4 WEEKS TO SUGAR CRAVINGS FREEDOM! Week 3

Alternatives to sugars - natural sweeteners

Pure sucrose (table sugar) is the most common sweetener in the modern, industrialized world. People, and in fact most other mammals except members of the cat family, will gladly accept a food sweetened with sucrose, even if they aren't hungry.

Most of us love sweets, ice cream, soft drinks, pies, cakes, cookies, candy. We often crave them. To satisfy these cravings, we consume about one hundred fifty pounds of sugar per person per year. That's almost a half pound of sugar per day. Surprised?
It’s true…we do love our sugar!

What happens to our metabolism, on all that sugar? Sugar is metabolized directly into blood sugar, or glucose, which fuels our brain and muscles. The purer the source, the faster it gets into the bloodstream, bypassing much of the digestive process.

Our blood sugar levels skyrocket and that triggers a spike in insulin, a hormone which is needed to prep our cells to absorb the sugar. When a food or drink has no other nutrients to sustain our blood sugar, it crashes as quickly as it rises - and we crave another hit. …(think candy, sweets, sodas, etc.) This is how sugar addiction begins. Sugar gives us pleasure by stimulating the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and probably other mood-elevating substances. Scientists report that eating chocolate initiates a brain response similar to falling in love. No wonder we love chocolate!

Unfortunately, it also has several adverse health effects. The most common is tooth decay. Sucrose has high calorie content and there is a fair amount of evidence that it contributes to obesity. People with diabetes need to control their intake of sucrose. There have even been some studies showing the possibility that excessive sugar consumption may play a role in certain degenerative diseases. Also, how many times have we seen children go from being “little angels” to “little devils” after eating a sugary desert or soft drink?

Sugar can also cause symptoms of intestinal distress such as bloating, cramping, and gas. Other symptoms of sugar sensitivity are headaches, insomnia, aggression, panic attacks, irritability, mood swings, and depression. New studies in accelerated aging link elevated sugar intake with a process called glycosylation: proteins in our bodies morph into AGE's, or advanced glycosylation end-products, a kind of metabolic debris that collects in our organ, joint, and skin tissues. Be sure to ask me about a product that prevents most of the formation of the advanced glycosylation end products, which age our bodies faster than they should.

Most authorities agree that no more than 10% of our diet should be made up of sugar in most forms.

"Low-sugar" or "sugar-free" is the latest fad - It should be a welcome trend, given the health hazards of all the sugar in the average diet. However…if we use artificial sugar substitutes like aspartame, (NutraSweet), sucralose, (Splenda) Acesulfates, etc. we may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. After this series, I will write a blog about the dangers of these substances.

In the meantime…WHAT CAN WE USE???

There are several great choices for us. Here are just a few. These are not in any order of preference, just letting you know they are available. Most health food stores will have some or all of them and nowadays, even some groceries have a pretty good selection of healthier choices.

Organic Agave
Agave makes a good substitute for table sugar for a variety of reasons. Agave nectar is a real sugar, as opposed to an artificial or non-nutritive sweetener, Although it has properties similar to many sugars its glycemic index is significantly lower. This makes it a healthier alternative to many processed AND natural sweeteners, Artificial sweeteners provide sweetness, but few of the functional properties of real sugars. Agave provides the same variety of functions in cooking (including browning, moisture retention, softening and food preservation) as processed sugars. While Agave has more calories than sugar, you only use about 40% of the amount so there is probably a net loss in the calorie count.

Stevia
Stevia is the world's only all-natural sweetener with zero calories, zero carbohydrates and a zero glycemic index. These attributes make stevia a good alternative to sugar or chemical sweeteners. Especially popular as a sweetener for coffees and teas, Stevia can also be used in cooking and baking, helping you reduce your calorie intake and stay healthy. It has been thoroughly tested in dozens of tests around the world and found to be completely non-toxic. A brand I like is “Sweet Leaf”

Xylitol
This natural sweetener has demonstrated both passive and active cavity fighting ability and has even shown promise in alleviating ringing ear syndrome. Caution for dogs: while humans have absolutely no problem with Xylitol, it can cause a dangerous surge of insulin with dogs. Just another example of the differences between us. Feel free to use it yourself, just don’t let your dog get even a tiny bit of it.

Barley Malt
Dark, sticky, although there is a dry form called “Dr. Bronner’s Barley Malt Sweetener”. Barley malt sugar is not as strong a flavor as blackstrap molasses nor as sweet as honey. It is mostly maltose, a complex sugar that enters the bloodstream slowly. This sweetener offers trace amounts of eight vitamins and several minerals. Barley malt syrup is a wonderful addition to squash and pumpkin breads, bran muffins, and hearty rye or pumpernickel breads. Use it to glaze sweet potatoes and to make winter “malteds” combined with bananas and soy milk.

Tomorrow, the last of the 4 steps.

NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS MEDICATION

I SURE HOPE WE HAVE MORE CHOICE THAN A RAT!

I just read an article that triggers some anger in my brain. Anger because the article is just one more example of making a natural occurrence into a medical condition and jumping at the chance to make a lot of money from proprietary drugs to control it.

Some researchers report that they found that if we just anticipate eating a tasty food, that we may be triggering an area of the brain that is associated with reward.

What the scientists seem to have taken away from the studies that were conducted is that the anticipation of eating chocolate stimulated a part of a rat’s brain called the orexin system, and that activated orexin neurons – which are associated with eating especially tasty foods as well as associated with taking addictive drugs.

They then looked at the possibility of developing drugs to regulate orexin as well as other brain systems to help regulate food reward behaviours. It seems that they think that a pleasant anticipation of eating something really good can make us overeat and get fat.

The Lead researcher Derrick Choi said: “It entirely possible that future treatments for obesity will involve a combination of lifestyle changes as well as pharmacological therapies aimed at orexin and other brain systems, to regulate food reward-related behaviors.”

“Our research program is focused on identifying brain systems that are activated by palatable food intake. The hypothalamic orexin system is known to promote wakefulness and arousal; however, it is now clear that this system also participates in the regulation of reward-related behaviors, including overconsumption of palatable foods,” said Choi.

The fact that orexin system in rats “participates in the regulation of food reward behaviours, including overconsumption of palatable foods” seems to have set off some other area of the researcher’s brains that triggers rewards for making money from drugs that are not needed. They don’t say if they found the same result in humans, and if they do, will that mean that we will lose the pleasure we feel at the prospect of eating food we love?

I know of no drug in any amount that has no side effects, and sometimes the full extent of those effects may not appear for decades. To add another pharmacological assault to the brain seems to me to be unconscionable!

There are natural ways to help us to feel satisfied with reasonable amounts of any kinds of foods, even our favorites. We know that having fiber at the beginning of a meal promotes a feeling of fullness sooner than just having meat and potatoes. There is long standing evidence for having a bowl of soup before eating a main meal to curb the appetite and craving. Behavior modification for those with a bigger problem has also proved effective. None of these have side effects…only benefits.

We know that when we have superior nutrition, we lose cravings and the desire to overeat! If you want to explore a way to get nutritional help to balance your body and lose the cravings, click here and go to page 15. http://bit.ly/1Y7kX

Let’s get back to the concept of personal responsibility for our actions. Eating too much food makes us fat. Eating the wrong kinds of foods makes us fat. Other than the extremely rare disease that causes constant, unremitting, uncontrollable hunger, and for which there is no medication, we have it in our power to take whatever steps are necessary to reach a point where we eat reasonably.

The researchers trained rats to expect a piece of chocolate in certain environmental conditions. They found that when mice were placed in the same environment with no chocolate, the orexin system of the brain was still stimulated, perhaps explaining why people have a tendency to overeat in situations where they have previously eaten well, even when they are not hungry.

Lead researcher Derrick Choi said: “It entirely possible that future treatments for obesity will involve a combination of lifestyle changes as well as pharmacological therapies aimed at orexin and other brain systems, to regulate food reward-related behaviors.”

“Our research program is focused on identifying brain systems that are activated by palatable food intake. The hypothalamic orexin system is known to promote wakefulness and arousal; however, it is now clear that this system also participates in the regulation of reward-related behaviors, including overconsumption of palatable foods,” said Choi.

Simply expecting to eat a tasty food can trigger the areas of the brain associated with reward, raising the possibility that drugs could be developed that could achieve these goals, but at what cost, both in possible loss of pleasure and in short and long term effects of a drug that tampers with brain function?

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