Sugar.
That is the recommended daily maximum. TRH (The Retired Husband) and I watched a documentary last week called Sugar Crash.
Did you know that sugar is eight times MORE addictive than cocaine? That’s seriously scary stuff.
It appears that this is because we are hardwired to seek out sugar. After all, our cells have evolved to rely on sugar as their number one fuel source.
But eat too much sugar for too long, and you’ll find that your brain rewires itself to look something like the brain of a heroin or cocaine addict.
A lot has been written about the dangers of sugar. In order to be healthy we are encouraged to eat low fat foods. However, in order to make the low fat foods palatable, food manufacturers have replaced it with sugar. And excessive sugar consumption leads to major health problems.
I’m sure you’ve all heard the stories about how much sugar there is in carbonated soft drink/soda. But did you know that the reason for this is to mask the taste of high levels of salt they contain. These drinks also contain caffeine. It is a mild diuretic. That means you excrete more fluid from your body. Those two things combined make you thirstier. So you drink more. It’s a vicious cycle.
Our bodies can safely metabolise about six teaspoons of sugar a day. One teaspoon is 4 gm = 24gm/day. Any excess sugar is metabolised into body fat. Hello obesity and chronic metabolic diseases.
That’s just a few of the things that we learnt watching the documentary. After it finished we went into the kitchen and started reading labels. You would not believe the amount of hidden sugar that our foods contain. Even in the savoury stuff. It shocked us into making changes to the foods we eat.
We now have steel cut oat porridge for breakfast. Steel cut or traditional oats contain all the nutritional goodness of oats. The instant kind does not. I have started making our own yoghurt again too. And pasta sauce made from fresh vegetables. We’re having more vegetarian meals too. Last night we had home made dahl and curried egg and lettuce sandwiches on wholemeal bread. It was so delicious. That’s the start.
Raili Tanska
Steps for Peace
Peace, joy, health and wellbeing can only be found inside us. They exist within us now, waiting to be discovered. mediawebapps.com
I’m a sugar junky. Ice cream is my weakness. It’s my genes, my brain – it has rewired. I’m helpless!!
Oh dearie me …… I hope it’s not gallons and gallons a day !
Have you tried making your own? It really is very easy. You control what goes into it. And it’s so tasty.
My son-in-law was diagnosed as diabetic, and had a wound that just would NOT heal. My daughter put him on a low-carb/high-fat diet with minimum sugar and within a couple of days his blood sugar count was down from very high to almost to normal and by the end of the week, his wound was almost completely healed. Miraculous! And how nice to eat plots of cheese, Greek yoghourt, and butter!
That’s fantastic! Food really is our medicine, we’ve just been innundated with so much false and misleading information. The results can be devastating when disease strikes. And that then, is treated with more chemicals. Which have side effects. It can be a never ending vicious cycle 😦
It certainly is a wake up call to check out the amount of sugar we consume without even knowing it. Since becoming vegetarian, aspiring vegan., I have become much more aware of the food I eat. Sadly can’t do anything for the man of the house as change is something he doesn’t want to know about. I’m Nuttelex, he’s Flora! Change does take time and it’s not always easy to do, but when it is better for your health, why wouldn’t you make those changes?
Yes, better late than never ! When the evidence is so stark as in this documentary it is hard to ignore,
what an eye opener, great article!
Thank you 🙂
What if I have honey instead of sugar, and pretend its OK. Does pretending make you safe?
Making your own yogurt is a good idea – it’s the cheapest and the BEST. My Greek-style yogurt tastes better than Total greek yogurt, which is the market leader in this country, and it contains all the cultures.
I made mine from lactose free milk. Honey is nature’s sugar , so it trumps (sorry about that unfortunate word…) the others without need for pretence 🙂
I’ll have to try making lactose free…
Goody… I love honey, and it tastes wonderful in chocolate cake…
Interesting yet scary too 😳😬
Hey I қnow tһis is off topic but I was wondering if you
kneᴡ of any widɡets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my
newest twitter updates. I’vе been looking for a plᥙg-in lіke thіs for quite s᧐me time and was
һoping maybe you would have some experiencе ᴡith something like this.
Please let me know if you run into anything.
I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new
updateѕ.
Great to know you enjoy your visits here:) Sorry, I can’t help you with your query.Have you tried a WP search, posting your question on the WP forum, or asking the Happiness Engineers ?