Blog Archive

Sugar in the Gas Tank

Posted by HIM on Tuesday July 7th, 2009

Trucks can be cute, sexy, rusty, new, old, up-on-blocks; the variety is endless. Like our bodies. High performance is good, but it requires upkeep and good fuel. Like a high performance vehicle, our own bodies convert fuel/food into energy. There’s good and bad fuel. Sugar in the gas tank is not necessarily a good idea.

We love sugar. And it’s everywhere: not just the obvious pop, pretzels, chips, candy, cakes and cookies. It comes in many forms and with many names: breakfast cereal; fruit drinks such as cranberry-apple cocktail (sounds pretty healthy but it might be only ten percent fruit juice and ninety percent colored sugar water); muffins, maybe they should just be called small cakes; and jams and jellies, how many are no more than coloured sugar-water?

We nurture with sugar: grandmothers provide dobs of whipped cream on whatever; lovers proffer chocolates. Can you walk by vending machines without looking? When we’re depressed we eat a tub of ice-cream, alone.

After eating, your body breaks down food into smaller components, and some of the food is turned into a sugar called glucose, also known as blood-sugar. Blood sugar increases after you eat or drink anything besides water. Insulin travels throughout your body, breaking down the glucose into energy that your cells can use. If any part of this process doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, it can create health problems.

Overloading with processed sugar can really screw things up. By processed we mean white sugar that has been distilled from brown sugar, which was distilled from molasses. The molasses came from sugar cane or sugar beets. After all this processing it has no nutritive value left; sometimes it is called “naked calories”. Processed sugar is addictive, you always want more-that’s why it’s called kiddie cocaine-it affects the serotonin level in your brain.

Foods that contain highly processed sugars (a single can of soda or a bowl of ice cream can have 12 teaspoons of sugar), and bad sugars are “improper” fuel. Our body is unable to convert these foods into energy efficiently, and they are diverted to fat storage. If glucose stays in the blood and is not delivered to the cells, the cells can die from starvation. So your gas tank is left low on fuel and you become deficient in energy and nutrients.

And there’s the business about low body sugar. The foods that cause a fast rise in blood sugar level, initiate insulin production. This can result in a subsequent drop in blood sugar, usually below a balanced level, and called a hypoglycemic state: you will have low energy, fatigue and mood swings. The solution becomes more sugar, starting the cycle all over again. These ups and downs in energy are very stressful on a body trying to maintain balance.

Yes sugar is right up there, top of the list of dietary bad guys. Aside from its well-known ability to rot your teeth, sugar can depress your immune system for several hours after you eat it. When white blood cells are exposed to high levels of sugar in the bloodstream, they have less ability to engulf bacteria and you have a weakened resistance to all infections. The vitamins you need to process empty sugar calories into energy are not there, so your body has to supply them. These dead sugar foods displace real foods from your diet. And if your appetite is already less than it should be to begin with, you’re not doing yourself any good. Having a Danish for breakfast? Aside from the sugar, your treat is also loaded with unnatural trans fat you’re your body will have trouble negotiating.

And remember foods containing carbohydrates, which include starches, fruits, and dairy products, can raise blood glucose levels to unhealthy levels if eaten in too large of amounts at one time. Carbohydrates are converted to glucose in the body. Candy, sodas and sugar raise blood sugar, but so will eating too many tortillas, too much beans or rice. Still, these foods provide valuable vitamins, minerals, and energy for the body and need to be part of your everyday diet. Try not to overeat.

Refined carbohydrates, such as most breads and baked goods act pretty much like sugar in the body. These refined foods also lack the beneficial nutrients and fiber that are present in whole grains, and actually cause a depletion of minerals in your body.

Eventually excess consumption of sugar will effect every organ in your body. Over time high blood sugar can damage your eyes, blood vessels, nerves, kidneys and heart, and can also cause impotence. And remember your blood sugar level may already be high as a side-effect of any medications you take.

Sugar, like coffee, it gets you going, it keeps you going, for a while. But take care and avoid breakdowns further down the road.

harm reduction strategies

The less sugar you eat, the better.
It’s hard; don’t try to do it all at once. Reduce gradually.
Go from four teaspoons of sugar in your coffee to three.
Don’t keep sweet stuff in the house.

Eat raisins and other dried fruit at home.
Replace sugary foods with fruit.
Avoid sodas, bottled fruit juices, and anything that has corn syrup on the label.
Try finding foods that are more gently sweetened with fruit juice, rice syrup or barley malt.
Brown sugar, it has fewer calories because it has more water content. Raw sugar is better than some products which are just refined white sugar with some molasses added for colour.
Often a healthy diet is not so much about the foods you can or cannot eat, but how much of those foods you eat. Choose appropriate proportions.
Low blood sugar can cause fatigue. But try some fruit instead of an ice-cream bar.
Magnesium relaxes the muscles and calms the body. Chocolate is actually a good source of magnesium, but has a lot of harmful ingredients too: choose high quality, dark chocolate.
Other sources of magnesium are whole grains, beans, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
Healthy alternatives to sugar include: pure maple syrup, raw honey, & blackstrap molasses, Agave nectar, Stevia, cane juice, date paste, rice syrup, barley malt syrup. Products
to look into. Research. Visit your health food store.
You can use organic sugar cane for baking.
You know the drill: low-fat meals, lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains.
Remember the benefits of drinking more water. Dehydration is stressful to the whole system. Water makes everything work better.