Sugar and its many substitutes have become a part of the food landscape and are hardly noticed, except for commercials as of one being better tasting or affecting ones looks (weight) or any other simple issues.
To go back a bit in time and search for the origin of the sugar issues we will find that it started with Elizabeth I, Queen of England. The crown invested in sugar plantations in the islands and with that, the rations in the Queens Army and Navy contained sugar, then the practice spread throughout Europe with other armies.
It takes about 100 sugar canes to make one teaspoon of white sugar, through a refining process that puts the finished product into a drug category. It does not have the punch of other drugs like opium or cocaine, but creates an addiction through the physical system cycle by eating it. It also lacks the minerals and fiber for a proper digestive process.
Consumption of cookies, candies, soft drinks or any other forms of sugar elevates the blood sugar levels to abnormal heights not experienced when eating whole food like fruits or vegetables containing sugar in its natural form. Therefore the pancreas has to produce large quantities of insulin at the time of sugar consumption to offset this sugar influx into the bloodstream. These large quantities of insulin lower the blood sugar at first, but then an imbalance occurs where the insulin will outstrip the sugar and about an hour or two after consuming sugar, the blood sugar will become too low causing the person to feel tired, irritable,
stressed and hungry. At this point the appestat gets triggered and one will crave food, usually sugar or something that creates sugar. That could include a series of foods hiding the addiction type pattern involved. The range could be from simple carbs like breads, pasta and all refined flours to alcohol, potato chips, to any other fast or highly processed food to coffee, candy bars,
health bars or sodas.
A special note for our clients interested in staying in their bodies: Sugar will push you out of your body. One of the reasons we eat sugar during emotional incidents, called “emotional eating”, takes place because we are uncomfortable with emotions and the storage of them in our field. So when we get triggered by an event we unconsciously choose to get out of our bodies by
doing certain things like eating foods that accomplish that. The reason for this is: We were not taught how to manage our emotions and clear them when triggered by our parents, because they suffered from the same issues, emotional illiteracy, which they passed on to us.
As this becomes a habit the pancreas overworks to produce enough insulin in order to metabolize the sugar. A continuous overproduction of insulin by the pancreas causes it to stress out, swell and become oversized and start dripping insulin.
To correct this issue, one could remove all refined sugar from the diet, eat more fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates and add raw fat: Avocados, raw cheese or butter, with high sugar content foods. This creates a slow release of the sugar in a 2 to 3 hour digestion process.
Research has shown it takes several weeks to recalibrate the pancreas. If ingesting stimulants like coffee, cola or chocolates and excess meat, you are stimulating the body with chemicals and exciting the adrenal glands. The adrenals release cortisone, which triggers the liver to release glycogen, which is sugar stored in the liver. When glycogen is released into the bloodstream the pancreas reacts in a similar fashion as with sugar. This same process takes place after consuming artificial sweeteners. This creates many reactions in the body: the sugar (glycogen) gets distributed to all cells, the kidneys eliminate the waste products, and the lungs provide oxygen to the sugar burning. The aging process is greatly sped up in this scenario, which can result in hypoglycemia and could be a cause for diabetes. A common cause of hypoglycemia is adrenal inefficiency. Coffee, drugs (street or prescription) cola, chocolates, artificial sweeteners and excess meat trigger the liver to release glycogen. The pancreas mistakes this as sugar from a meal and tries to force the blood sugar back to normal. This causes the liver to work overtime and can be damaged by this process of over stimulation which can be exacerbated by excess food, alcohol, tobacco, smog and other toxins.
Have you noticed an almost epidemic increase in colds, flu and other immune system stress related illnesses over the Holidays? It’s simple: Elevated blood sugar levels decrease the ability of our white blood cells to eat up bacteria and viruses. This reduces our ability to fight off infection. This is consistent with the observation that diabetics have less resistance to infection.
To add to the already stressed out holiday patterns of shopping, spending lots of money, overeating, poor food combining, having to deal with lots family members, the cooked food consumed activates the white blood cells further, as the body processes cooked food as an intruder. Also research has shown that eating white sugar could shut down the immune system
for about five hours.
So to make the daily living and meals graceful and pleasant we do the following:
• We remember that we are holistic beings and have emotional, mental, spiritual and physical parts.
• We take time to nurture all of them, by hugging and thinking loving thoughts, meditation or alpha/theta brain state exercises and balanced physical activity.
• Proper food combining is always tricky with the “traditional” foods, so eating a couple of smaller meals instead one big one and combining salads and non-starchy vegetables with the meat one. For the gravy and mashed potato lovers a separate time table course could be instigated several hours away from the meat, or mashed potatoes made with organic cauliflower can be substituted which is truly delicious.
• We serve as many foods as possible raw and have digestive enzymes* with the meal.
• When eating meat, especially when we got older, we noticed a digestion issue and found we needed hydrochloric acid because our stomachs were not able to make enough of it to digest meat. You can body test** for it and lack of acid or too much of it feels pretty much the same, so if you have indigestion, check what kind it is, because commercial antacids disrupt the digestion process possibly causing problems over time.
• We keep alcohol and sugar to a minimum, use stevia or xyolotol as natural sugar substitutes, cooking or baking with them.
• If we have dessert we’ll eat it a couple hours before the meat meal or several hours afterwards.
• Fresh fruit salad with raw whipped cream is truly delightful! (Note: This may not follow the wisdom of food combining, however it is a way to slow down the sugar uptake from fruit by the digestive system. This way, the pancreas can go into a modified production of insulin. This is mainly for people with blood sugar issues.)
• Remember organic foods have fewer toxins and are more user friendly to the body.
• The most important of all: If you occasionally eat comfort foods or other potentially body stressing foods, do it in a loving manner and with a positive attitude so the body can process it easily and transmute the negative effects. Thump the thymus, take extra enzymes and talk your body through it! Let go of all blame or judgment! Love yourself!
A final word about artificial sweeteners: aspartame is by far the most dangerous of them. Many times it is added under the natural flavor section and even in baby food; we’ve heard its being added to sugar. When consumed it breaks the blood brain barrier and many of the reactions are very serious, including seizures and death as recently disclosed in Department of Health Service reports, which also list 90 different symptoms which include most of the current illnesses in the news. If you have been addicted to sugar free foods and you want to get off, do it slowly, since it acts like any other drug; quitting cold turkey can be painful and cause behavioral disturbances.
The addiction pattern of aspartame is clear – check with the local AA people – yes; many of them are off booze and on diet sodas! Also artificial sweeteners make the body gain weight, so there is nothing “diet” about them. I know a lot of this could be processed as disheartening, but cheer up – your cup can be half full, you are the one controlling what you put into your mouth! You can make it fun by getting the family involved in understanding, that what you put into your body, on your skin and next to
your body affects how you feel, think and process. Then you can find foods that create balance, taste great and are satisfying. If you have any questions let us know – and learn to body test**to find out what your body likes or what it is allergic to!