The Problem with Sugar...

THE PROBLEM WITH SUGAR.




A drug is defined as "any absorbed substance that changes or enhances any physical or psychological function in the body"

The statistics regarding how much sugar Americans consume is startling if not frightening. Only 100 years ago the average intake of sugar per person was one pound per year. Today that number has reached between 150 to 180 lbs of sugar per year! Of course you are saying, “No way, I eat that much sugar!” Well most Americans do and we are getting it from most of our food sources. Regular soda, diet soda, fruit juices, flavored waters, packaged foods and of course all sweet foods and most baked goodies. Then there are the hidden sugars found in salad dressings, breads, peanut butter, potato chips, condiments, etc. Even McDonalds, in its efforts to have “healthy” snacks, puts sugar on the apples!!!! WHAT FOR? Apples have their own natural sugar. It's really nauseating if you ask me.

There are 120 teaspoons of sugar in one pound, so it's not hard to see how quickly this can add up in the food we eat. A 12 oz. can of soda contains 8 teaspoons of sugar so four 12oz cans of soda contain ¼ pound of sugar. Some people drink a can of soda everyday or indulge in supersize drinks at fast food restaurants. See how easily this adds up? Even diet soda contains very high amounts of sugar and is linked to obesity and diabetes. We’re just talking soda here. We haven’t even mentioned all the other foods that contain these unhealthy amounts of sugar.

Refined sugar actually makes you thirsty. So what do you do? You drink more of that sugary treat! You never actually quench your thirst; you just continue to fill your body with more sugar. Now your body is becoming addicted. Now, because of your addiction, your body suffers tremendously. The body is approximately 70% water - not sugar - and least of all, synthetic processed sugar. So you are doing a complete disservice to your wellbeing by not getting adequate intake of water and instead choosing to binge on sugar over and over again.

Most of us are simply addicted to it and never realize it. At one time I was addicted to sugar so I speak from experience. We get addicted from birth consuming the formulas and other high sugary items fed to babies. Things like cow’s milk with corn syrup, baby food that contains added sugars, fun colored drinks we give to kids, children who eat a breakfast of sweet cereal with sugar, or some cake like item with sweetened juice. We can go on and on with this; you all know what I'm talking about. When we do this to ourselves and our children we are setting into effect the beginning of an addiction to sugar. As with any addiction one has to satisfy the urge of what that addiction brings them. Since we start out early with sugar addictions we don't realize the health and wellness problems associated with consuming such large amounts until we actually take it out of our diets or are forced to do so because of a health issue.

Table sugar originates from the Sugar Cane or Sugar Beet, but what happens to this natural sugar after it undergoes its chemical peel, if you will, is that it leaves us with something else entirely. Similar to what happens with rice, wheat and other grains when they are stripped during processing most, if not all, of the nutritional value of the item is gone. What's interesting about sugar is that after all the stripping what is basically left is a substance; a drug – a substance that alters the physical or physiological functioning of the body (I can't call it a food—since it has no nutrients) that provides empty calories to the body. It has the similar effect of morphine or heroin as it is shot directly into the veins for a chemical high. This is what table sugar does when consumed. It goes straight to the blood stream providing a quick high then causing the inevitable crash leaving you wanting more and more. In addition to that the empty calories that sugar contains, it is the leading cause of weight gain and obesity for many of us. Still for others, of course, is the seemingly inevitable…diabetes; a truly major problem.

Any real campaign to address obesity in this country has to be geared toward limiting the intake of sugar in the diet. Unfortunately, just as other big business goes in this country, the sugar lobbyists have their hand in keeping the truth about the negative effects of sugar from the public ears.

People who consume large amounts of alcohol (and not I'm not just talking about alcoholics) are consuming large amounts of sugar. So what's the big deal? Well, the problems begin when this synthetic substance actually enters the body. Sugar stresses the body's organs; the liver, the kidneys, the adrenals. It contributes to yeast infections, Candida, PMS, stress, inflammation, fatigue, moodiness, erratic behavior, weight gain, insecurities, baldness, attention deficits, tooth decay, allergies, bone loss, cataracts, nerve damage, depression, muscle and joint pains just to name a few.

Of course there may be several other factors contributing to the above symptoms, but trust me sugar is a major culprit in the above scenarios.

Here is a very scary fact about our sugary friend. Are you ready for this? Yeast & most parasites, which are living organisms in most of us, crave sugar!!! This is their food of choice. Please understand that your craving for sugar is due to the yeast and parasites that need it to live as well as any underlying nutritional deficiency that you may have. Let me explain that last point further so you know what is really happening. When we crave certain foods or drinks it means that the brain is seeking, based on our individual programming, a nutrient; whether it be the optimum nutrient or a synthetic off shoot. The brain only knows what we program it to know. We need sugar to live and since the brain is using 25% of the body's glucose it's easy to understand why sugar cravings exist.

The best way to address the issue of the yeast and parasites is to clean your body out so these organisms are eliminated and thus won't cause you to crave sugar.

At around 3pm on most days people have sugar lows and go straight for the simple carbs like cakes, sugary snacks and similar sweets. This is the last thing you should do. Go for an apple instead as it's much better as it will stabilize your blood sugar almost immediately without the low points that are sure to come with consuming the simple processed sugars. Apples are also nutrient rich and fibrous which is helpful in its weight loss abilities.


The Brain & Sugar
Excess sugar can also cause the brain to be starved of oxygen. Even though the brains only source of fuel is glucose (the primary form of sugar used by the body) to much processed sugars or synthetic sugars can cause the brain to atrophy (shrink). It will also cause a decline in energy production, the ability to concentrate, think and learn. Which is why children and adults who consume large amounts of sugar from all the processed prepackaged foods and sugary drinks often have a difficult time learning, behaving, concentrating, and retaining information. Their brains are simply being starved of nutrients.

Most people who obviously demonstrate symptoms of sugar addiction will comment, "oh I don't eat that much sugar", but in all reality they do because their diet consist of those sugary drinks, processed foods, foods that come in boxes, plastic bags, cans and fancy wrapping. Trust me sugar is a major ingredient.

We all know that too much sugar can produce diabetic conditions (hyperglycemia) just as too little sugar can produce hypoglycemia. When the body has to work overtime to metabolize sugar; chronic or life threatening sicknesses can arise. Most people are coping with excess sugar as opposed to too little sugar. To further explain, the hormone (insulin) and the adrenal gland hormone (adrenaline) are both used to help sugar metabolize. Energy (glucose) is used when insulin and adrenaline work to metabolize sugar. The more sugar a person consumes results in more sugar (glucose) needed to metabolize it which leads to more sugar in the blood which in turn can lead to diabetic conditions.

Sadly the marketing and public relations campaign behind sugar is so massive that people are being completely mislead about sugar and its new homeboy high fructose corn syrup (more in a future blog).

Kicking the sugar habit is like kicking any addiction; you will have withdrawals and challenges. However, if you start by giving your body a full cleanse that will not only clean up your blood, bringing it and hormone levels back in balance, you will also oust the yeast, Candida, and parasites that are thriving from you sugar intake. I caution you to take a look at your sugar intake and work to reduce it significantly if not all together; except in its natural form such as in fruits or better still complex carbohydrates like; green vegetables, whole grains, lentils, beans, root vegetables and fruits. These complex carbohydrates contain natural sugars as well as fiber and are nutrient dense. If you are diabetic then you will have to limit your intake of natural sugars as well, namely those found in fruits or white potatoes. If you like to juice and good rule of thumb, if you are diabetic or if you want to lose weight, is to juice your vegetables and eat your fruits.

Everyone should begin replacing white sugar with healthier alternatives like raw honey, maple syrup or better still agave and stevia, the latter two having very low glycemic index numbers and are thus safe for diabetics.

Remember it's what you do for yourself today that will show up so clearly tomorrow. Wellness is a choice. You either make it or you don't.

Please send your feedback or your wellness concerns that you'd like me to cover in this weekly column. The goal of this column is to provide information to people of various socioeconomic, cultural and racial backgrounds for the purpose of inspiring people to take action and necessary steps towards the wellness of themselves and the wellness of their families and communities.

Tiffany Newton "Tiffanydenise" is a board certified Naturopath and Holistic Nutritionist.
tiffany@tiffanydenise.com

Why Wellness by Tiffanydenise

Why wellness? Why not wellness is perhaps the better statement we should all pose to ourselves. It's evident across the nation that change is here and there is more change to come. What is even more intriguing is how we will we view ourselves in this new scheme of things; this new era of change. It would seem to some that wellness, health and things of this nature are also getting a huge face lift with more publicity than ever. This of course is not a coincidence. We have created the circumstances that make being well and living healthy a sort of phenomenon in and of itself.

We as Americans hear plenty about the war on terror. A while ago it was the war against drugs. Who knows what new war will be waged in our not so distant future? I wonder however, do people realize that the leading cause of death in this country is Heart Dis-ease? Every year we lose 876,000 people because of it. That's 2,400 deaths per day. That’s one person every 37seconds.

The second leading killer is Cancer with 560,000 people per year that are lost. And third, we have stroke which claims the lives of approximately 143,600 Americans each year. Stroke, if you didn’t know, is also the leading cause of adult disability in this country.

In 2008 the cost of CVD (cardiovascular dis-ease) and stroke in the United States was estimated to be $475.3 billion, according to the American Heart Association and NHLBI (the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute). In a time where we are obsessed with economic stress it would seem logical that the prevention of sickness and dis-ease would be on the top of the agenda! Did you hear that…$475.3 BILLION; SPENT CVD & STROKE ALONE?

If those stats and those costs don't strike a cord with you perhaps stats regarding your children - our children - will.

Obesity among children has risen two fold within the past 20 years resulting in 6 million children (over age 6) that are considered obese. The story doesn't end there. These same children, if nothing changes in their health, will develop high blood pressure, possibly some form of heart dis-ease, diabetes, high cholesterol and increased risk of stroke. The most painful reality to this scenario, however, is that the life expectancy of these same children will be cut down by as little as 5 years and at most by 10 years from their parent’s generation.

Did you also know that high blood pressure present in children who are NOT obese is also on the rise? The reasons are similar to adult causes of high blood pressure; largely due to diet, lifestyle, prescription medications, stimulants, and stress among other things.


Atherosclerosis, which simply means the hardening of the arteries due to fatty plaque build up in the walls of the arteries, is also on the rise amongst adolescent youth. It's very clear that if these things are now starting to plague our children then surely they are already ravishing the lives of many adults, and perhaps many of us who are reading this article right now; sadly many of us don't even know it.

Most people seem to think sickness or dis-ease just happens. No it doesn't just happen. There is always a progression of a particular ailment within the body that causes it to be dis-eased. Our very view and concept of sickness needs to be transformed if we are ever going to be a healthier nation. We have been conditioned to view our entire lives in segments; each segment not really having anything to do with the other. From a holistic perspective this is a very dysfunctional way of thinking. Just as a child is brought up in a family and learns that the family is a unit functioning together and not as separate entities-this same idea holds true for other aspects of our lives.

Coincidently, conventional medicine largely looks at the patient in segments instead of synergistically, all the parts of the whole working together for optimum success. Oftentimes only symptoms are treated but the underlining causes for a particular ailment are overlooked thus setting into motion a cascade of repeat illnesses and other complications related to prescription drug use. This one size fits all method of medicine is counter-productive. It is unfortunate that embracing the idea that a dis-eased body is a consistently happening event with several factors or root causes rather than a happenstance is difficult for most people to grasp.

I say dis-eased because the body is in fact not at ease. The body works to get itself back at ease thus the dis-eased state. Many are convinced that being sick is a just a part of living and by the time you reach the ripe old age of 45 then some sort of chronic sickness maybe apparent and this is perfectly normal. As a Naturopath this mind set is not only frightening but it is cause for alarm.

So we ask again, why wellness, because our very lives depend on it. As previously stated, adult conditions are being passed on to our younger generations and now even our pets are being plagued with traditionally human dis-eases of the body. THE TIME FOR WELLNESS IS NOW! Just as it is impossible for a woman to be a little bit pregnant it's impossible for any of us to just wake up one morning with heart dis-ease, diabetes, cancer, liver dis-ease, kidney failure, pancreatic cancer, gall bladder dis-ease, or wake up and just out of no where have a stroke. The pathology or the conditions and processes of a dis-eased body are real. In other words it’s not something that just shows up. There is an accumulation of wear and tear, as a result there is plenty we can do to prevent the onset of any of the aforementioned conditions and plenty we can do to reverse these conditions.

It's not up to our doctors to keep us well. It's up to us to keep ourselves well. We must take responsibility for our own personal wellness.

We all like to have our fun, have our cake and eat it too. We do things with little regard for consequences later and when the consequences show up we expect sympathy, pity and an exuberant amount of attention from our friends and loved ones to take care of us and provide for us. There is nothing wrong with friends and loved ones coming to our aid however when we simply allow sickness to overtake our lives without regard for the effect it can and inevitably will have on ourselves and those who love us—this is a selfish notion at best. We must move beyond this mind set toward one that is embedded in love for self and others.

I want you to begin embracing the notion of your personal responsibility for your own wellness. I want you to embrace the notion that you deserve to be well and live a healthy and productive life. I want you to begin to embrace the notion that sickness doesn't have to be a normal part of your life if you so choose for it not to be. I want you to embrace the notion that perhaps "I am doing things that are causing my body to be in a dis-eased state" be it insomnia, stress, depression, chest pains, chronic fatigue, PMS, etc. We can do so much more when we are well and balanced in mind body and spirit.


Of course as a holistic practitioner I believe that there isn't much that the body can't overcome or reverse except death. I believe that if people took a more hands on approach to their personal wellness, and began to understand how their bodies worked and appreciated the mind/ body/ spirit connection people would see that the body in fact can overcome and transform.

With the statistics expressed in the first part of this article it's evident that as a nation we are failing in the wellness of our citizens. Where is the out cry for the hundreds of thousands of people who die each year from preventable and reversible conditions? How can a nation, so powerful with its technological advances, top scientists and medical professionals have such high mortality rates due to illness? There is something very wrong with this picture. How can we as individuals sit idle and allow our own health to deteriorate and not take action to heal ourselves or to seek healing? How can we continue embracing sickness as a way of life and not realize the repercussions this has on every other aspect of our lives including our personal relationships, our professional goals, and our personal growth and development? The time for excuses is coming to an end. Accountability for our personal wellness, abundance, and happiness begins today.

So I ask again, why wellness?

Please send your feedback or your wellness concerns that you'd like me to cover in this weekly column. The goal of this column is to provide information to people of various socioeconomic, cultural and racial backgrounds for the purpose of inspiring people to take action and necessary steps towards the wellness of themselves and the wellness of their families and communities.

Tiffany Newton "Tiffanydenise" is a board certified Naturopath and Holistic Nutritionist.

tiffany@tiffanydenise.com

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