By Joen Lane, Ideal Family Weight Loss & Life Balance Center
To ‘sugar coat’ something means to make it sound better. Sweetness is a metaphor in relationships, communication, cooperative thinking, and just plain getting along in life. The implication for sweetness is everywhere. This is how powerful ‘sweet’ things are in life. However, when it comes to our diets, the effects of ‘sweet’, specifically sugar, can be deadly.
MRI studies have shown that ingesting sugar activates the brain in the same region and in the same pattern as using hard drugs such as cocaine, suggesting that sugar can be considered addictive to the human body. Sugar is also used as a pain management tool for newborns that undergo procedures such as circumcision. Even young children look forward to family gatherings, celebrations and events where sweet delicious morsels of food are waiting for their delight. Candy stores have record sales during special occasions. We could go on and on about sugar in our diets and how it intertwines with our emotional lives. However, older research on the detrimental effects of sugar to the human body is repeatedly being validated as science advances and looks at the impact of sugar at the molecular level.
Following is an excerpt from the book, “The Sugar Blues” by William Duffy that helps to explain why sugar is so toxic to the human body.
“1957 Dr. William Coda Martin tried to answer the question of when is a food a food and when is it a poison. He classified refined sugar as a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins, and minerals. What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates. The body cannot utilize this refined starch and carbohydrate unless the depleted proteins, vitamins, and minerals are present. Nature supplied these elements in each plant in quantities sufficient to metabolize the carbohydrate in that particular plant. There is no excess for other added carbohydrates. Incomplete carbohydrate metabolism results in the formation of ‘toxic metabolite’ such as pyruvic acid and abnormal sugars containing five carbon atoms. Pyruvic acid accumulates in the brain and nervous system and the abnormal sugars in the red blood cells. These toxic metabolites interfere with the respiration of the cells. They cannot get sufficient oxygen to survive and function normally. In time, some of the cells die. This interferes with the function of a part of the body and is the beginning of degenerative disease. Refined sugar is lethal when ingested by humans because it provides only that which nutritionists describe as ‘empty’ or ‘naked’ calories. It lacks the natural minerals which are present in the sugar beet or cane.
In addition sugar is worse than nothing because it drains and leaches the body of precious vitamins and minerals through its demand on digestion, detoxification, and elimination upon one’s entire system. So essential is balance to our bodies we have many ways to provide against the sudden shock of a heavy intake of sugar. Minerals such as sodium (from salt), potassium and magnesium (from vegetables), and calcium (from the bones) are mobilized and used in chemical transmutation; neutral acids are produced which attempt to return the acid-alkaline balance factor of the blood to a more normal state”
In simple terms, everyone understands that balance in life is necessary in every area, especially where our diets are concerned. Each meal counts, each snack counts, each day counts. The quality of the food we put into our bodies is more important than the emotional feeling we have when we eat it. What you eat today will affect your quality of life tomorrow. You are what you eat!
Joen Lane is a certified weight loss coach with Ideal Family Weight Loss & Life Balance Center, offering Ideal Protein, the medically developed, sensible weight loss protocol. The center is located at 2103 E. Washington Street in Bloomington. Their mission is to help people take control of their weight and keep it off. Classes are offered on a variety of food and lifestyle topics. For more information, please call 309-661-3235.
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