Sugar is NOT the Enemy???
Do you crave sugars? Maybe at certain times of the day, or month, or during times of stress? This may surprise you, but … Believe it or not… Sugar is NOT the enemy.
January is Sugar Detox month here at Eureka! Holistic Nutrition! So, how can we say sugar is not the enemy? Everyone knows it’s addictive and can lead to all kinds of health damage. Thought this was about detox – and detox means “to get rid of” – right? Let me clarify with an additional statement…
Sugar is not the enemy to fight; it is rather a TOOL to be used.
If we find ourselves “fighting” against it, sugar is already out of balance and has some level of control over us. But like so many things in life, whether its technology, money or our reputations… these are neither good or bad in and of themselves, but if not used correctly… they can control us, damage our health and steal our quality of life. The same is true for sugar.
Sweet is the first taste we have on the tip of our tongues. Sweet is pleasure, enjoyment, celebration! Sugar itself is not an enemy to fight using our weapons of willpower and self-discipline as our only defense. If it is… we may win some battles, but we usually lose the war when we view sugar as an enemy to fight, rather than a tool that we use. Bottom line truth: Sugars and starches in their whole, complex form SUPPORT LIFE.
So what is the role of sugar in our diets? How can we use this sweet tool for GOOD, to build our health vs. damage it? Over the next several E! Journal posts we will answer this question by addressing the types, amount, why we crave sugars and what to do about it, so sugar no longer is seen as our enemy.
At EHN we believe nutrition is just as much about history as it is about science. Science can be biased… it can be agenda driven… faulty… It can also be accurate, thorough, clarifying. True science that is viewed through the lens of history becomes a powerful tool. How? Because history reveals natural laws that transcend time and highlight God’s design for our nourishment. True science aligns with God’s design everytime.
How can history help us with this topic of sugar? Average American consumes 152 pounds of sugar each year OR 6 cups of sugar a week compared to… 200 hundred years ago normal sugar consumption was an average of 2 pounds per year OR 7.3 cups PER YEAR! It all started with refining cane sugar back in the late 1600’s. The Industrial Revolution took it to a whole new level of mass production. WWII and the Chemical Revolution introduced us to new manufactured types of sweeteners … PLUS … deep breath… add to that the low fat false propaganda propelled at us in the mid 1900’s when fats were removed from foods and SUGARS took their place to provide the missing flavor that fats once provided… exhale… We’ve never looked back.
So where does sugar fit into our diets? Sugars provide energy. But the key to using sugar as a tool rather than an enemy that controls is based on three things: Type, Amount and Balance. When any of these three factors are off we damage our health. Here is a fantastic summary infographic from Dr. Jockers, a leading natural health physician that highlights sugar’s damaging impact on our health, and why it is at the root of many of our modern degenerative diseases!
Do you use sugar as a TOOL to build health?
Let’s summarize what we mean by “tool”. When we use sugar for the reasons listed on the left, sugars have control over us and have become a tool used to DAMAGE our health. But when we use sugar for the reasons listed on the right, we are in control and sugars have become a tool used to BUILD health.
The difference starts with the WHY.
How do we shift to using sugars for good?
The key again is found in those three above mentioned factors of type, amount and balance. We’ll dive into these three factors in the next Journal post. Sugar: The Balancing Act
Check out our Free Sugar Detox Workshop video on our Eureka! Holistic Nutrition Facebook page.
Plan to join us LIVE on Facebook every 1st Wednesday of each month for our Wellness Wednesday Workshop Events!