A couple of interesting posts from Food Renegade:
On how L-glutamine supplements might help cravings for sweets:http://www.foodrenegade.com/how-beat-sugar-cravings-glutamine/
On using fermented foods to help sweet cravings: http://www.foodrenegade.com/zapping-sugar-cravings-with-fermented-food/
There are several more sugar-related posts from FoodRenegade, but a warning that the site is heavy on commercials.
Yours in exploring,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
Don’t jump on the bandwagon to eat sugar, but at least this latest study shows what is helping to stimulate our growing obesity epidemic.
From http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/36672
In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Jonathan Purnell and Damien Fair of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, said the findings “support the conceptual framework that when the human brain is exposed to fructose, neurobiological pathways involved in appetite regulation are modulated, thereby promoting increased food intake.”
My concern about the way this is being reported is that it is better to eat glucose than fructose, but that is a marginal difference. As we know better, sugars are a problem regardless of source.
Always looking to learn,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
One of the hardest things for a person is to appreciate when something did not happen. We seem to be able to if we can see it, like if the car stops at the edge of pit, or something visible and dramatic like that, but is is hard to appreciate a situation wherein a course of action prevented a catastrophe. People may or may not appreciate how great the danger actually was, or be in denial that a disaster had actually been imminent. When it comes to health we have a similar conundrum.
Had I not gotten off sugars-starch-most artificial sweeteners, I know I would have become a diabetic, the trajectory was there; but, because I did make changes, I did not become diabetic. Also, that I didn’t become morbidly obese is another thing that did not happen, though I know it would have had I kept eating the standard American diet (called SAD for a reason). I had seen all these things happen to my mother, so I knew that these two consequences were highly likely if I did not make changes.
Yet, despite avoiding the worst, I have been unhappy that my weight would not come down faster, which is the problem of insulin resistance–the body stores fat, but doesn’t release it for energy. I get discouraged, and forget how much worse everything could be, and that I should be happy that the two big negative things did not happen. We are not well equipped to look at life this way, though; so it takes writing in a journal, blogging, or other aids to memory and positive thinking.
Trial and error is a friend, so I’ve been trying different diets to get some movement downward on the weight-loss; after everything else, or so it seems, I’m on a ketogenic diet which gives me great energy, good sleep, and voila the pounds are again coming off.
Sugar/starch is the cause of a lot of suffering, and I hope that younger people, like my children and grandchildren, will see that they will have much more positive health with by leaving out these negative foods.
Yours in trying,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
Posted in postives, sugar addiction
Tagged artificial sweeteners, diet, ketogenic diet, starch, sugar
The news is hot with New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on large soft drinks especially considering all the real governing that’s ignored in the process. The better action would be to have clear nutrition labels on all fast food packaging, like on the side of soda cups, so people can see how much they are ingesting of sugars, artificial colors and sweeteners, etc. Information is good, bans are almost always bad. Further it’s a foolish to hypocritical action in light of how much junk you can get legally in any food place in NYC. Even a M&M store!
Legislating in this piecemeal fashion does little to address the primary issue that people need to understand that sugars to the tune of up to 20-30 spoons of sugar are in these beverages. Fruit juice is very little better, so making soda a scapegoat doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. All sugars need to be identified and made clear with labeling.
Yours in commonsense,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
I have been in a continuous process of learning about weight loss since my weight first became a problem following a near-death experience from Toxic Shock Syndrome in the 1980s. This illness destroyed a lot of muscle mass, and I began to put on weight quickly. As I aged, and dieted relentlessly in the conventional wisdom (CW) mode, my weight just increased, and my cravings grew exponentially until I ultimately reached the point of having binges once or twice a month. I has taken most of the last ten years in particular to get the information I really needed about the how the process of insulin controls weight gain or loss. Dr. Atkins was my first source of good information, but still not quite what I needed, though many people have done very well on the Atkins diet. Gary Taubes is my hero for really putting the science behind the process. And now Dr. Jack Kruse (www.jackkruse.com) and others researching in the field have given us the information about an even more important hormone, leptin, which turns out to be the main driver of this hormonal engine that leads us to gain and/or lose weight. (Kruse is a hot topic over at marksdailyapple.com)
I firmly believe that different things work for different people, and it is our job as individuals to figure out where we are on the sugar-artificial sweeteners-starch spectrum. At this point in my life I am very insulin resistant, and in consequence very leptin resistant. I won’t bother to try to explain the processes, for Dr. Jack Kruse, Dr. Ron Rosedale, and others can do that far better, so check out their websites. But it made sense to me that I was struggling with leptin resistance, so decided to try Dr. Kruse’s dietary protocol: 50-70g of protein within 30 minutes of waking; less than 50g (I stay less than 25g) of daily carbs; mild or no exercise during the 6-8weeks of resetting the leptin sensitivity; and No snacking. This last I thought would be hard since I had been a grazer in recent years, and had stopped breakfast in order to control my intake.
I am happy to report that over the last week plus, I have been faithful to this program and have been surprised at how much better I am feeling. My sleep has improved which has been my major challenge of the last ten years. And I feel an inner calm that is new for me; rather like that experienced in a good meditation session.
I believe with Seth Roberts (http://blog.sethroberts.net/) that self-experimentation is good, so I’m never afraid to give something a try if it seems to make sense. In this case, while I was skeptical, it seemed to have a ring of truth that encouraged me, and now I know I will stick with it for the eight weeks to see how things progress.
Leptin was only discovered in 1994, and that it is a hormone made by the fat cells was a huge surprise, and that it turned out to be perhaps the most important hormone in the diet cycle was even a greater surprise to the scientists studying these processes. No doubt there is more yet to discover, but at least we have this knowledge now, and can use it towards dealing with the major challenges of the obesity epidemic our nation now faces.
The analogy that came to mind is that struggling with cravings/weight is like having a wonderful car, say a powerful Mercedes, filled with fuel, a trip planned with all arrangements made, but there is no key. If you can’t get anywhere with your weight-loss or weight-gain, it may be the missing key you need is resetting your leptin sensitivity.
Ever learning, Sugarbaby
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged artificial sweeteners, carbs, leptin, leptin resistance, leptin sensitivity, sugar, sugaraholics, sugarholics
This is Memorial Day weekend and I am thinking of my son and others who have served, many have died, to protect our country. My deepest wish is that no one who serves should be forgotten or neglected.
We understand what it means to fight an enemy that is outside us, but what about the forces within. Those forces are not our enemy for they evolved to insure our survival, but sadly Mother Nature doesn’t know we aren’t still living as hunter-gatherers. Mother Nature has not caught up to modern times when we see food everywhere in the media, and can get food on every corner; not just food, but the most highly condensed calories of the most addictive quality.
Remember the old Parkay margarine commercial (ironic on several levels): You can’t fool Mother Nature! Well, that is true. You can’t fool the way your body will react to sugar-sweet tastes-carbs, nor can we escape the long term consequences of a diet artificially concentrated with all kinds of sugars, sweet tastes, faux foods, frankenfoods, and chemicals from herbicides, pesticides, preservatives, et al, that Mother Nature never equipped us to handle. So people eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), are flooding a primitive system with complex and poisonous products, and we wonder why we are become morbidly obese faster than ever, and in ever greater numbers.
The forces within, that limbic brain designed by Mother Nature over thousands of millenia, is far greater power than our frontal lobes where rational thinking resides.
For many, if not most people, continuing to eat sugars-sweet tastes-most carbs is fighting against a force you cannot defeat.
Yours in strength, working with, not against, Mother Nature,
Sugarbaby
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged carb addiction, Memorial Day, sugar, sugar addition, sugar evils, sugarholic
Does giving up sugars, sweeteners, and most carbs make you feel deprived? I know I felt that often, but what does it mean to be deprived? Are you truly deprived if the things you want are making you fat, unhealthy, and unhappy? We know the answer to that. Yes we want sweet tastes as long as we keep feeding them, but that passes fairly quickly. So you can’t have something you wanted, does that mean you still can’t have lots of wonderful things in your life that will be more rewarding–of course not. I would rather be able to walk up a couple flights of stairs without huffing and puffing. I would rather eat better food at better restaurants. I would rather wear attractive clothes instead of hiding in loose garments.
Make a list of all the things you want to do that you can’t do now, and as long as your brain is obsessing about the next sugar-sweet fix.Want to ski, dance, meet a special person, play with kids, go hiking, enjoy the beach. Life was not meant to be lived for food; food is supposed to support life–a great life.
There’s an old saying about people who either live to eat, or eat to live. I’ve made my decision. I now eat to live. Even if that means I’m the oddball, eccentric, health-nut, or any other thing people might throw my way. Words can’t hurt me nearly as much as sweet can. Besides, I don’t mind being special; being the person who goes against the old Conventional Wisdom (which is in fact the new foolishness).
I have no desire to convert anyone who doesn’t want to be on this path with me. But for those who have struggled desperately with sugar-sweet-carb craviings,who know they are sugaraholics, there is a healthy and safe path to freedom: Give up the sweet.
Until next time,
Sugarbaby
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged craving, deprivation, sugar, sugar addiction, sugaraholic, sugarholic, sweets
Do you find yourself under the spell of sugar, starch, sweet tastes? If so most likely you are, as I am, a Sugaraholic. Like alcoholics, the same part of our brains gets overly-stimulated, and we get messages to eat or drink more and more, even when we have just glutted on sugar. If nothing else has worked, the final solution is to get sugar-sober; meaning, to refrain from all sugars, artificial sweeteners, starches, and most sweet tastes.
Are you ready to be sugar-sober? If so, join me in this effort to give information and support to those who are suffering, struggling, and in some cases destroying their lives under the influence of most carbohydrates, especially sugars.
For much of the last fifteen or more years I have struggled with constant cravings. Not until I read Gary Taubes Good Calories, Bad Calories, did it all begin to really come home to me. Dr. Robert Atkins at least got me on the road enough that I didn’t wind up too wide to get through doors, but it was a struggle, for I would have two or three great weeks, then fall off the wagon. I lived with private shame about binges, and having very little control over sweets and carbs.
The reasons I was falling off the wagon were mysterious to me. If it was purely about will power, then I had tremendous will power in most aspects of my life. If it was simply the food, I was eating well most of the time, better than 90%; so I remained in a stalemate with my weight. Then all hell broke loose; or perhaps a better metaphor, a perfect storm came into my life: I was at the peak of a stressful career, I had to have spinal surgery, my mother had a sad, pitiful death from diabetes complications, and my sleep flew out the window as I aged into the peak peri-menopausal years. Result, a steady 6-8 pounds of weight gain each year over the next few years.
This blog is an effort to help others who find themselves gaining or unable to lose despite good efforts. I have read dozens of diet books, tried many, failed many times, been through the gamut, but never gave up believing I would one day find the answer.Thanks to Gary Taubes, Dr. Atkins, Nora Gedguadis, Mark Sisson, Dr. Jack Kruse, and others who have been committed to learning and talking about the truth of the disaster that is our modern western diet, I finally was able to get on the right path to control of my problem and did one thing I never thought would be possible–I gave up sugars/sweets. I really don’t care about sweet foods or drinks much any more. In fact, I am repulsed by the thought of much of what I once stuffed into my poor unhappy body. I am relishing being carbohydrate sane and sugar-sober.
Now, with the aid of these primal programs, I have been steadily losing the weight using a primal diet, and restricting intake, and the final coup de’ grace, stopping not just sugar, but artificial sweeteners, and avoiding most sweet tasting foods and beverages. If that scares you, then you are a most likely a Sugaraholic.
I hope you will join me in creating a supportive forum to discuss the issues of being a Sugaraholic, discovering hidden sugars and sweeteners, finding ways to enjoy food in social settings without breaking the pledge to be sugar-sober, and working together towards good health.
Let’s begin.
Sugarbaby
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged carb sensitive, carbohydrate addict, hypoglycemia, insulin resistance, insulinemia, starch, sugar, sugar addict, sugaraholic, sugarholic
I was/am a sugar baby, child, young adult, adult. At no point in my life was my brain not being flooded by sugar, which as some researchers have said (Dr. Robert Lustig most recently), if it were created today it would be a controlled substance.
I was lucky that for over half my life I was lean, though only moderately fit. However, as I grew older I had cravings that grew, too. Eventually, after much denial, wishing, hoping, rationalization, and all the rest, I had to accept that I was and am a Sugaraholic. After lots of anxiety about this one area over which I seemed to have virtually no control, I learned I was insulin resistant (IR), which means whatever an IR person eats is converted to fat before any energy is used, and the body won’t let go of the stored energy aka fat, which leaves a person constantly tired from lack of energy, and always craving. It’s like living in a freezing house in the winter, with plenty of fuel available, but the furnace doesn’t work.
A Sugaraholic is usually on his/her way IR, or extremely sensitive to the reaction of sugar on the brain (sugar acts on the brain exactly like heroin or cocaine), someone who cannot resist the call of the constant cravings stimulated by the drinking or eating of carbohydrates, sugars, and even artificial sweeteners. The only way to break this pattern is to cease and desist; to stop consuming that which is making life a craving misery, a binge hell.
Join with me and all the rest who struggle with sweet cravings, to bring insight and information to overcoming this problem. Yours, Sugarbaby
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged carb sensitive, carbohydrate addict, sugar, sugar addict, sugarholic
Sugaraholics 