Why Do I Love My Sugar Recovery?

By Joan Kent                

Let me count the ways. Reasons, actually. This post covers 4.

1. Food Tastes Better

Taste buds seem to come alive when they're not "deadened" by overly sweet foods.

When I stopped eating sugar, I also stopped expecting to have sweet foods at each meal - for dessert or for the entire meal. Only then could I appreciate the more subtle and nuanced flavors of Real Foods.

Sweetness I was never able to perceive, let alone appreciate, became obvious.

When I was eating sugar all the time, no one could have convinced me that sweet potatoes are sweet.

Compared to what? Not compared to chocolate or ice cream! So how could they be sweet??

Getting away from sugar opened new worlds for me in terms of enjoying food.

2. Temptations Are Not Tempting

It's easy to avoid desserts and other sugary treats when I'm able to think, "That's not food."

They're not food, of course. They're nothing but trouble for the likes of me. And I know many people like me are out there.

Once upon a time, in the bad old days, just looking at sugary foods put me into a state of true conflict: I wanted the sugar, but knew I shouldn't have it. I remember the struggle. I can recall going back and forth, over and over, for many minutes on end.

Sometimes I even had to destroy the food itself - say, by pouring dish detergent into it - to end the temptation.

Since my recovery, there's no conflict at all. It's not food. The feeling is true freedom.

3. Sugar Cravings Stop Altogether

Yes, really.

I had many cravings when I first quit sugar. As I stayed off the stuff, they decreased in number. And the cravings that showed up were less powerful and less tenacious.

But now they simply don't happen.

Oddly, I read articles on - and hear "experts" talk about - sugar cravings. They say, "Sugar cravings never really go away." Yikes.

Well, I don't know what those folks are doing, because sugar cravings do stop. Completely. So I'd suggest that you avoid the sugar-quitting advice of anyone who says they don't go away.

Getting rid of sugar cravings, potentially permanently, is an exhilarating feeling of... focus. Being off sugar long-term has given me the ability to do what I need to do without being distracted by cravings.

4. My Moods Are Better

Getting away from sugar has evened out my moods. No more mood swings. They would bring me up one minute, down the next - over and over, throughout the day and the week.

To say mood swings affected my behavior is an understatement. When I was in a slump, I would feel irritable and not in control of my temperament.

The swings were from wildly fluctuating glucose. My diet was terrible when I was on sugar.

More significant still was what happened regarding depression.

Depression used to be with me all day long. I was never rid of it; it just felt part of who I was.

After quitting sugar, I don't feel depressed. That's not to say I haven't had reasons to be sad in the 28 years or so since I quit sugar. But that underlying feeling of depression or hopelessness is just not there.

Believe me, I don't miss it.

And the change has to do with food and brain chemistry.

I've also helped clients eliminate anxiety by changing their food and eliminating sugar.

Do cravings drive you off your food plan and keep you from reaching the health and energy you'd love? Would you like to stop your mood swings? Maybe you want a sense of freedom? Let's face it, sugar is everywhere, so freedom from it is worth a lot. Just visit http://www.LastResortNutrition.com and grab your free Empowered Eating Consult. Discover how easy it is to make a few small shifts and escape its grip. You got this!

Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar: 7 Simple Steps to Defeat Sugar Addiction, Lift Your Mood, and Transform Your Health.

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Is TRUVIA a Safe and Healthy Alternative to Sugar?

By Karen Bentley               

Truvia is a non-caloric sweetener. It's a "blend" type product made with three ingredients: 1) erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol, 2) stevia leaf extract, which is an herb, and 3) natural flavors, more on this in later on.

Truvia is marketed as a "natural" product, but this is deceiving because anything that's derived from a plant or animal source can be called natural. That means caloric sweeteners like sugar and HFCS are natural, too. What's confusing for most consumers is the fact that the term natural has absolutely nothing to do with processing. The product can be processed to death and still be natural.

Erythritol, for example, is a chemically extracted and fermented substance derived from corn. Since erythritol comes from corn it can legally be called natural, but it's still a highly processed substance. Erythritol is about 1/2 as sweet as table sugar and belongs to a class of substances known as sugar alcohols. Most, but not all, sugar alcohols are easily identified by the "ol" at the end of the name. Erythritol is the least objectionable of all the sugar alcohols because it causes the least digestive problems. Other sugar alcohols can make you cramp, fart and poop a lot. Erythritol is different because it's made through a fermentation process rather than a hydrogenation process, and the hydrogenation process seems to be the source of the digestive problems.

Stevia leaf extract is just.05% of one serving of Truvia. That's not much, but Cargill gets to make a pretty big deal out of the fact that it's using a natural herb in it's product. The stevia plant has naturally sweet leaves that taste a bit like licorice. In the olden days, 10 or so years ago, stevia was a highly regulated substance that was mistakenly feared to be carcinogenic. You could only get it in health food stores in the form of crushed leaves (that look a bit like oregano) or as a liquid. Once Cargill and the other big food manufacturers got into the act, stevia got mainstreamed into grocery store products as a healthier and more desirable alternative to sugar.

And lastly, the term "natural flavors" is a catch-all phrase where small quantities of any substance can be included in a product without being listed as an ingredient. A non-caloric sweetening agent called Neotame is a suspicious substance that's often included as a natural flavor. Neotame is a mega powerful artificial sweetener that's in the same family as aspartame, an excitotoxin. (FYI, Excitotoxins over stimulate and kill brain cells.) In fact, Neotame is so very potent that only the tiniest bit of it needs to be included to have a sweetening effect. This is important because stevia and erythritol aren't really all that sweet.

So is Truvia a safe and reasonable choice? Sure. It's not a toxic substance, but like any sweetening agent it might be a digestive irritant. This will be immediately obvious to you right after you use it. Pregnant women, infants and young children, and any one with neurological problems should avoid Truvia and any other alternative sweetening agent. For everyone else, the best advice is to limit the daily consumption of Truvia to 2 tablespoons per day. Got it? Just 2 tablespoons.

Karen Bentley is a sugar-free lifestyle expert. Visit her SugarFreeMiracleDiet website or Facebook page for more information.

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Is Your Sugar Intake Making You Look Even More Like A Tired Parent?

By Lizzie O'Halloran  

Tired Parent: Could Sugar causing you to look even more over tired?

Many health professionals state that sugar changes the appearance of your skin. In fact, experts now believe a lifetime of overeating sugar can make skin dull and wrinkled. Too much sugar can cause damage to the collagen and elastin in your skin. These are the protein fibers that keep skin firm and elastic. So, if you are looking more tired, drawn out and 'blotchy' than normal, it may be that you have too much sugar in your diet. When you're a tired parent, it's easy to assume this lack of elasticity or dullness in just due to the tiredness caused by bringing home a newborn baby.

Sugar is often hidden in foods you think are healthy

Regardless of how healthy you think your diet may be, if your skin is not as fresh and bright as it used to be, start paying attention to the processed foods in your diet to see what effect they might be having. Most nutritionists will tell you that sugar is one of the negative foods in your diet. It's an ingredient that is very difficult to avoid if you're not paying attention. Foods such as pasta sauce, yoghurt, spreads, crackers and chewing gum are laden with sugar to enhance taste.

Of course sugar is not the whole answer to your tiredness when you're a new mum - that waking baby has a pretty big impact! However, when you feel extremely tired it is very tempting to resort to sugar laden foods to wake you up. This has become a habit and before you know it you have developed an addiction to sugar. When you consume sugar, it also gives you an instant 'high', so for that moment and a few moments afterwards, you feel happy and energetic. Unfortunately, this positive feeling does not last. Your body gets a quick burst of sugar, but because it happens so quickly, it depletes your body and causes you to feel more tired that you were to begin with. The effects of sugar are not so easy to detect, because they happen so gradually. Being a tired parent can also mask the effects of sugar. You may assume your skin tone is solely the result of becoming a new parent, when in fact sugar may be playing an important part.

Do you have a sweet tooth?

The go-to food for many people when you're feeling tired, emotional or overwhelmed is chocolates and sweets. You don't have to give them up completely, however, you will find the moment you reduce your sugar intake, your cravings for sugar will reduce also. If you have a sweet tooth, there are loads of sugar free treats you can introduce into your lifestyle so you don't feel you are missing out. Try our free recipe for chocolate almond protein balls here. When you have your next sugar craving, sink your teeth into one of these instead. You will feel satisfied and you'll begin to swap processed sugar for healthier sweet alternatives.

The good news about sugar

The exciting thing is the effects of sugar on your health are irreversible. You'll start to see results very quickly. If you are looking for a way to get back into your healthy lifestyle, take a look at Refresh Your Life: motivational weight loss program. This program makes it easy to eat low sugary foods, in a balanced way.

To download our free '5 Everyday Ways to Add Serious Self-confidence to Your Life' eBook follow our link: https://howtobehappy.lpages.co/how-to-build-self-confidence

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Levers? Brain Chem? What's the REAL Addiction Stimulus?

By Joan Kent  

A woman whose knowledge and expertise I greatly respect was recently interviewed on a podcast about sugar addiction.

At some point, the interviewer asked what makes some people more "addictable" to sugar.

I'm paraphrasing everything, but she said animal studies have shown that "addictable" rats develop greater attachment to the cue for food (sugar) delivery than non-addictable rats. Addictable rats nuzzled the lever that signaled the food delivery, for example, as opposed to simply waiting for the food, as non-addictable rats did.

Is That All There Is?

I felt something was missing. Attachment to the cue (lever) is behavioral, and doesn't necessarily get to the underlying facts in sugar addiction. What made these rats develop the attachment in the first place?

I wanted the brain chem piece.

To my knowledge, here it is - and this is more about alcoholism and sugar addiction than about food addiction generally. It's based partly on work by the brilliant Christina Gianoulakis, PhD, at McGill University.

Alcoholics have a genetic trait that spans several generations. They have low levels of certain brain chemicals, so they feel 'less good' on a day-to-day basis than non-addicts. And when they consume alcohol or sugar, they show an exaggerated release of those same chemicals.

That makes sugar and alcohol extra reinforcing for addictable types. They feel lousy without sugar and Beyond Great with it.

What About the Rats?

I submit that the lever-nuzzling of the addictable rats in the study is based on this trait. For clarity, every addiction involves release of the brain chemical dopamine.

In the study, a lever appeared in the cage and signaled the arrival of food (sugar). The sugar delivery was both consistent and quick (within seconds). That created 2 events that need to occur for dopamine to be released in large quantities:
1) anticipation of a pleasurable experience.
2) a realistic chance that the experience will occur.

The lever was event #1. The consistent, quick delivery was event #2. Result: big dopamine.

Yet There's More!

Scientists now call dopamine the "anticipation molecule" because research shows it's released in large quantities when those 2 events occur. So all of the rats probably got a big dopamine hit when the lever appeared.

But what made the addictable rats nuzzle the lever - to the point of sometimes missing the food delivery?

I would add a 3rd factor: the genetic trait uncovered by Dr. Gianoulakis - low dopamine plus exaggerated release in response to a stimulus.

My take on the rats-and-lever experiment is that the addictable rats nuzzled the lever because of their lower-than-normal level of dopamine, plus their exaggerated dopamine release when the lever appeared.

The lever-nuzzlers became as addicted to the anticipation as to the sugar. Or even more so. That can happen with foods - and with people. Due to the brain chemical similarities between alcoholism and sugar addiction, I've connected the dots on this. (Blast me if you must.)

I love the neurochemical explanation of addiction because it removes all the blame from us. It makes no more sense to blame your brain for its response to sugar than to blame your eyes for their color. We got what we got.

The good news is we can do something to reverse the effects. It's about food and it's easy, so you can do it.

If you feel stuck on sugar or other foods, I'd love to help. Just visit http://www.LastResortNutrition.com and grab your free Empowered Eating Consult. Find out how easy it is to start moving things forward and feeling great - and great about you.

Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar: 7 Simple Steps to Defeat Sugar Addiction, Lift Your Mood, and Transform Your Health.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Joan_Kent/1748388

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The Nutrition Message Nobody Wants to Hear

By Joan Kent  

Well, I won't keep you in suspense. The message has to do with sugar.

You may be thinking that everyone knows sugar's bad. And that does seem to be true. But not everyone stays away from it. And that's a problem, or at least a problem waiting to happen.

Not Connecting the Dots

When I was training to be a life coach, one of the instructor coaches was between 40 and 50 pounds overweight. One day she said, "I'm addicted to sugar, but I'm okay with it."

This woman clearly didn't connect her addiction to sugar with either her weight or any of the health problems she had. That's what I'd call not connecting the dots.

Cravings that Never Go Away

I receive newsletters with articles on sugar cravings that "never seem to go away." The various authors present themselves as nutrition experts. As a solution, they typically recommend products - that you can buy! - that taste just like chocolate and take away the sugar cravings.

Apparently, whatever these experts do with their daily food plans isn't keeping food cravings from returning.

Fact: Sugar cravings absolutely DO go away over time - potentially permanently - so it's a red flag for me if a nutrition 'expert' doesn't know how to make that happen for him/herself or for clients.

Falling for Sneaky, Sexy Sugars

The list of these is fairly long: agave nectar, coconut sugar, maple syrup, fruit (yes, fruit), fruit juice, honey, monk fruit extracts, date paste, and more.

It would be no surprise to discover that someone who uses these sneaky sugars is addicted to them or has cravings that never seem to go away completely. After all, they're sugar.

Which Brings Us to Paleo Menus

I'm on lots of lists and often receive menus for Paleo desserts and treats that use some of the above sneaky sugars. They're delicious, we're told.

My wisdom on this is simple: "Delicious" is suspicious.

And sugar is sugar. That's definitely not what anyone wants to hear, but it's true.

Fruits and Vegetables

What can I say? I wish people would stop lumping these two together. It makes them seem equally healthful, and they're not.

Fructose, the sugar in fruit, is a particularly harmful sugar. In fact, it's what makes sucrose (half fructose, half glucose) the junk we know it to be. In the science lit, all researchers seem to know this. If only the rest of us were willing to accept that!

A couple of servings of fruit a day is probably okay for most people. A serving is ½ cup or 1 medium fruit.

Yet some fruits may trigger an addictive reaction in some people. Self-awareness and self-honesty are key survival tools, and far better than going along with any mainstream push toward trending sugars.

I've Had to Change My Message

Several months ago, when joining a women's networking group, I made the mistake of introducing myself as a sugar addiction expert in my 30-second pitch. It led to nothing but fear. People are afraid to deal with sugar addiction, very likely because they know what happens when they go without sugar for any length of time.

But I'll end with this important message because it truly matters more than ever:

• Sugar is at the heart of the obesity epidemic. Not fat, not supersizes.
• Sugar increases appetite.
• Sugar leads to the consumption of extra fat. Many high-sugar foods contain fat. Fat also makes sugar tastes sweeter, so foods with both sugar and fat encourage overeating, and the calories can add up quickly.
• Sugar can increase blood pressure. More than salt.
• Sugar can increase serum cholesterol. More than fats.
• Sugar can raise triglycerides. More than fats.
• Sugar can lead to type 2 diabetes. Yes, it can.
• Sugar can contribute to mood swings, anxiety, depression and other mood issues.
• Sugar can interfere with optimal brain focus and work productivity.

I maintain that it can be easy to quit sugar if you know how - and to get rid of cravings long-term.

I would love to help you. Just visit http://www.LastResortNutrition.com and grab your free Empowered Eating Consult. Find out how a few steps, one at a time, can help you conquer sugar and cravings, as well as transform your moods and your health.

Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar: 7 Simple Steps to Defeat Sugar Addiction, Lift Your Mood, and Transform Your Health.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Joan_Kent/1748388

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