Saturday, October 29, 2016

Poisoned By Sugar

The 11 items in my kitchen that contain sugar. More about this on a later post.
I've been saying that sugar is poison for years. I knew it to be true but I couldn't explain why except that sugar is known to be empty calories. I'd read Pure, White and Deadly and also Fast Food Nation but I didn't retain enough facts to be able to make the argument. And despite knowing that it was true, it's ever so hard to give up on sugar completely.

Then I had some routine blood tests done and some of the results were shocking. I've always been healthy if, at times, overweight. This was a big wake-up call especially as the 'at times overweight' has slipped into obesity over the past couple of years.

As you know from reading this blog, I've tried everything in a quest to eat a healthy diet. For me it was never just about losing weight (except when I was desperate), it was was always about finding the healthiest diet to ward of disease, to keep from becoming an old woman before my time, to be able to get the most out of life, etc... Of course this also includes not being fat.

My 'wake-up' call was actually frightening, all the more so because my father died this year from multiple complications of type two diabetes, which isn't a disease in itself but rather a collection of symptoms including insulin resistance and any number of the following: non-alcoholic fatty liver, fatigue, obesity, pressure on the heart and kidneys, circulation problems leading to leg ulcers and amputation, skin problems, loss of eyesight, and possibly alzheimer's disease.

I started googling about healthy diets for prediabetics. Folks, it's all about the sugar - even the sugar in carbohydrates such as bread and pasta. Ok, we knew this already. But did you know the extent of the sugar in your food? And do you know what it's doing to you?

I love this entertaining talk about Our Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub. I'm giving you the link rather than embedding the video because it's more reliable in the long term. Please watch it, it will make you think about how you feed your family.

I was then all fired up against the food industry and thought that surely, after all these years of being told about it, someone must be fighting it. I found Dr Robert Lustig on You Tube who is waging a similar war to the anti-tobacco wars. The two are remarkably similar in many ways. Please watch Dr Lustig here, it's shocking.

And finally I found Dr Jason Fung, an expert in obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and type two diabetes. I wanted a real doctor, not a health guru with something to sell. And I wanted information that applies to everyone, not a specific diet. I love it that he tells you how you can reverse type two and that the drugs are not the answer.  This is also for anyone who doesn't want to be fat or unhealthy in the first place. (Warning: this is the first in a series of six videos.)

If you care enough about this issue and you take the time to watch all eight hours of video that I've given you, you will be well informed. What you do after that is up to you.


13 comments:

  1. Excellent info...sugar is the cancer cells' food. It's so refreshing to know that we are in control of our own health...nice job!

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    1. I agree. The challenge is to get people to watch the videos.

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    2. I forgot to say thank you. Thank you! :)

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  2. I've already carved out time to watch these tomorrow when the kids are at school. Mich x

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    1. This could be the turning point Mich. Let me know what you think after watching. xxx

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  3. I intend watching all of these over the next week -so thank you.
    I am both a carb and a sugar addict - it really calls to me. I've done really well over the past couple of years at reducing my addiction to both (and feeling so much better) however, I've backslid a lot in the past couple of months (due to life's stresses - I'm a stress eater) but this is a good wakeup call to get back on the straight and narrow. It's hard - and I'll never go completely cold turkey but I do know that it's possible to make significant changes and keep sugar to the very occasional treat rather than a daily source of calories. Thank you again for the kick up the backside!

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    1. You're welcome, from one carb addict (though not sugar) to another. xxx

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  4. Trouble is that statistics specifically does *not* work or deal with individuals and moreover humans function actually on a relatively wide range of "normal" - meaning that what is poison for *you* can even be a needed thing for *me*. To give an example, my grandfather used to eat sugar by the spoon (like that, directly, not even bothering with having it in cakes or anything of the sort) and he was thin by any measure you choose. He also possibly/probably (undiagnosed) had an overactive thyroid. On the other hand my grandmother literally ate only boiled carrots and green vegetables (she could not eat much else) and she was overweight by any measure you choose.
    So really, putting it all in absolutes may be conforting /easy but it doesn't really help individuals. (That's actually how all the other trends that the last video deplores started anyway, funny enough.) Better I'd say simply try and see what works for you at the end of the day. Good luck!

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    1. I disagree because though your Grandfather was thin you dont knw what the state of his liver was. Maybe his overactive thyroid was keeping him thin but his liver was fatty. The fact that he ate sugar by the spoonful seems to prove the point that sugar is addictive. As for your Grandmother, either she was eating something else as well or she also had a co-morbid condition that made her overweight.

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    2. It's precisely a "maybe" that I'm arguing for. But a maybe that goes both ways really, not just where it is convenient for the idea you have in mind as an absolute.

      I'm also not sure what it is exactly that you disagree with. If it's the very idea that some people might actually require/digest well what is poison for you, I'll just stop here, since I'm really not into fighting other people's beliefs.

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    3. I believe that everyone should see the videos I posted and make up their own minds. Otherwise we're just two lay people discussing things we don't really understand.

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  5. I've slowly gotten around to watching the videos. Saw 1 out of the 3 so far (Year of No Sugar) and found it intriguing. Not preachy. Ms. Schaub took a giant leap with her family and I'm glad it worked for her.
    It would be very difficult, I think, to try and do something so thoroughly here in Israel. The variety of food here is more limited. For example, she found 250 varieties of sandwich bread in the supermarket, and here there are certainly not that many. It could be difficult trying to find certain types of food without sugar and making your own could be daunting, although not impossible.
    Still, I think there is "food" for thought here, and perhaps even just less sugar is better than not trying at all. My mother and my uncle both died of complications from diabetes, and my brother just had a kidney transplant because he was in total kidney failure - due to diabetes. So I know it is out there for me, and YES, it's scary. I try to do what I can for me but this might just push me to do more. I wish you and DD good luck in your journey. Keep us posted.

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    1. Pnina, I'm so happy that at least one person has watched some of what I posted. And yes it is scary. Also, you are right about us having less choice. My compromise so far is not eating any obvious sugary food (cakes, sweets, chocolate, biscuits, fruit juices, jelly, ice-cream, and I included ketchup and baked beans). I have chosen the mayonnaise and soup powder with the least sugar that I could find. I've not drunk any alcohol or any other drinks with dded sugar. I'm going to blog about it when the month is up in a about 10 days time. I've had good results so far. Good luck with your journey. xxx

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