Just Say No to Sugar

I hate to tell you this, especially this time of year when sweets and goodies are EVERYWHERE, but sugar is the devil. Don't get me wrong, I like a fudgy brownie as well as the next person, but day by day am developing a willpower to totally eliminate sugar from my diet.

I have never been a soda drinker, and I can easily pass on cake and cookies. But I have a weakness for red licorice and black jelly beans. I mean I can put away a whole bag in one sitting! Not good.

When I started eating much cleaner and reading food labels several years ago, I was surprised to find that nearly everything has some sugar in it. Cereal. Bread. Canned foods such as vegetables and beans.Yogurt. Chips. Crackers. You name it. You can find small amounts of sugar in almost every processed food.

Why? The folks who produce the food think it enhances the taste. Wrong! All it does is compromise the integrity of the food and feed our addictions. Sugar, you see, is very addictive. Our tastebuds love it, our brains love it, our stomachs even love it as it piles inches onto our midsections.

In 1957, Dr. William Coda Martin tried to answer the question: When is a food a food and when is it a poison? His working definition of "poison" was: "Medically: Any substance applied to the body, ingested or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease. Physically: Any substance which inhibits the activity of a catalyst which is a minor substance, chemical or enzyme that activates a reaction." The dictionary gives an even broader definition for "poison": "to exert a harmful influence on, or to pervert".

Dr. Martin 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," his writing revealed.

Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body. It is first stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver's capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar (above the required amount of natural sugar) soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts and the thighs.

We already know that sugar causes tooth decay and can trigger diabetes and hypoglycemia. But did you know it can affect brain function, cause mental deficiencies and contribute to gallbladder disease?

Make a conscious decision to eliminate sugar from your life and your life will improve drastically. Trust me. Try it for just two weeks and you will have more energy, sleep better at night and most likely drop some weight. And don't hate me for wanting you to be H-E-A-L-T-H-I-E-R...

If you can't give it up entirely, don't beat yourself up. Just become cognizant of the sugar content in the foods you eat (READ LABELS!) and limit the amount you allow yourself each day. You will be so glad you did!