Have A No Refined Sugar Christmas!
Many of you may groan at the prospect of not eating refined sugar at Christmas! The most common conversation I have with patients is how damaging refined sugar is for their health and how to wean off it successfully. Just like cocaine, the white crystalline stuff is very addictive and acts just like any other addiction on the pleasure centres of the brain.
The Murky History of Sugar
The introduction of refined sugar into our diet has led to the decline of our nation’s good health and the rise of diabetes and heart disease. It was the discovery of the New World at the end of the 15th century that brought sugar to the general population. Up until then, sweet foods like honey were mainly used by the aristocracy. The real wealth of the West Indies was not gold but the sugar trade which flourished on the back of the slave trade. A unique revenge, you might say. If you want to learn more about the murky history of refined sugar, I recommend William Dufty’s classic book The Sugar Blues.
The Common Fallacy
The common fallacy about refined sugar is that it is good for energy. I have often heard parents say that sugar is good for their children and is all part of a 'balanced diet.’ Refined sugar is not a natural food and when part of your diet, gives you many problems.
Your body burns a form of sugar for energy called glucose. It produces this fuel from the foods you eat - from starches like potatoes, from fats like butter and cheese and from proteins like eggs, meat and fish. The various vitamins and minerals in foods, such as the B vitamins, zinc and manganese, help in the process of converting these to glucose and making energy for your body.
The Wrong Fuel
When you eat refined sugar in the form of sweets, chocolate, cakes, biscuits and desserts, you short-circuit your body’s natural energy-making processes and giving your body the wrong fuel. This makes you feel tired. Eating refined sugar triggers a steep rise in blood sugar which causes the release of insulin from the pancreas to bring the sugar level down. If you eat sweet things regularly, your blood sugar level can plunge too low, causing a release of adrenaline which continues the blood sugar rollercoaster. Your body is simply not designed to run on this type of fuel. This is akin to putting aircraft fuel into a lawnmower. It will make the machine go but will tear it apart in the process.
Slow Death by Sugar
If the above doesn’t convince you to give refined sugar the boot, here are a few consequences of our highly sugared culture:
A 2012 report states that nearly 60% of Americans had their lives cut short by heart disease, strokes, cancer or diabetes. One of the major causes is added sugar.
The British Medical Journal states: “Sugar is as dangerous as tobacco [and] should be classified as a hard drug, for it is harmful and addictive.”
Studies show that sugar decreases the body’s white blood cell count by 80 percent within four to five hours consuming it. This may be a major reason for antibiotic resistance in hospitals as, as soon as the snacks trolley comes round, the bugs get a new lease of life!
Sugar turns on cancer-causing genes, feeds cancer cells and helps cancer spread more rapidly throughout the body.
Sugar increases inflammation in the body which drives most diseases known to Man.
A JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) report in February 2014 states that the higher the daily content of sugar calories, the greater the risk of dying from heart disease.
Alcohol (which is high in sugar) suppresses the ability of the body to make its own sugars and messes up the liver.
Sugar messes up the pH of the digestive tract and leads to inability to digest one’s foods and the kind of malnutrition commonly seen in western society. It is possible to be obese and malnourished.
Where Does It All Come From?
Taken from Chris Woollam’s presentation in his 2017 Australian tour, here are the most common sources of daily refined sugar:
Added glucose in soft drinks - the top source!
Refined pasta/ grains/rice/bread
Grain desserts (puddings)
Ice cream/dairy desserts
Supermarket fruit drinks/smoothies/‘health foods’
Chocolate and biscuits
Prepared foods/processed foods/ ‘health foods’
What about ‘sugar-free?’
In 2012, researchers established that just drinking a can of diet drink (containing the sugar substitute aspartame) every day can significantly increase your chances of triggering cancers like multiple myeloma, leukaemia and lymphoma. About 80% of aspartame consumption comes from diet drinks although this sweetener is also found in low-fat yoghurt and sugar-free chewing gum. The University of Iowa, in a study of 60,000 post menopausal women, found that drinking two cans of diet drink per week increases your chances of dying prematurely from stroke or heart attack by 30%, and dying from a related disease, by 50%.
The question is - do you want the cans with 14 spoonfuls of sugar (glucose and high fructose corn syrup) or the diet one with the dangerous sweetener? Tough choice!
Something Can Be Done
The good news is that you can reverse your risk factors for the above diseases by giving up refined sugar in all its forms. The problem is that refined sugar is ubiquitous in western processed foods and we are entrenched in a culture of rewarding ourselves with sugar from infancy because it is highly addictive. The other problem with addiction is that the addict is usually in denial of the problem. With some help, however, it is possible to step off the addiction ladder.
Dr Lynette McClusky, neuroscientist at Augusta University, has shown that that it is not your sweet tooth urging you to eat sugar, it is your gut bacteria! If you have damaged your gut bacteria through antibiotics, steroids, antacid medications, too much coffee and alcohol, you will have less beneficial gut bacteria. The more harmful bugs then come out to play. Yeasts love and crave sugar and will send the message to your brain - ‘we’re starving - send us some sugar!’ The trick is not to send the beasties more sugar, but to kill them off.
There are many natural strategies to conquer sugar addiction. You can still eat desserts - just home bake them without using sugar in the recipes. As you reduce your refined sugar intake, your taste buds should gradually change to recognising refined sugar as the poison it really is. Especially if you handle your rogue gut bacteria too. Next year, I plan to bring out an e-book on the subject of conquering sugar addiction. If you would like help with reducing refined sugars, please contact me at the Good Health Clinic.
To a very healthy Christmas and a Happy New Year!