up with: Holidays (Valentines Day, Easter, Halloween & Christmas), school (all the same holiday parties, classmates birthday celebrations, extra curricular activities), family (grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousin parties), friends (birthday parties outside of school), Doctor and sometimes even Dentist office visits (lolly pops usually) and milestones / life happenings (good report cards, promotions/raises, vacations, etc). For most people, all these events are celebrated with FOOD or SUGAR. Hey, you got straight A's? Let's go get Dairy Queen! In for a big raise at work? Let's go out for a steak dinner! Sadly, these are real life examples, and I am sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. Even if you just look at the school branch of this picture, your child probably has somewhere between 18-25 classmates. Which means, that many birthday treats throughout the nine months of school, plus probably four holiday parties, and however else food rewards are used, a good grade on a paper, doing something nice, answering a question correctly in class. Is that moderation??? Add to that, grandparents maybe taking your child to the movies (my grandparents house was nicknamed the Sugar Shack, and with good reason, donuts, money bread, cakes, candy, and ice cream was a regular occurance) where they binge on candy, the weekend friend birthday party where there's cupcakes and maybe a treat bag for the road, the sucker they get at the doctor for sitting through the exam, oh and don't forget all the candy and chocolate in the Christmas stocking coming up. I used to make crazy treats at Christmas time, I had things stashed all over the house. We would be on a constant sugar high for the 31 days of December! All these things, spread out over the course of the year, that is a LOT of sugar. TOO much sugar. And it literally begins at birth. Would it even surprise you to know that the FIRST ingredient in several popular infant formulas is SUGAR? See a photo/article of label here. Why don't we just put coca cola in their bottles?! And what do babies typically get after formula, apple juice, aka sugar. Without the fiber in the whole food, it's just sugar. You may as well hand them 10 teaspoons of table sugar. The toll this takes on your body and pancreas, while may be invisible from the outside, is accumulating on the inside. That's also why we have mood swings and temper tantrums, we're on an internal roller coaster! We cannot stress enough, the changes we've seen in our boys since cleaning up their diet. They no longer suffer from allergies, asthma, eczema, they don't get sick anymore, and they get along better! I used to be so stressed out hollering at them for fighting and arguing, but now they're more like best friends. They whisper and giggle and I honestly don't have to intervene, but maybe once per week anymore. Imagine!!
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| The candy collection began August 1, not including Trick or Treating or all the other Twinkies we experimented with. A humorous post about the sugar gaunlet that begins at Halloween. |
All of that refined, and likely genetically modified, sugar promotes systemic inflammation, which we should all know by now, is bad news and leads to chronic illness and metabolic disease. It also creates insulin resistance. And every time you consume sugar (in all forms) you tax that pancreas, and it can only keep up for so long. With all those sugar spikes over the course of several years, you will develop some level of insulin resistance and possibly even diabetes. I think everyone knows that with diabetes comes pills, injections, neuropathy, vision complications, higher risk for heart disease and stroke, maybe even amputation. Think of it like this: If you continually treat your morning commute like a series of drag races, those frequent and sudden speed changes will be very taxing on your drivetrain and brakes. Your car may look fine on the outside, but on the inside it's dying a slow death. As much fun as all that sounds, we think we'll stick with prevention! Benjamin Franklin once said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
If you're trying to lose weight, refined sugar should definitely be avoided! Don't be fooled by "low fat" schemes. While some candy and even "healthy" things like yogurt can have NO fat, they are full of sugar (a.k.a. Corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, doesn't matter, it's all sugar) and if you don't burn it off, guess what, it's stored as fat. Yep, all that cellulite you see in the mirror, thank all those low fat foods! Did you know that to burn the calories from ONE m&m candy (not one bag), you would have to walk the length of a football field. And who eats just ONE?! That's why even the smallest splurge will make you pack on the pounds. Check out what researchers found when they fed mice a healthy diet, with only modest amounts of sugar. In this day and age, we maintain so many things and yet, we fail to take care of our most value piece of equipment, the body we carry around. We pay to maintain (or have someone else maintain) our cars, our lawn mower, our furnace, our air conditioner, appliances, but we shovel sugar into our bodies in massive quantities and think nothing of it. And you'll find sugar hiding in the most surprising places if you look: condiments, cereals, alcoholic beverages, sauces & dressings, breads/buns, etc. Pretty much every item on a fast food menu has some form of sugar in it, take a look. You could feel so much better if you just choose more wisely. So the next time you see that triple layer cake on Pinterest, just keep scrolling and find a better option, perhaps something sweetened with raw honey, bananas, or dates. If you're currently a sugar fiend, start small. Maybe go one day per week where you have no sugar at all. After a couple weeks of success at that, make it two days in a row, and so on. Still for others, going cold turkey may be the best option. Get through the withdrawal and never look back. Set small, attainable goals. It will be tough, but you can do it and it is well worth it. It won't be easy, there may be times that you're tempted or feel pressured into indulging, just remember why you're doing it and focus on how good you feel. It's best to limit the big sugar splurges to once or twice a year, say your birthday or anniversary, then by all means, enjoy that piece of cake. It just shouldn't be twelve times a month, if you're truly seeking the best overall health. And who wouldn't like to be the best version of themselves?
And maybe instead of going for ice cream when your kids bring home good grades or your spouse gets a promotion, replace it with something non-food related, maybe even something physically active. Perhaps a family activity like going on a hike and picnic, or a bike ride. If geography or weather doesn't permit that, maybe an indoor gym where you could rock climb or play tennis. Or there's always bowling and arcades. If you've got a whole weekend and the funds, plan a short trip somewhere. See something you've never seen! Anything that doesn't revolve around food! Experiences are always better than food. I promise you, no one will remember that sundae they devoured months down the road, but I'll bet they'll remember the family bonding and the laughs they had while watching mom try to rollerskate. Plus, your pancreas will thank you!
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