Overcome Emotional Eating
Sometimes, we eat, binge, scarf or pig-out when we’re upset, angry or celebrating something. Some of us go for the chocolate ice cream, while others snatch the chips and dip. Some go for deep-fried chicken, and others prefer BBQ ribs. No matter what your “comfort food” is or how often you eat because of emotional reasons and not hunger pangs, you’re not doing yourself any good.
Does it really make you feel better to down that pint of ice cream? What is it that compels some of us to try to eat our miseries away? After all, nine times out of ten, we end up feeling guilty later.
The Hazards of Sugar
by nancy
Filed under The Hazards of Sugar
If you haven’t given up indulging in sugar and refined carbs, then you must see this informative, eye-opening, scary presentation from the nationally renowned Robert H. Lustig, M.D., professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology:
Sugar is the Legal Narcotic?
Our life can be full of paradoxes, sometimes representing our collective way of turning our back on problems and our approach to sugar addiction is one such area. We place a considerable amount of time, effort and resource (and rightly so) in the war against illegal drugs and in a battle to try and get people to turn away from smoking. Smoking is surely the biggest single addiction in our society, we are told and is directly linked, quite vocally so, to many serious illnesses. However, when it comes to sugar very little is said in the mainstream about its ability to create a significant addiction, ticking away in the background of our lives and causing its problems over time.
Tips to Help You Junk the Sugar
Sugar is one of the most invasive products in our society and will be one of your biggest enemies when it comes to adopting a holistic nutrition lifestyle. Wherever you look, you will see sugar in one form or another and it is often masquerading under assumed names in a variety of other places as well. Make no mistake about it, it is going to take a concerted effort on your behalf and you will need the help of your family members or others with whom you live, to help you through the difficult early stages.
What is a Sugar Rush?
As part of a sugar addiction, some people refer to a sugar rush or a sugar high as if it were a psychological reaction to a drug and one linked to exhibited feelings of euphoria and pleasure. The actual sensation is less like a chemical reaction, but more like a reaction to elevated levels of energy provided by the ingredient. The energy may be short-lived, however, and will lead to an opposite reaction and can also leave behind headaches and other significant side effects, which we ignore over time at our peril.
Symptoms of Sugar Dependence
If you don’t believe that sugar addiction is a realistic and potentially very harmful problem facing society today, you probably don’t even need to conduct additional research or look at other people to find out the truth, as you may be suffering from this most prevalent and most significant challenge yourself. It is estimated that the majority of people who partake in a typical Western diet eat far in excess of a sensible amount of sugar in any one day and many people still discount the negative primary effects and side effects that this product can deliver.
Sugar and National Obesity
Sugar addiction is responsible for one of the scourges of modern society and a significant problem in the United States among other countries. While a general predisposition toward “fast food culture” and a collective psyche that suggests adequate food preparation time to be inefficient may be a big part of the problem, many experts point towards sugared beverages and sodas.
Sugar and Aging
Scientists suggest that our sugar addiction can contribute to our bodies changing much faster than they should. It has been suggested that “cross-linking” takes place when sugar molecules attach to protein molecules, causing the linked molecules to alter their function. Some of these molecules accumulate in specific soft tissues which then stiffen over time and become less functional. This can occur in arteries, tendons, cartilage and can result in failure or deterioration.
Stress and Your Diet – Don’t Combine Them
We often hear about how comfort food will help to brighten our day, to provide a haven for us when we get really stressed, but we often fail to realize that these distractions can also represent a facet of our uncontrolled sugar addiction. Comfort foods make us forget about all those trials and tribulations, are typically easy to prepare and are easily accessible. They can often contain a significant amount of refined sugar and have questionable, if any holistic nutrition value.
Attack of the Cravings
It can be really difficult to focus on holistic nutrition when you suffer from cravings for those sweet, sugary products. It can be even more difficult when we see those temptations all around us. We only have to travel to the gas station or the corner store for something totally unrelated and right before our eyes we see those enticing donuts in the checkout line or candy bars right next to the cash register. Cravings can be particularly difficult to deal with, especially if you haven’t eaten a balanced meal for several hours. The combination of a hunger pang and that sweet tooth can be tough to resist and before you know it you have fueled your sugar addiction once again.
Top 10 Simple Ways to Detox Your Body
1. Stay home (or go away) and do a juice diet. These are basically restricted diets or partial fasts that relieve your body of enough of the work of digestion that lots of healing can transpire. Best juices for fasting are greens with milder veggies and fruits to make them palatable. Healthy people should do fine on juice for a week to ten days, but if you’re under a doctor’s care, get clearance to do this. Among the conditions that contraindicate any unsupervised fasting or juice-feasting are diabetes, hypoglycemia, anorexia, pregnancy, and breastfeeding.
How to Kick the Sugar Habit
A sugar addiction can be seriously debilitating and we need to seek focus on holistic nutrition before we develop numerous and significant health problems. We all know that we should be eating well, but due to significant marketing campaigns by the American Heart Association and others, a lot of the emphasis has been placed on low-fat and the elimination of cholesterol in our diets, while there may be other, equally as sinister, threats.
