This Blog Is For Women

For a while, I thought that people were exaggerating when they compared sugar to a drug.  But then came the studies which compare the similarities in brain stimulation between drug users and people who had eaten foods containing refined sugar.  These are quite remarkable, and they do make a good case for the similarity.

Recently I’ve gained a new appreciation for the similarity between sugar and drugs.  It came from this quote from William Dufty’s 1975 book Sugar Blues:

“In about fortyeight hours, I was in total agony, overcome with nausea, with a crashing migraine. If pain was a message, this was a long one, very involved, intense but in code. It took hours to break the code. I knew enough about junkies to recognize reluctantly my kinship with them. I was kicking cold turkey, the thing they talked about with such terror. After all, heroin is nothing but a chemical. They take the juice of the poppy and they refine it into opium and then they refine it to morphine and finally to heroin. Sugar is nothing but a chemical. They take the juice of the cane or the beet and they refine it to molasses and then they refine it to brown sugar and finally to strange white crystals. It’s no wonder dope pushers dilute pure heroin with milk sugar —lactose—in order to make their glassine packages a treat to the eye. I was kicking all kinds of chemicals cold turkey—sugar , aspirin, cocaine, caffeine, chlorine, fluorine, sodium, monosodium glutamate, and all those other multisyllabic horrors listed in fine print on the tins and boxes I had just thrown in the trash. I had it very rough for about twenty-four hours, but the morning after was a revelation. I went to sleep with exhaustion, sweating and tremors. I woke up feeling reborn.”

—–Sugar Blues, William Dufty, 1975, Warner Books, Inc, p. 22–3

Right, heroin and sugar.  Cousins.

I don’t use heroine.  Why should I ‘use’ sugar?  The problem is that it’s very hard to kick the sugar habit.  It’s found in almost every processed food, and is so easily obtainable.  And it’s highly addictive.  The best solution is to work hard, stop consuming it and never look back.

The first few days of resuming my sugar free, starch free diet are always the most difficult.

The secret is eating.  Eating lots.

When my sugar pump has been primed, all I can think of is eating sugar and starch. And I find myself hungry and craving carbs a lot.  To combat this craving I eat high fat, high protein foods with lots of flavour… and vegetables.  I also drink plenty of fluids and take my vitamin/mineral supplements.

Today I enjoyed

• Greek Yogurt with blueberries;
• mixed nuts with 85% dark chocolate;
• cheddar cheese and red peppers,
• kale chips,
• bacon bluecheese slider kabobs.

Along with salad, and chai tea.  I’m not done eating yet, since I’ve not met my protein requirement for the day,  I’ll likely fire off a western omelette before the day is out.

The secret is in the planning…and the pantry purging.  You can only eat the foods you have on hand, so make sure you do a good clean sweep of any left over holiday treats and pick up the appropriate groceries for successful transition to Primal Blueprint diet.

How do you reset your diet when you’ve had a period of slack eating?

The holidays can be a difficult time to maintain healthy eating.  There are tons of yummy indulgences to tempt even the strictest of clean eaters.  I’m no exception!

I have to say that compared to past years I was much more moderate in my consumption of sweets and starches.  But there’s something about stuffing and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and Quality Street chocolates that just say Christmas!    And I enjoyed every bite of them.  But now it’s time to refocus my efforts on clean eating and healthy living.

Something that helps me refocus is doing some reading on the health benefits of the Primal or Paleo style of eating.  When I first began eating this way I posted about how much better it made me feel.   After a few weeks of being slack I’m starting to feel the effects of eating a Standard American Diet: bloating, low energy, wakeful nights, and general laziness.  Well, that last one might just be because I’ve been on vacation and have been taking full advantage of my time off.

Today I’m going to begin a short series of entries reviewing some of the websites, blogs and books that inspire me to refocus and persevere with the Primal Blueprint eating style.

The Food Pyramid by Mark Sisson is a super reminder of the way we should be looking at food.  The bottom of the pyramid is fish, fowl, meat and eggs, with vegetables one step up.   I’ve printed a copy of this and put it on my fridge.  Is it ironic that the magnet I used to attach it says “Eat a square meal every day, a box of chocolates!’

Mark’s Daily Apple is a super great source of inspiration when it comes to all things primal.  Be sure to check it out!

Have you seen the new slim Alec Baldwin?  He has embarked upon a sugar free diet, and he looks phenomenal. If Alec Baldwin can do it you can, too!  In an interview done earlier this month he reveals how he did it, and he also exposes the dangers of eating sugar  Hear him speak about healthy eating in this interview with Dr. Robert Lustig. Transcript here.

Sugar, it’s found its way into an alarming number of the foods that we consume on a daily basis.  We’re often completely unaware of how much sugar we’re eating.  If you’re eating food that is packaged, or prepared by someone else, you can bet that it’s high in sugar.

Recent changes to the recommended daily intake of sugar have resulted in a much lower upper limit for dietary “added sugars.” We’re not talking about the sugars found naturally occurring in most fruits and vegetables, we’re talking about the kind that are added to foods to make them sweeter, sugars like glucose, fructose,  sucrose — beet and cane sugar, whether white or brown — and high-fructose corn syrup.  It’s all sugar, and it’s all bad – if not consumed in moderation.

Moderation is the key.  But, it is also the problem.  As a society, we have lost the ability to gauge moderation in sugar consumption.

The American Heart Association recommended sugar intake for adult women is  20 grams of sugar per day, for adult men, it’s  36 grams daily, and for children 12 grams a day. Wow.   Let’s see how that might work.

• 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar:  4 grams of sugar
• Multigrain Bagel from Dunkin Donuts:  9 grams of sugar
• Newman’s Own Tomato & Basil spaghetti sauce, 1/2 cup = 12 grams of sugar
• Bull’s Eye Brown Sugar & Hickory BBQ sauce, 2 tablespoons: 14 grams of sugar
• Kellogg’s Smart Start Strong Heart Cereal, Toasted Oat: 17 grams of sugar
• Delmonte diced pears in light syrup, single serving cup: 17 grams of sugar
• Weight Watchers Blueberry Muffins: 18 grams of sugar
• 1 6oz serving of fruit on the bottom yogurt:  25 grams.  Oops!  That’s the whole day’s allotment!
• V8 Fusion Vegetable Fruit 100% juice, 8 ounces: 26 grams of sugar!
• Minute Maid lemonade, 8oz: 29 grams of sugar!
• 18 jelly beans:  32 grams of sugar!
• Glaceau Vitamin Water, 20 ounce bottle:32 grams of sugar
• 1 can of Barq’s Old Time Rootbeer: 39 grams of sugar
• A small Dairy Queen chocolate sundae:  41 grams of sugar

Some of the most surprising sources of added sugar are items like spaghetti sauce, and yogurt:  foods that we have come to think of as healthy.

Low sugar options

• plain or Greek style yogurt:  2-5 grams of sugar
• water:  0 grams of sugar
• home made spaghetti sauce: limited added sugar
• home juiced vegetables: 0 grams of sugar
• avoid muffins, ice cream, pop, bagels, and packaged fruit.

Eliminating added sugar from your diet really boils down to one thing:  Eat natural foods, in their whole state, prepared by yourself with little added sugar.  If it’s got a package, read the lable, chances are it also has more sugar than you’re willing to add to your diet.

Notice that we are not counting the naturally occurring sugar found in fruits and vegetables.  These bring fibre, minerals and vitamins into your diet that are essential for good health, and they also supply an adequate amount of sugar for healthy body function when eaten as part of a healty diet.  Fruits and vegetables are sweeter than they have ever been in history due to being selectively grown for taste appeal.  Consuming these natural foods will provide us with all the sugar we need to be healthy.

Want more information about sugar and it’s effects try the following:

Sugar- Are You Addicted?

60 minutes, Is Sugar Toxic?

Rodale:  Report Provides New Sugar Recommendations for Adults

FitWatch: Signs that you may be addicted to Sugar