What’s wrong with sugar???

November 15, 2010

 

Man I’ve been busy, full time at work, but I’m back for a short post, maybe, we’ll see….

How are you guys doing? We’ve changed the clock setting and got one more hour of sleep. Hope you took advantage of it, I know I did. I needed it, you see I hit 51 a couple of weeks ago!

Well I didn’t need it because of my age, but because of all the sugar I ate/drank. Coming out of the October Paleo Challenge I felt great, and then I started to feel not so good anymore. I wanted to be flexible for my guests, so I took some cake and hors d’oeuvre, flour and sugar stuff, baklavas…. So what happened? I started to cough and get the sniffles, headaches, itchy eyes and cravings. And now not only a small skin rash is back but also my mild insomnia (I even don’t poop the same, but won’t go into details…) And I lost a hole in my belt as my belly is now bulging out! All this from a tiny bit of food, not even a whole meal….Dang!!!

So what was it? The sugars? Dairy? Grains? I’m not sure because I’ve tried them all at the same time. Since then I’ve been reading up on sugar. Now I’m convinced that even if it’s not the main culprit it no longer has it’s place in our home.

Sugar sugar by any other name is not

Now there is just too much confusion about sugar…all carbs are not the same, so I’ll just make a few disctinction here:

1- Carbohydrates are nutrients made up of carbon atoms hydrated by water molecules (Carbon-Hydrates H2O) That’s enough. So depending how these atoms are put together you get glucose, fructose, galactose, cellulose, starches, glycogen, fiber, etc… Different configurations equals different names equals different properties. So all carbs are NOT the same, that’s the first confusion.

2- Glucose is THE ONLY carb the body use for energy in virtually all tissues and organs. It is the preferred energy source for the brain. All other carbs we eat HAVE to be converted into glucose. Any excess is stored as FAT, yes FAT is sugar! FAT is just stored energy and is made of the same carb atoms but for some reason are not called carbs (go figure!). FAT = STORED ENERGY. That’s the second confusion

FUN FACT: Ok, you guys have been great so here’s a simple fun fact: Starch is the FAT of plants. That’s it! The plants takes sunlight and combines CO2 and H2O to create glucose and release oxygen. We are alive because plants process sunlight! No sun, no plants, no us. And the plant stores extra energy/glucose as STARCH which is PLANT FAT. When you eat a starchy food like rice, bread, potatoes and so forth you are eating FAT, see the connection now?

3- Sugar is proccessed food and there lies the problem. Actually it’s not even food, it’s a chemical, it’s inert and dead. It is void of all nutrients, vitamins, minerals and enzymes, it is only energy. High Fructose Corn Syrup has the same problem but even worse, but I won’t get into it here.

OK so why no sugar?

Ok, very important here, I say NO to sugar, not to carbs!!! See the difference!!!

There is nothing wrong with fruits and vegetables because they are unproccessed and therefore alive and full of nutrients. But what happens when you eat sugar? Your body must borrow vital nutrients from healthy cells to metabolize the incomplete food. Calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium are taken from various parts of the body to make use of the sugar. Many times, so much calcium is used to neutralize the effects of sugar that the bones become osteoporotic due to the withdrawn calcium. 

I won’t reinvent the wheel so here’s from another website in a nutshell: Sugars inhibit the function of our immune system, and increase diseases caused by poor immune function, such as colds, flu, AIDS, allergies, infections, …

Sugars lack the vitamins and minerals required for their own metabolism. To be metabolized, sugars must draw on our body’s stores of these nutrients. The more sugars you eat, the more vitamins and minerals you need. It can leach B, C, D  vitamins, and those minerals: calcium, phosphorous, iron, selenium, zinc, chromium, vanadium, tin, boron, bismuth, rare earth elements etc. from our teeth, bones, and tissues. As these are depleted, our body becomes less able to carry out other functions that require minerals and vitamins to be present: to metabolize fats and cholesterol; to convert cholesterol into bile acids for removal from our body through the stool; or to burn-off excess fats as heat or increased activity.  We have already started walking our way to cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. http://curezone.com/foods/sugarpage.asp

In conclusion:

If you want to loose weight just eat less starch/plant fat.

If you want your health keep to real live carbs, not proccessed foods. Almost everything in a box/can/bottle has sugar in it, even cigarettes! Sugar, even organic cane sugar is toxic and addictive. Now that’s simple. Eat real food, not added sugar.

(PS: Paleo restrictions of grains/legumes/dairy have to do with anti nutrients, not with carbs, but that’s for another posting)

Live long and prosper!   Oops, wrong closing line…..

So until next,   GGrrrrrrrrrrr    Guy The Healthy Paleo Guy