Hi, I'm Jamal. A Cane-Head.
2.27.2013
I'm giving up sugar. About a week ago, I posted the following rant to my alias on Facebook:
"Here's the deep part...
Never fail to respect the power of marketing. All these years I thought I loved Banana pudding and banana bread. Why didn't I just eat more raw bananas? They taste better, they're better for me, and they are even cheaper.
Because I had to find a way to eat it packed with sugar, that's why. I've been paying corporations to take a banana, pack it with sugar, and sell it to me as a natural product. For four decades.
I just went to the store and bought a banana. It costed me 35 cents in New York City, where NOBODY is growing them. Banana bread costs 1.50 at the same store.
Maybe if that company, Little Debbie, put a ten billion dollar ad campaign together, we would have more poor kids eating bananas, instead of banana bread, which would ease their pockets and their obesity. But, of course, nature doesn't have an ad agency. And Little Debbie already has their product line: Flavored sugar.
The quality of your knowledge is the quality of your life."
Okay, so maybe the rant could've been referenced-checked better, but like all beautiful, unplanned, wild-eyed rants, you get my point. Let's bring it to now.
I try to keep my body and mind prepared for anything. But like all people, I have weaknesses and one of them, has always been sugar.
I'm coming "out of the closet" with this admission. I can remember being a kid, sneaking in to the kitchen to wet my hand and dip it into the sugar bowl and lick it off.
Something's wrong with that.
I can remember eating raw leftover batter when my grandmother made chocolate cake. Such a treat then, but some doctors would now consider it a form of child abuse. I even used to sprinkle sugar on my morning grits. To this day, I love my coffee and tea extra sweet, my turkey burgers with extra ketchup and my pancakes with extra syrup.
Something's wrong with that.
I can remember eating raw leftover batter when my grandmother made chocolate cake. Such a treat then, but some doctors would now consider it a form of child abuse. I even used to sprinkle sugar on my morning grits. To this day, I love my coffee and tea extra sweet, my turkey burgers with extra ketchup and my pancakes with extra syrup.
As I've gotten older, I've figured out that this behavior cannot continue. I'd always felt that I could just burn the extra calories off in the gym. I can always make an excuse for things that I like to do. Can't you?
These bad habits recently came to the front of my mind after listening to a doctor who has been all over the media recently. His name is Dr. Robert Lustig. His argument, is that sugar, or more specifically, the fructose IN sugar, is actually poisonous to humans by the way it is refined. It is refined in a way that concentrates it as much as possible; in a way that our bodies are not made to consume it. He compares fructose to ethanol (in liquor) by suggesting that fructose should be regulated like liquor is. If that's too extreme for you, he even argues that children in poverty, mostly minority, are made obese by governmental programs that only allow them to buy fructose-laden foods.
According to Dr. Lustig, sugar causes many of the major ills of american society including diabetes, cancer, strokes, and overall, obesity.
According to Dr. Lustig, sugar causes many of the major ills of american society including diabetes, cancer, strokes, and overall, obesity.
The man seems credible. He released a YOUTUBE video in which he lectures that America is basically addicted to sugar. He uses tons of scientific evidence and biology as evidence. The video has gone viral, with over 3 million views. Other health news organizations have been quick to jump on the bandwagon.
Since his original video is long and boring, Dr. Lustig has also spawned a series of "summary" videos. Here'one short animate. I like animates, cause they are almost always made to simplify a subject. This one's only 4 minutes, and actually quite good:
Since his original video is long and boring, Dr. Lustig has also spawned a series of "summary" videos. Here'one short animate. I like animates, cause they are almost always made to simplify a subject. This one's only 4 minutes, and actually quite good:
Most of you out there who will never watch the long, boring 1.5 hour lecture I keep mentioning, given by Dr. Lustig entitled: "Sugar. The Bitter Truth." I fell asleep on it 3 times, but it was important enough for me to rewind. I have summarized my findings below:
1. A calorie is NOT a calorie: Some calories, like those from fructose, are metabolized differently than others. Ethanol is metabolized, partially, by your brain, which is why you get drunk. glucose, another carb, is metabolized by every cell in your body. That's our fuel. Fructose is metabolized in the liver ONLY, which then turns it directly into fat if you don't burn the energy quickly. Furthermore...
2. how food is delivered into your system, matters just as much as what you eat. That's why a raw orange, is better than processed orange juice, which can overwhelm your liver with fructose if not limited to a couple glasses at a time, because...
2. how food is delivered into your system, matters just as much as what you eat. That's why a raw orange, is better than processed orange juice, which can overwhelm your liver with fructose if not limited to a couple glasses at a time, because...
3. God packaged the poison with the antidote: The reason why the fructose in fruit is good for you, , is because of the package. The sugar in fruit is packaged in fiber. This allows for a slow absorption of the fructose by your liver, which then gives your body time to burn off the fat your liver will replace, thus...
4. The reason why High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is dangerous, is because it disables this newly-discovered hormone called, "Leptin," that tells your brain "stop eating." You could literally eat 20 twinkies without feeling full, and then wash it down with high fructose corn syrup-laden drink that tricks your brain into thinking that you have space for more food. So, in essence, Snickers doesn't satisfy.
5. High fructose corn syrup is actually worse than table sugar (Sucrose), because it is both sweeter than table sugar and cheaper. This means that high fructose corn syrup is injected into just about everything processed, including some brands of pretzel and frozen pizza. The sugar additive is even more pronounced when the product is marketed as "low fat." Low fat products tend to taste like cardboard without heavy seasoning. But usually manufacturers just add sugar to make "low fat" food more palatable.
Thus a removal, or limiting , of sugar from your diet, is really a limiting of processed foods, in general. It's stuffed into foods that you would never expect, like granola bars.
Here's the good Dr. Lustig on 60 minutes, summarizing:
Upon further reflection on my own life, I've realized that my high sugar intake every day, is probably the reason I've always been kind of pudgy and hyperactive. It's not beer belly, it's sugar belly! Additionally, I've always had problems with profuse night sweats.
I was introduced to Dr. Lustig through a really great article in the HuffPost about a guy who quit sugar for a year. you should read it. He had the kinds of results nobody would complain about, including his already-small amount of fat virtually melting away, and huge improvements in his sleeping patterns. I thought, "I need some of THAT, in my life."
So last week, I tried my cereal without the trailer-load of sugar I usually put on. And you know what? It tasted fine. My tea was a little harder to get used to. And I skipped the hostess cupcakes. Know what I'm doing instead? fruit. Yes. Oranges, apples, strawberries, blackberries and bananas. And I'm not suffering. In fact, I've suffered without more fruit in my life. It always hits the spot. Nobody ever complains about how bad an apple tasted.
I've also started seeking more resources on the subject; like easy tips on how to spot added sugars in my everyday products. I'm looking at lists of products wthout HCFS. I'm looking at information on how to read nutition facts on the side of food packaging.
You know what? I can do this. I'm not even going to think about buying table sugar anymore. My goal? get all my sweets from naturally-occurring resources. It seems so far, that I'm already losing weight And limiting my sugar isn't as hard as I thought it would be, now that know what it does to me.
I ate an orange for the first time in what seems like years, the other day. And it was absolutely delicious. I couldn't think of a reason why I don't eat those things daily.
Except the lack of an effective ad campaign for them. I'm not going to be a Nazi about it, but I'm giving up sugar. If I can, you should too.
Your Thoughts?
