I have been deliberate in stating that I believe for many of us that sugar becomes addictive and that we must steer clear of sugars-starches-artificial sweeteners if we hope to be free of constant cravings, improve our health, or get weight in check.

One component in this for me is to follow the 3 Rs, and be rational, realistic, right, meaning: be rational in accepting you have to make choices, and the ones that are going to lead to freedom from sugar cravings, bingeing, weight problems require changes of habits, acquiring new habits/behaviors that allow us to pursue our life goals more easily and with less suffering; realistic in that you didn’t get the problems overnight, and it will take time and diligence to develop new good habits, and there is some sacrifice on the front end that leads to the great benefits down the road; right in that regardless of what anyone else can do/eat/drink, if I can’t then I must choose to do what is right for me, regardless of how many people tell me I’m wrong, or eating a fad diet, or other–usually totally uneducated–opinions.

Most people can find themselves in a rut, feeling low/self-pity/blue/deprived and use that for an excuse for going off the healthy path. We must often remind ourselves that we have good brains, and can be careful decision-makers: don’t go to the fast food places where you typically go overboard, don’t give yourself permission to eat between meals, etc. Make a plan, and work at sticking to it.

We can be past masters of rationalization, making excuses, thinking that all will change tomorrow, but nothing will change that you/I don’t make change.

So, of late, I find that while things are easier, I still have to make adaptations, give my self pep-talks or a kick-in-the-pants, whatever it takes to keep moving in the right direction.

If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Yours in the 3 Rs,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

I’ve just listed the first 100 below, but Nancy Appleton gives an exhaustive list, including references, for the problems that result in over use of sugars, and for some of us even the small intake of refined sugars. 

For more see: http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/sugar-health-effects-risks.html

Sugar’s Health Effects, Risks & Problems: Is Sugar Sweet Poison?

146 Reasons Why Sugar Is Ruining Your Health

by Nancy Appleton, Ph.D., www.nancyappleton.com, author of Lick The Sugar Habit

In addition to throwing off the body’s homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences. The following is a listing of some of sugar’s metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.

1 Sugar can suppress the immune system.
Compare Using Your Amuse System to Boost Your Immune System.

2 Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body.
Compare Minerals.

3 Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.

4 Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.

5 Sugar contributes to the reduction in defense against bacterial infection (infectious diseases).

6 Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function, the more sugar you eat, the more elasticity and function you lose.

7 Sugar reduces high density lipoproteins.

8 Sugar leads to chromium deficiency.

9 Sugar leads to cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, and rectum.
[This statement may need to be qualified and reworded in less absolute terms, also see number 120, 126 & 143.]

10 Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose.

11 Sugar causes copper deficiency.

12 Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
Compare book extract.
In addition, sugar needs calcium to be metabolized and reportedly draws the required amounts from teeth and bones if these are not provided via food containing bioavailable calcium.

13 Sugar can weaken eyesight.

14 Sugar raises the level of a neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.

15 Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.

16 Sugar can produce an acidic digestive tract.

17 Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children.

18 Sugar malabsorption is frequent in patients with functional bowel disease.

19 Sugar can cause premature aging.

20 Sugar can lead to alcoholism.

21 Sugar can cause tooth decay.

22 Sugar contributes to obesity.

23 High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis.

24 Sugar can cause changes frequently found in person with gastric or duodenal ulcers.

25 Sugar can cause arthritis.

26 Sugar can cause asthma.

27 Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections).
Compare note on Candida Albicans in Fungi producing mycotoxins: The Fungal/Mycotoxin Etiology of Human Disease (particularly CANCER).

28 Sugar can cause gallstones.

29 Sugar can cause heart disease.

30 Sugar can cause appendicitis.

31 Sugar can cause multiple sclerosis.

32 Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.

33 Sugar can cause varicose veins.

34 Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.

35 Sugar can lead to periodontal disease.

36 Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.

37 Sugar contributes to saliva acidity.

38 Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity.

39 Sugar can lower the amount of Vitamin E in the blood.

40 Sugar can decrease growth hormone.

41 Sugar can increase cholesterol.

42 Sugar can increase the systolic blood pressure.

43 Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.

44 High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs) (sugar bound non-enzymatically to protein).

45 Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein.

46 Sugar causes food allergies.

47 Sugar can contribute to diabetes.

48 Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.

49 Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.

50 Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease.

51 Sugar can impair the structure of DNA.

52 Sugar can change the structure of protein.

53 Sugar can make our skin age by changing the structure of collagen.

54 Sugar can cause cataracts.

55 Sugar can cause emphysema.

56 Sugar can cause atherosclerosis.

57 Sugar can promote an elevation of low density lipoproteins (LDL).

58 High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in the body.

59 Sugar lowers the enzymes’ ability to function.

60 Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson’s disease.

61 Sugar can cause a permanent altering [of] the way the proteins act in the body.

62 Sugar can increase the size of the liver by making the liver cells divide.

63 Sugar can increase the amount of liver fat.

64 Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney.

65 Sugar can damage the pancreas.

66 Sugar can increase the body’s fluid retention.

67 Sugar is enemy #1 of the bowel movement.

68 Sugar can cause myopia (nearsightedness).

69 Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries.

70 Sugar can make the tendons more brittle.

71 Sugar can cause headaches, including migraine.

72 Sugar plays a role in pancreatic cancer in women.

73 Sugar can adversely affect school children’s grades and cause learning disorders.

74 Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves.

75 Sugar can cause depression.

76 Sugar increases the risk of gastric cancer.

77 Sugar [can] cause dyspepsia (indigestion).

78 Sugar can increase your risk of getting gout.

79 Sugar can increase the levels of glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test over the ingestion of complex carbohydrates.

80 Sugar can increase the insulin responses in humans consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets.

81 High refined sugar diet reduces learning capacity.

82 Sugar can cause less effective functioning of two blood proteins, albumin, and lipoproteins, which may reduce the body’s ability to handle fat and cholesterol.

83 Sugar can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

84 Sugar can cause platelet adhesiveness.

85 Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance; some hormones become underactive and others become overactive.

86 Sugar can lead to the formation of kidney stones.

87 Sugar can lead to the hypothalamus becom[ing] highly sensitive to a large variety of stimuli.

88 Sugar can lead to dizziness.

89 Diets high in sugar can cause free radicals and oxidative stress.

90 High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.

91 High sugar diet can lead to biliary tract cancer.

92 Sugar feeds cancer.

93. High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.

94. High sugar consumption can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration among adolescents.

95. Sugar slows food’s travel time through the gastrointestinal tract.

96. Sugar increases the concentration of bile acids in stools and bacterial enzymes in the colon. This can modify bile to produce cancer-causing compounds and colon cancer.

97. Sugar increases estradiol (the most potent form of naturally occurring estrogen) in men.

98. Sugar combines and destroys phosphatase, an enzyme, which makes the process of digestion more difficult.

99. Sugar can be a risk factor of gallbladder cancer.

100. Sugar is an addictive substance.

As I have stated a number of times artificial sweeteners were a problem for me that I didn’t recognize for a long time, and even when I did recognize they were an issue, I still had a bit of trouble staying away from them.  At this point I only use stevia, and once in a great while I might have something with sucralose, but my objective is that faux sweeteners be consumed no more than once a week.

Happily, I found my cravings subsided greatly once I cut out 95% of artificial sweeteners, and if I find cravings coming back, I will eliminate.  You gotta do what you gotta do!

Here is an excellent post from Dr. Attia on faux sweeteners:
http://waroninsulin.com/nutrition/what-are-the-side-effects-of-aspartame-stevia-and-other-sugar-substitutes#comment-4973

Yours in learning,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Unlike quitting smoking or drinking or doing drugs, all things you never have to do related to living, quitting the brain-numbing foods laden with sugars-starch-artificial sweeteners is to my mind harder. Harder because you have to eat, and food, sharing meals, is so much a part of being social, of our family gatherings, and holiday celebrations. We have to eat. The temptations are so great, and unlike for people quitting the other toxic substances, we can be bombarded by those who don’t believe in what we are doing, who say “a little won’t hurt”; even those who  want to undermine our efforts because it threatens them. I can’t imagine any of the people I know encouraging someone to go ahead and have a drink or a smoke, but they can be relentless when you tell them you don’t do sugars and most carbs. Suddenly everybody becomes an expert, they know better than you or all the knowledgeable people who have researched the subject. So what to do?

My best strategy is to put my needs in terms of health concerns. “I can’t eat sugars or refined foods if I want to avoid diabetes.”  To make it clear that your major concern is health, and you know what you’re doing usually gets people to back off.  If they don’t then you might have to resort to something a bit more aggressive: “What business is it of anybody but me?” “We have to agree to disagree.” But being prepared helps.

I know most people don’t have to eat as strictly as I do, and I’m happy for them, but this is my lot, and it has been damned hard work to figure out the reasons for my extreme sugar sensitivity. I’ve avoided diabetes, which I am very happy about. I still work at my weight, but, that’s life. All-in-all, I feel really lucky when I see people grossly to morbidly obese, because that could have been me. I just hope they can figure out how to manage their health.

Sadly, most doctors, along with most nutritionists and dietitians, still don’t understand the degree of toxicity in sugars-starches-faux sweets, and how it isn’t just a matter of controlling portions or more exercise.  But almost every week I’m seeing more doctors and other health care professionals seeing the light. I live in hope that I will live to see the old models turned on their heads as they should be.

Yours in hope,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Daily it seems I am reading about yet another health problem associated with eating too much or many sugars such as obesity, diabetes, joint problems, dementia, and now even gall stones which used to be linked with fat. Logically, we can take it as gospel that varying much from the diet of our evolutionary ancestors is likely to create problems of both width and breath (can’t resist a pun!). One source said that we should only be eating things we can in essence hunt, fish, pluck and gather in the wild.

The concentrations of sugars even in fruit, as one case in point, is far beyond what any prehistoric person would have gotten; and, keep in mind that they had to eat as the foods became available during seasons for fruiting, not at any old time they felt like going to the market or restaurant.

True, there are a few people who don’t get fat eating sugars, but overwhelmingly most do have weight issues over time, but they are still vulnerable to the hidden effects. True, not everyone develops the insulin resistance that means virtually everything s/he eats is converted to fat thereby leading to hunger, cravings, and fatigue from not enough energy release (aka sugaraholics).

For anything we can offer that is positive about even healthy sources of sugar, at this point in time is far outweighed by the cumulative negatives of too much of any kind of sugars.  Best advice: you won’t have a problem from avoiding sugars, but you could have lots of problems from eating them very often.

Once a sugaraholic, always a sugaraholic.

Nan aka Sugarbaby

I am really excited by the number of doctors getting on board the low carb/sugars train. Physicians’ voices carry a lot more weight than voices of purely experience like mine. We want to know doctors are getting and giving us the best advice possible, so we are more than willing to follow. I’ve seen doctor’s blogs, like dietdoctor.com exploding. I’m sad to report that I had become very disillusioned with this notion over the last ten plus years. But finding so many more physicians, dieticians, nutritionists willing to rethink what they had learned. Or, perhaps never learn and just now getting a true understanding–thank you Gary Taubes!

As I read through the various blogs I scan during the week I keep getting led to new great sites, and today I found Dr. Attia, and I heartily recommend a visit to his site.

We sugaraholics used to think we were just weak, but the news is good from that standpoint that it’s not just us, but most people who react poorly to sugars; only some of us who have become very insulin resistant feel the worst of what sugars can do. I see even in my wider family the great differences in tolerance or desire for sugars; we go from skinny skinny to grossly obese, with most in the middle somewhere.

Doctors are figuring out that one-size does not fit all, but that by knowing the main source of the problem, which is that wide array of foods that become sugars in our bodies, we can at least develop a plan of attack that will work.

Yours in the fight against sugars,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

We can become very skilled at lying to ourselves. Rationalization is a singular human trait. When we hit a bump in the road, fall off the wagon, let go into a binge, or otherwise undermine our best intentions to stay off sugars-refined starches-artificial sweeteners, or stick to a diet, we may initially decide to “excuse” our erring ways with something that soothes the upset. But as a psychologist (I’ve got to find the reference and insert here–) I read in an old Psychology Today article stated, people who finally overcome things like alcohol or sugar addictions have to be humble in order to move on. I don’t know why this magazine from 2010 surfaced in my house, but reading this article I experienced a moment of painful recognition.

Often I have felt overly sure of myself, even cocky about my Sugaraholics experience,  feeling that I had at last solved my problem; then some weeks or months into the program an episode would upset me, and sure enough I would find all the excuses–the stresses and other things–that led me to stumble.  I think now I am really not so sure of myself as I had thought, but maybe that knowledge will help in the long run.

The learning never ends. And thank goodness for that.

Yours in learning,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Two new videos on the powerful and dangerous effects of excess sugars-starch-artificial sweeteners (remember to the body and brain these all have the same effect. The science is backing up what many of us have believed for a long time now.

Two new videos with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on 60 Minutes and CNN:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403942n

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57407203-10391709/sugar-and-kids-the-toxic-truth/?tag=contentBody;listingLeadStories

With all the burgeoning going on around us here in the mid-Atlantic area I’m mindful that this season of regeneration is an especially good time to make changes. Our bodies are programmed for them, in fact.

Many of us remember how we would put on a few pounds in the late fall and winter, then as we got out and about, ate more green stuff, thought about the bathing suit season approaching, found that those pounds seemed to just fall  off.

Fall off they did, but it came about because of our behaviors. We are ready for changes after the sedentary nature of winter for most of us. I long to get out and plant a few annuals, do some gardening clean up, wash the car, clean out a few closets, and generally move. My walks get more energized, too. I feel less cravings for food than I do in the fall and winter. So it all works together to help.

As I got older, though, after 40, those pounds began to want to cling, and I’ve had to get progressively more restrictive in my diet. Now I’m down to one main meal a day, with only some protein shake if I get really hungry, but generally I don’t. I’m actually finding this one of the most freeing things I’ve done for myself. So more pounds going, which at this stage of life is really a big deal for me.  Happily, most people just need to eliminate the carb-laden junk that is made only with sugar-grains-artificial sweeteners. Get those out of your life, and you will never regret it.

To spring and all things new,

Nan aka Sugarbaby