This is a wonderful site to check in with, and get notices from: http://www.sugarscience.org
This site is staffed by several doctors of one type or another, all interested in working to help get us off the dangerous drug that is Sugar.
We in the northeastern USA have gotten through a strange winter all predicted by climate change science a few years ago. But now, the snow is gone, and it is springtime. Like most creatures in springtime, I have the normal animal urges to get out, plant, be productive, and feel connected with the great cycle of the seasons. My beloved and I were both down with some version of cold-bronchitis-flu for most of a month, and that only increased my usual winter ennui. So just now feeling focused, wanting to do more, like reconnecting via this blog. I have been storing up a few possible posts to share, and hope to be more regular for a while.
Blogs are a bit like diets; there is an initial excitement and intensity, then you slowly move to a kind of burnout phase when your interest wanes. But what does not wane is my absolute belief that our people are being made ill, and dying of diseases, caused by sugars, starches, and most artificial sweeteners. Death by diet. Our big-agri business has co-opted the government and medical establishment into supporting a way of eating that is not only unhealthy and fattening, but ultimately dangerous. A look at the western diet prior to the 1950s and now is evidence enough; a look at the change in obesity and diabetes rates during that time is appalling. Take a look at the stats found at these sites, more than enough to be disturbing:
http://www.diabetesandenvironment.org/home/incidence
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9043-1/index1.html
http://authoritynutrition.com/11-graphs-that-show-what-is-wrong-with-modern-diet/
http://mpkb.org/_detail/home/pathogenesis/mortality.gif?id=home%3Apathogenesis%3Aepidemiology
I am not a person who buys into conspiracy theories (they take a level of cooperation almost impossible for any group of people), and I don’t believe what happened in our western food realm was an conspiracy, except the ultimate one ruled by money. The same issues were at play in the cigarette industry for decades; not until there was no denying the obvious fact that smoking was killing people in droves did anything finally get done to show the public that tobacco kills.
Here is a good interview with a soda representative that shows it is hard for an abuser to defend his/her abuse: https://youtu.be/g4nTuSKEJug
I have a couple new recipes to add to my recipe blog, so take a look there.
Yours in the burgeoning of spring,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
Posted in sugar addiction
Tagged addiction, artificial sweeteners, diabetes, diet, health, obesity, starch, sugar
I grew up with the notion that you only had to have enough will to accomplish almost anything. Willpower, though, while good on many levels, on others it may not be quite all it’s cracked up to be. Will or willpower can help us achieve many things, but there are definitely limits to how far willpower can take us, especially if the root of a particular problem is adequate or correct information; or deeper in the brain than the part that deals with willpower.
When it comes to sugar, starch, and artificial sweeteners that act on our limbic brain, we no longer are dealing with the frontal lobes where everyday thinking occurs. We have to get at the root of our sugaraholic behaviors by eliminating the offending substances, which can take some willpower, but to try to have these substances and hope to exert control via willpower over their actions in our brains is nothing short of foolhardy.
Willpower is good, it pushes me to walk that extra mile, or push that heavier weight, or sit through a boring lecture, but there are limits to what the will can do when it comes to many of our health issues.
Below are some interesting articles that look at the subject from different angles, and I recommend Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, which deals with willpower as well.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-willpower/201212/was-the-year-in-willpower
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/opinion/sunday/willpower-its-in-your-head.html
While not common (some experts say it is not possible) it seems there are some people who are allergic to sugar, or have symptoms very like allergies to various forms of sugars. I know my mother was highly allergic to honey, which is also not all that common. Of course, many people are allergic to grains, especially gluten grains, which might appear to be an allergy to sugar, when the allergy is really the foundation the sugar may be laid upon.
As with many allergies, people often strangely crave the very thing that cause them problems. Why, no one seems to know. Here are a few studies I found relating to sugar allergies:
http://nancyappleton.com/allergies-disease/
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/PedEndocrine/EatAsIfYouAreAllergicToSugar.pdf
http://mossig.net/sugar-allergy-symptoms-what-you-should-do-to-avoid-them/
http://www.mnn.com/health/allergies/photos/10-common-allergy-myths/allergic-to-sugar
Posted in allergies, cravings, sugar, sugar addiction, toxcity
Those of us who have struggled with sugar don’t need a study to tell us that there is something different about sugar than other foods. Dr. Yudkin in the 1970s showed the addictive properties of sugar, and was bold enough to say that had sugar been discovered now it would be a controlled substance. Below is a link to yet another study that lifts up the problem with over use of sugar. While some people can handle sugar and not allow it to become a dependency, just like there are people who can smoke and drink without becoming dependent, there are some people who find they cannot stay away from the powerful draw of sugar. What starts as some overeating can eventually lead to binges, so there is a progressive element to sugar addiction that’s also present in alcohol abuse.
No one likes to think they are addicted to anything, but for those of us who have found ourselves constantly craving more sugar-starchy food even though we have just eaten a big meal know that there is something we have ceased to be able to control when it comes to those highly refined carbohydrates.
Once we accept we can’t have a little and go our merry way, the healing begins. For me it is strict abstaining from sugars, most starches, and artificial sweeteners. Sugar was the only thing in my life I could not control, and while it may not be how I expected to find myself as I aged, at least now there is a plethora of information to support why we struggle with this substance, and why we need to avoid it long before we find ourselves under its control.
Yours in learning and acceptance,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
Here’s the link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=12055324&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
The goal was to determine whether withdrawal from sugar can cause signs of opioid dependence. Because palatable food stimulates neural systems that are implicated in drug addiction, it was hypothesized that intermittent, excessive sugar intake might create dependency, as indicated by withdrawal signs.
Male rats were food-deprived for 12 hours daily, including 4 hours in the early dark, and then offered highly palatable 25% glucose in addition to chow for the next 12 hours. Withdrawal was induced by naloxone or food deprivation. Withdrawal signs were measured by observation, ultrasonic recordings, elevated plus maze tests, and in vivo microdialysis.
Naloxone (20 mg/kg intraperitoneally) caused somatic signs, such as teeth chattering, forepaw tremor, and head shakes. Food deprivation for 24 hours caused spontaneous withdrawal signs, such as teeth chattering. Naloxone (3 mg/kg subcutaneously) caused reduced time on the exposed arm of an elevated plus maze, where again significant teeth chattering was recorded. The plus maze anxiety effect was replicated with four control groups for comparison. Accumbens microdialysis revealed that naloxone (10 and 20 mg/kg intraperitoneally) decreased extracellular dopamine (DA), while dose-dependently increasing acetylcholine (ACh). The naloxone-induced DA/ACh imbalance was replicated with 10% sucrose and 3 mg/kg naloxone subcutaneously.
Repeated, excessive intake of sugar created a state in which an opioid antagonist caused behavioral and neurochemical signs of opioid withdrawal. The indices of anxiety and DA/ACh imbalance were qualitatively similar to withdrawal from morphine or nicotine, suggesting that the rats had become sugar-dependent.
12055324
[PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
Posted in behaviors, binges, cravings, sugar, sugar addiction
Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt has an excellent post on sugar and kids today:
This is a good resource for sugaraholics:
A great post from Dr. Peter Attia (A-tee-ah) on the topic of sugar toxicity. For me there is no question that I have a toxic reaction to sugar; it makes me feel awful, and if that doesn’t indicate toxicity, I can’t imagine what would. Dr. Attia is working with Gary Taubes on getting more science behind the problems of modern carbohydrates in our diets.
Enjoy, but be prepared to read in small doses:
http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/is-sugar-toxic
Yours in learning,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
Like Cassandra of mythology, who could foretell the future but would not be believed, Dr. John Yudkin, a British scientist who was both PhD and MD, did research that eventually led to his book, Pure, White, and Deadly, published in 1972, claiming that sugar was not just bad, but dangerous. I have remembered since the seventies hearing that some British or Australian doctor had said, in effect, if dangers of sugar was just now discovered it would be a banned substance, but I didn’t know who it was until recently. He states this in the first chapter in a bit different way, but just as damning. Further, I was able to find a link with the book in pdf format to download (just click the title).
All great movements start as disputed, disparaged, unappreciated ideas that are considered radical, too liberal, against the conventional wisdom; and, like many of history who were right but unattended, Dr. Yudkin along with a few others like Drs. Atkins and Pennington who were bellwethers signaling the dangers that now are finally being recognized via the efforts of Gary Taubes, Dr. Robert Lustig and now many bloggers.
The current of time eventually sweeps away the dross, but we can be plagued by it for a very long time. Sugar (and other feel-good things) is something people do not want to give up, or acknowledge is really seriously bad for them, so they assume the denial position (I envision this as on their bellies, with arms out-stretched and legs spraddled out, hugging their sacred ground).
While it is hard to understand how people can stay in denial when their bodies are grossly enlarged, their health steadily declining, their medical bills rising, and worse, yet this is exactly what continues to happen.
Still, there are small signs of hope, like the major soda manufacturers trying to fake less terrible options, though in truth they are just as terrible. Grocery markets are also beginning to offer more sugar free options, and happily the food labeling is still our greatest gift.
Today I wanted to lift up how thankful I am for the predecessors in the fight against sugar who helped lead us to what one day will be understood as an inevitable conclusion–despite the agri-business and government attempts to hide, mask, or prevent the truth from getting out (in this they are exactly like the tobacco industry). Dr. Lustig is reaching parents of small children which may be the biggest achievement in the long run to get sugar out of our diets.
Sometimes one is at the right time in history, I wish some of the now deceased diabetics in my family, like my mother, had been.
Yours in furthering the truth about sugar,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
Posted in Dr. Yudkin, poison, sugar, sugar addiction, sweets
Sugaraholics 
