If one is trying to avoid sugar, what do you do? By Laviyah Eshet Nahum
KNN-Chicago
Sugarless week has arrived (Sundown Dec. 7th ends Sundown Dec. 14th) and if you are wondering why it is important to give your body a sugar-less week at least four times a year, read on. Sugar is found in so many foods, that if you don’t carefully read labels, you are probably consuming more sugar than you are aware of. Sugar is a product that is found in products that would never be labeled as dessert: bread, ketchup and peanut butter are just a few items that contain sugar. If one is trying to avoid sugar, what do you do? Be aware.
Being an informed consumer is very important. What equates to sugar? High fructose corn syrup, evaporated cane juice and sucrose are all sugar. These phrases may not be that familiar to you and that is by design. Many companies capitalize off of the ignorance of the consumer. Wordplay is key in causing you to make a purchase. Evaporated cane juice sounds much healthier than sugar. In fact, that identifying ingredient is used in many health food products. However, evaporated cane juice is equal to sugar.
Unfortunately, all sugar is refined. There are just different levels in the refining process. To refine is to free from impurities or unwanted material. For sugar to get from the sugar cane to your meal, it must go through a process, even raw sugar.
Sugar Blues
Besides making food sweet, sugar is responsible for a lot of conditions stemming from consumption of the product. Sugar suppresses the immune system. The sugar from one can of soda suppresses your immune system for up to six hours! That’s from just one can; we haven’t even addressed those who consume a Big Gulp on a regular basis.
Sugar is also responsible for upsetting the mineral relationships in your body. Sugar throws you off balance. Sugar is acid forming. An acidic body is a body that invites disease. All of your major organs suffer from the over consumption of sugar. Sugar causes hyperactivity, anxiety and crankiness in children.
It is fact that sugar weakens the eyesight, causes copper deficiency, contributes to alcoholism, premature aging, obesity, tooth decay, asthma, arthritis, diabetes, cataracts, depression and dizziness. Sugar increases overgrowth of Candida yeast organism, increases PMS symptoms, increases anxiety and irritability. So, why is it in everything?
Sugar Addiction
The average American consumes 115 pounds of sugar per year. Most people are not even aware that they are addicted to sugar. Refined white sugar has been likened to dietary. Most people eating a Western diet eat sugar for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sugar in tea or coffee or with cereal is for breakfast. Sugar in the salad dressing, peanut butter, soda or even pasta sauce is for lunch. Sugar is in your BBQ sauce and/or ketchup for dinner.
Seven days of sugarless consumption helps to put your body back in balance, helps to restore the strength of your immune system and you might even lose some weight. At the end of the seven day period, you never know, you might not even want something sweet…
