Food for thought Fridays - 6 reasons to give up refined sugar

As I told you on Monday, I've been reading Nourishing Traditions and it has encouraged me to change my diet to be less processed and full of more natural, whole foods. Some of the changes have been easy - switching margarine to butter and canola oil to olive oil - but my greatest challenge will be to give up sugar.

Sugar. My greatest friend and enemy. The food I turn to in the good times and the bad. How do I give it up? Why is it worth even trying?

6 reasons to give up refined sugar (slightly paraphrased from Nourishing Traditions)

1. Refined sugar depletes the body's store of vitamins and minerals.

In nature, sugar is linked together with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein, fat and fibre - all the things a body needs to digest the sugar while also repairing and energising itself. In its whole form, sugar supports life.

However, refined sugars are devoid of these bodybuilding elements, so digesting them calls on the body's own store of vitamins, minerals and enzymes for proper metabolisation. Refined sugars are not just empty calories, they are negative calories as they withdraw nutrients from the body without depositing new ones in.

2. Eating too many refined sugars can lead to Type II diabetes.

Our bodies regulate the level of glucose in our blood through a finely tuned mechanism involving insulin and hormones. When sugars are eaten in their natural, unrefined form, as part of a meal containing nourishing fats and protein, they are digested slowly and enter the bloodstream at a moderate rate over several hours.

But when we eat refined sugar, particularly without fats or protein alongside, it enters the blood stream in a rush, causing a sudden increase in blood sugar. The body then floods the bloodstream with insulin and other hormones to bring blood sugar levels down to an acceptable level. Repeated onslaughts of sugar will eventually disrupt this finely tuned process, resulting in blood sugar that remains either higher or lower than the narrow range under which the body is designed to function. A person with abnormally high blood sugar is a diabetic.

3. Sugar consumption is positively associated with cancer in humans and test animals. 

Tumours are known to be enormous sugar absorbers. 

4. Eating refined sugars can lead to a number of other diseases.

Sugar consumption has been linked to coronary heart disease, obesity, kidney disease, liver disease and shortened life span.

5. Sugar consumption is detrimental to growing children.

Sugar consumption has been associated with hyperactivity, behaviour problems, lack of concentration and violent tendencies.

6. Sugar consumption is the cause of bone loss and dental decay. 

Tooth decay and bone loss occur when the ratio of calcium to phosphorous in the blood varies from four parts phosphorous to ten parts calcium, the ratio at which blood calcium can be properly utilised. Sugar consumption causes phosphorous levels to drop and calcium to rise. Calcium rises because it is pulled from the teeth and bones. The drop in phosphorous hinders the absorption of this calcium, making it unusable and therefore toxic.

My plan to kick the sugar habit

I've got to admit, the list above sounds rather grim, so now I want to share my plan for giving up refined sugar. It basically comes down to replacement. I will attempt to replace refined sugar with other, less detrimental sweet foods like:

• Rapadura - dried sugarcane juice
• Jaggery - dried sugarcane juice
• Stevia - a sweet herb
• Molasses - a byproduct of sugar cane processing
• Honey - a sweet syrup bees make with the nectar from flowers
• Maple syrup - a sweetener made from the sap of sugar maple or black maple trees
• Cinnamon - the spice obtained from the bark of a cinnamon tree
• Vanilla extract - macerated vanilla beans 
• Fruit - fresh, dried, preserved and frozen

I'm hoping that if I do this long enough, I'll be able to kick my sugar addiction so I don't crave it anymore - or at least crave it less strongly than I do now.

I'll let you know how I get on.