HOW TO GET YOUR SWEET FIX WITHOUT SABOTAGING YOUR HEALTH

[Guest guest]

By Shane Ellison M. Sc.

The People's Chemist

April 13, 2008

 

http://www.newswithviews.com:80/Ellison/shane39.htm

 

NewsWithViews.com

 

If you could make one simple change in your diet to help you melt fat, sleep

better, and improve your memory ... wouldn't you do it? What if that same simple

dietary change could increase your energy, conquer depression, save your

eyesight, restore your mental alertness, get your bedroom energy rockin', and

increase your lifespan?

 

This may sound too good to be true. But it's not. And you don't have to take

drugs. Nor do you have to try some newfangled experimental supplements. Or stop

eating. Or even give up the foods you love.

 

It's as simple as reducing the amount of sugar you eat.

 

This is not a trick. I said you don't have to give up the foods you love. And

that includes sweets. You can actually give up sugar and keep your sweet tooth

happy. This is the greatest health secret of all time. And I'm gonna teach you

how to incorporate it into your life.

 

Before I tell you how, I want you to know just why you should give up sugar.

 

It's not just because of all the aforementioned benefits. It's because sugar can

have serious health consequences.

 

Have you ever been plagued by hard-to-diagnose health problems? You know

something is wrong, but your doctor can't seem to figure out what's causing

them? You ...

 

* can't lose weight, no matter how hard you exercise or diet

* feel depressed, even though you're typically a happy person

* can't get a solid night's sleep

* feel sluggish at work

* lack mental focus

* have lost your libido

* suffer from rising blood pressure

 

Well, it's not all in your head. It could be your sugar addiction.

 

My six-year-old can recite all the dangers of sucrose (table sugar) in a matter

of two minutes. She can also warn you of the risks associated with those

artificial sweeteners in pretty packets. And because she still likes to get her

" sweet fix, " she can tell you which natural sweeteners are best to use in tea,

cookies, and cake. Not bad, considering that the self-appointed custodians of

our health - physicians - are totally clueless about the sweetener epidemic that

is sabotaging us.

 

If a first grader can master the problems with sugar and understand how to

choose the right alternatives, you can too.

 

We all have the need to get a sweet fix. It's part of our biological makeup.

When consumed, sweets elicit a chemical cascade of events that lead to the

triggering of feel-good receptors within the brain. If this happens repeatedly,

an emotional bond between happiness and sugar is formed. We become fully

dependent on sweets.

 

Sugar addiction is best illustrated by children who break down with temper

tantrums if not given sugar, women who consume chocolate in times of stress, and

men who suck down soda to make it through the " afternoon blues. " In a study

comparing the addictive properties of sweeteners, saccharin and sucrose proved

more addictive than cocaine!

 

The irony is that your body doesn't actually need any sugar. What you do need is

glucose for energy. And you can obtain it from fruit and vegetables.

 

If left unchecked, an addiction to sweets spikes blood sugar and the fat-storing

hormone insulin, disrupts satiety (causing users to overeat), and gives rise to

age-accelerating molecules known as AGE products (advanced glycation end

products). These aging molecules (not cholesterol) are responsible for causing

wrinkles and age-related blindness, as well as premature heart attacks and

stroke.

 

Over time, " sweetener addiction " leads to the hard-to-diagnose symptoms listed

above, and a host of dreaded diseases like insulin resistance, heart disease,

diabetes, and cancer. To avoid the sabotage, you must understand how to get your

sweet fix without becoming addicted.

 

Years ago, people didn't eat much sugar - as little as 10-15 pounds per year.

And their health was much better for it. As time passed and sugar production

became easier, people gave into their sweet cravings and began to overindulge.

Today, the average consumption of sugar is a whopping 160 pounds! It's suicide

in slow motion. Sugar addicts eliminate a 11-20 years from their lifespan.

 

Few people realize how much sugar they are putting into their body. They are

simply giving into an addiction while slowly ruining their health. To judge

whether or not you are at risk, read your food labels for one day and count how

many grams of sugar you are eating. Insert that number into my People's Chemist

Death by Sugar Calculator. Watch as the graph calculates how many pounds of

sugar you are stuffing into your mouth annually.

 

But that doesn't mean you should replace sucrose with artificial sweeteners to

get your sweet fix. Artificial sweeteners are nothing more than drugs in

disguise. Splenda is a perfect example.

 

Splenda contains the drug sucralose. Invented in a pesticide lab, this chemical

is 600 times sweeter than sugar. To make sucralose, chlorine is used. Chlorine

has a split personality. It can be harmless or it can be life threatening. In

combo with sodium, chlorine forms a harmless ionic bond to yield table salt.

When used with carbon, the chlorine atom in sucralose forms a covalent bond. The

end result is deadly organochlorine, known simply as RNFOC (a Really Nasty Form

of Chlorine). Unlike ionic bonds, covalently bound chlorines are a big no-no for

the human body. They yield insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides - not

something you want in your sports drink or your child's lunchbox.

 

Think aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet) is safe? Think again. Teaching organic

chemistry, I taught my students how to identify the active ingredients in soda

using a technique known as TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography). The byproducts of

sodas containing aspartame are all known poisons (that would slowly kill you):

methanol, phenylalanine, and aspartic acid. I never saw my students with a diet

soda after that.

Safe alternatives to artificial sweeteners are abundant: erythritol, agave,

xylitol and luo han guo.

 

Choosing which natural sweetener to use depends on which one tastes best to you.

Agave nectar usually wins. It stimulates taste buds exactly the same way sucrose

does. But unlike common table sugar, very little of its active ingredient -

inulin - is absorbed. Therefore, you are protected from the dangers of sugar

addiction.

 

As a " nectar, " agave is a bit harder to bake with. This is where the safe and

natural erythritol wins. You can replace it gram for gram with sugar. Even

better, I like to use 25% table sugar and 75% erythritol in baking and ice

cream. You won't even notice the healthy difference. That's the real magic here!

 

All natural sweeteners are known to help control appetite, keep insulin and

blood sugar low, and prevent the formation of age accelerating molecules in our

body. None of them are addicting, nor will they diminish your lifespan. They are

perfect to use with my Hormone Intelligence Therapy (HIT) program for reversing

diabetes, losing fat and feeling great in 90 days.

 

Getting your sweet fix doesn't have to be deadly. If you learn to gauge your

sugar intake with The People's Chemist Death by Sugar Calculator and start using

natural sweeteners, you won't be plagued by hard-to-diagnose health problems.

And you'll have more years to enjoy life and those you love.

 

© 2008 Shane Ellison - All Rights Reserve

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

That's an interesting article, but why are we encouraged to use " sugar

alternatives " ? Surely it's better to use something a little closer to

nature; whole foods for whole people?

 

I have found that, with a reduction in the amount of sweetening used, the

taste buds adapt such that, to satisfy the sweet tooth, I don't need as much

sweetness to get there.

 

Here are my suggestions (I can remember in this moment) for sugar

alternatives, and they don't come powdered in a packet.

 

Baking:

bananas: Really ripe, these become very sweet, yet they are very easy to

digest. And by really ripe, I mean no green at all, plenty of brown spots.

The longer you leave them the blacker the skin becomes, but the insides are

perfect for baking. Just mash 'em up, and mix them into your batter. Good

for cakes and sweet breads.

dates: soaked in hot water, these become quite soft and can be mashed or

blended into a nice paste for a very sweet sweetener. And you don't need a

whole lot to get that there.

honey: honey is pre-digested so easy to assimilate. Not too much needed

though. Only it seems a crying shame to cook it (and wreak all the amazing

attributes of it), so I don't like to heat it too much. [Raw honey can be

used for sweetening porridge by adding it AFTER it's cooked. That way you

get the sweet and keep (most of) the honey's integrity.]

 

Smoothies:

(again) ripe bananas: Although don't wait until they are black - nice

spotty bananas are best for this. The longer they ripen the more methanol

will be produced (as the fruit self-ferments) and that's bad. If it's not

being cooked, the methanol (wood-alcohol) will remain in the end product.

Blend it up with yoghurt or milk, an egg and some berries, and you have

something that is plenty sweet enough. Very more-ish. You can also freeze

the bananas and use them as a base for an ice-cream or just eat them as they

are. The kids love them.

 

Sweets:

honey (who can deny that a spoonful of honey is not better than a lolly

(candy ~ for you American speakers)?

fresh and home dried fruit (nothing like your own home grown berries, etc.)

 

BUT: one of the worst effects from sugar is the insulin effect, which means

that, the more you have, the more you want. So, to mitigate that a bit, and

make the sugar that you are consuming take longer to spike the blood sugar,

add FAT. It slows down the assimilation process and satiates the eater for

longer.

 

AND: I think it's very simplistic to consider sweet-TASTING things as the

only sugar in your diet. ALL carbohydrates are sugar. From honey and

glucose (mono-saccharides) to table sugar, lactose and galactose, etc

(di-saccharides) to the carbs in fruit, veges and seeds and starchy foods

(grains, potatoes, etc./poly-saccharides). All of these need to be broken

down into simple sugars (mono-saccharides) to be able to be used as energy

by the body, so still act the same in the body as sugar. If there's too

much going in, or it's not being digested properly, then it's going to cause

mischief. And when it does get digested, it still needs the insulin to deal

with it. SO, I believe - and have found - that reducing the amount of carbs

going in is better for health. An interesting article about " insulin and

it's metabolic effects " can be found here:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/07/14/insulin-part-o

ne.aspx. Basically (and from memory - it's a while since I read it) it says

that the more insulin produced by the body (in response to

sugar=carbohydrate consumption) the faster we age. Hmmm. Something to

think about, ay?

 

I've just today been reading this thesis about what can be learned of

woman's history through cookbooks. There were suggestions of sugar

substitutes:

" Large international events and trends can be found reflected in the pages

of cookery books. The impact of war can be seen clearly. Books were

produced during World War II to show housewives how best to cope with the

restrictions of rationing and shortages. The Red Cross published a Cookery

Book to help housewives ‘with the present problem of butter and sugar

rationing ,i.e., less fats and less sugar in the daily diet’. It asks :

will ‘the butter problem become an insurmountable problem each morning?’

and ‘Must we have so much cake?’ It recommends alternative fats to butter :

cheese, eggs, good rich dripping, peanut butter and bacon fat. Alternatives

to sugar include golden syrup, honey, condensed milk, sultanas, red beet,

raisins and minced peel. Rationing is dealt with in a positive way : ‘We

welcome rationing’ because of the great need of others, so that they ‘will

have even barely enough to retain life in the years ahead’. And it appeals

to a sense of pride in the capabilities of women as cooks and housewives. :

‘We like problems’ . The response to problems is certainly ingenious. Boiled

or baked beetroot diced small with a tiny pinch of bicarbonate of soda can

be used as dried fruit in puddings and cakes, beetroot and apples can make

an imitation blackberry and apple pie and the versatile beetroot can be

cooked and grated into apples, pears or rhubarb instead of using any sugar. "

~ Carol Jarman

 

Personally, I wouldn't recommend the condensed milk or the golden syrup, but

the other ones I reckon could be worth a try.

 

Love

Vivienne

[Guest guest]

Vivienne,

 

Adding cinnamon powder would not allow blood sugar to

go up.

 

Melly