Processed Sugar can cause Addiction and Depression?

Yep! That's the title of the most recent acticle I have been reading. It was the first link for the search "depression and sugar" on google and was directed perfectly to the question that has been on my mind for the past few weeks and even months. Shortly after beginning this journey I noticed myself having a more difficult time staying mentally positive and physically energized. Even my husband mentioned that I just didn't seem myself. I felt disinterested in things that normally captivated me. I wanted to sleep more and converse less. I thought it was just the life changes we have experienced recently; changing things up takes time to adjust? That theory can only last for so long. When things didn't get better I started to wonder if perhaps it had something to do with the drastic change of sugar consumption I had made. But shouldn't that make me feel better? Shouldn't being one of the few americans who won't consume the traditional 100 pounds of sugar a year per person make my brain and body and spirit soar? What's the problem? All this effort and I feel worse? I knew I had to be missing something. Let me remind you here that all my life up to this point I have been well above average in the sugar-consumption parade. In fact, I may have been leading it - not so much the amount I consumed but simply the frequency with which I wanted or thought about it.
Well this article helped me put a few things into perspective..... So just for review:
1. Processed (prepared or modified) sugar is quickly absorbed directly into the blood stream and has no nutritional value.
2. Once in the blood stream, this sugar cause rise in insulin levels.
3. THIS ALSO RAISES THE ENDORPHIN LEVELS, a natural mood upper in the brain!
Did you hear that, no you didn't, but did you read that....... yet another source that states sugar is a drug, a chemical that affects the brain and can cause a "high" mentally, which results in a mood lift.

So let's be sure we understand what an endorphin is: "any group of peptide hormones that bind to opiate receptors and are found mainly in the brain. Endorphins reduce the sensation of pain and effect emotions."

There you have it. Sugar can reduce the sensation or perception of pain and, at least momentarily, effect our emotions. But let's remember here the law of gravity.... what goes up must come down. So if our moods are chemically altered by a sugar high, it naturally leads to a bit of a nose-dive clean up job that our body has to do to return to homeostasis or in this case, a stabilized blood sugar level. Why is this important? What does this yo-yo effect do to our body? Stay tuned for more in the next blog post of SUGAR - friend or foe!

If there were a proverbial "ban sugar" wagon, I have fallen off of it and am running close behind to try and catch up, although my speed is slowing as I smell the campfire cakes cooking. Moving cross country is no excuse, husbands job change.....no excuse. The influx of family events, social gatherings, and birthdays, ahhh, that's my downfall. Every celebration of some kind is accompanied by sugar, sugar, and more sugar. How can a delectable pan of brownies hold me captive with all I have learned and read about the detriments of white table sugar. How could I have eaten (and enjoyed every bite of) the bunny tracks ice cream with that birthday cake. My purpose in the experiment is not to banish sugar forever, maybe place it farther out of reach or interest, but not banish it. My purose is education and developing a healthy relationship with sweets, somehow finding that place where you still feel great and can enjoy an occasional treat. Is that found in serving size, in daily moderation, or perhaps it's the special occasion approach? Before I began this journey, I knew my sugar and I needed serious counseling, but is seperation the answer? Doesn't absence just make the heart grow fonder and hungrier? Do the cravings ever die? Alright, here I go.....back on the wagon to continue my journey. Could someone please keep that pan of brownies warm.....

Inflammation huh? I wouldn't have believed it or directly correlated it if I hadn't felt it for myself. On two different occasions I have consumed something that had small amounts of refined sugar; one was my husbands homemade barbecue sauce, I didn't even think to ask about the ingredients; the other was one of our favorite desserts of berries and cream. We usually make this dessert with honey, but tonight my husband added powdered sugar as we made it for someone else. On both occasions I have felt a noticeable swelling of my fingers within 30 minutes to an hour later. I ignored it the first time just thinking I was tired or maybe it was something I ate, althougth I expected the barbecue was the culprit. Tonight when I felt the tightness and inflammation I knew I must have eaten some sort of refined sugar. So I started itching to do the research. Here's what I found:

- According to wetherchange.com "One of the reasons inflammation occurs is due to the rapid rise in blood sugar, which causes biochemical changes in the cell. When the blood sugar goes up rapidly, sugar can attach itself to collagen in a process called glycosylation, increasing inflammation."
- Also, according to Dr. Sears, prolonged silent inflammation can lead to chronic disease.
- wellnessletter.com states that "inflammation is a normal response to infection or injury. Immune cells congregate at the site so that they can overwhelm and dispose of infectious organisms or debris from injury. It also states that "some researchers now believe that low-grade inflammation is associated with everything from heart disease and diabetes, to alzheimer's and arthritis, and may even be the cause of most chronic diseases."

I guess what I am learning is that if my body responds to a small amount of sugar (which I doubt I would have ever noticed outside the context of this 365 day challenge) with inflammation; and if inflammation is a normal response to infection or injury.....shouldn't I assume that sugar is harming my body or at the very least, slowing it down?

Friendship

It has been a few weeks since my last post. I have been trying to forget that I actually committed to this, or should I say I have been busy trying to find SOMETHING SWEET that isn't bad for my body and brain. All the "facts" are so confusing when it comes to sugar. Some people say that sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and honey all affect the blood sugar levels the same way {sweetsuprise.com} ..... (pls. I don't buy it. My experience tells me different.) Other research says (and I quote so you don't think I am lying, or so I don't think I'm lying)

• " The white crystalline substance we know of as sugar is an unnatural substance produced by industrial processes (mostly from sugar cane or sugar beets) by refining it down to pure sucrose, after stripping away all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes and other beneficial nutrients. What is left is a concentrated unnatural substance that the human body is not able to handle, at least not in the quanties that we ingest it in today's accepted lifestyle. Sugar is addictive. The average american consumer nearly 115 lbs per year. This is per man, woman, and child. Practically 95% of people are addicted to it in some form or another."

Did you hear that? I have friends......and lots of them. Apparently I am not the only one addicted to sugar, or at least one website says so. {organicnutrition.co.uk} How can so-called research vary so widely? Well, I have 11 more months to figure it out.

Aaaah Friendship, what a wonderful thing.

I knew it was coming. The headache. I'm not making it up. It's not the kind of headache you get at night sometimes when your husband wants to hug (or more) and you have just eaten that night-time bowl of cereal because you were busy keeping the baby from throwing food across the room, or focused on making sure the others are eating their veggies, or any food for that matter. Don't get me wrong familydinner time is beautiful and essential, but noone ever said it wouldn't give you indigestion. So back to the headache, it was bad. According to 'sciencedaily.com' (May 4, 2009) — Ever miss your daily cup of coffee and subsequently get a pounding headache? According to reports from consumers of coffee and other caffeinated products, caffeine withdrawal is often characterized by a headache, fatigue, feeling less alert, less energetic and experiencing difficulty concentrating. -

I rarely get headaches (don't tell). I don't drink coffee, never have. I don't even drink caffeine. But could sugar really have the same withdrawal effects as coffee and caffeine?

And also, wisegeek.com (sounds like a reliable source) said "However, even cutting out some of these things (refined sugars) is likely to result in less dependence on sugar sugar sugar, and possibly less “addiction” to sugar sugar sugar."
I'm not sure why they said it three times, maybe they are addicted to sugar like me, maybe they too stutter at the thought of it, drooling aside. Maybe I'm not the only one who is a sugarholic. Not for long.....no more night time sugared cereals for me. You're welcome dear.

Oatmeal Cookies

Is there some unwritten law among neighbors that if you borrow an egg, cup of flour, or even a bit of sugar, you are entitled to a portion of the baked good? If sabatoge had a face it would look like a cute young mom with her little boy who shows up on your doorstep Sunday afternoon with a bag full of cookies, chocolate chip OATmeal cookies. It wasn't their fault, I haven't made the sign for my forehead that says "societal recluse", or "sugar allergy", or simply just "crazy person who started a sugar blog". Any one would do to scare off those darn neighbors who think about sharing their sweets with me. Don't they know they are adding salt to my gaping wound?
No worries, I convinced myself that they couldn't possibly taste as good as they smelled, just before I cried.

Whistler

So on my run this morning I had a car pass by and I could have sworn I heard a whistle. You know the kind to get your attention. I looked behind me to see who they were whistling at. Never mind that it was a self-made truck, the kind of guy that has some friend at the detail shop or better yet, works there himself and drives the car as a way of advertising. The know just how to cut the back half off and leave only the really important parts, engine, front seats, windows, etc. So, a guy in a half-truck, whistled at me. That hasn't happened in 15 years. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind if it never happened again. But funny thing is, I bet he saw that I hadn't had sugar in 12 hours. Look, it's already making a difference!

At least I have to tell myself that because my trip to the grocery store was a bit like a dentist visit, only worse. At least at the dentist office you know the anesthesia will wear off after a few hours. As I perused the aisles (I didn't even attempt the middle ones) I was shocked by how little I actually eat on this "No Sugar" plan. Who's idea was this anyway? I entered with low expectations, I knew that it was going to be challenging, but really? Does everything need a boost of sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup (that doesn't deserve to be capitalized) to sale in this country? So I made it safely through the fruits and vegetables area, filling my cart generously as I wasn't quite sure anything else in the store would be illegal on this crazy plan. Well, the trouble started with my favorite market fresh salsa, I love this stuff. Fresh. Good. Healthy. Salsa. As I turned over the container there it was glaring at me, laughing at me, SUGAR. Scratch the salsa off my dwindling grocery list. I tried my best to laugh back and keep my "no sugar" positive attitude. Had it really only been 12 hours? The deli counter was next. Honey Ham please? 1/2 pound. I asked to look just to get the practice, not thinking that anyone would think that anyone would pollute the deli counter with unwanted sugars, it's deli meat for heaven sakes. Again, the laughing, this time growing louder. My Honey Ham had honey alright but it also had sugar!!! I checked a few other deli meats, the good quality kind that have no MSG, laughter. I was pretty sure that defeat was around the corner, that I would lay prostrate on the grocery store aisle and bang my fists thinking how I couldn't quit, I had started a blog. Finally the Virginia Ham saved me. No sugar. I regained my strength and began thinking about cheese, pretty safe area. I loaded up, thinking that if I was missing the sugar I could shock my mouth with a few sharp cheeses. Maybe that will take care of those nighttime cravings. Dairy aisle, my favorite "healthy" yogurts were out. Even though they brag "organic sugar", who even knows what that means.

It looks like research time. More later.

My friend once told me that there is no bigger contrast on the color scheme than black and white, that's why I chose it for my template. Contrast, a marked difference. Yep, that's what I want, a marked difference, a contrast. So I decided to start this experiment and knew that I had to fully commit, thus the blog. So here's the experiment:

365 days without sugar: What kind of sugar? Because it is impossible to completely rid your diet of sugar, and unhealthy, I wanted to see what kind of difference it would make in my life to cut out all refined sugars, particularly the High Fructose Corn Syrup. That cuts quite a bit of food out of my American diet. This indeed will be an adventure. So, what am I left with?


http://www.becomehealthynow.com/article/carbs/1082/"Sugar cane and beets are subjected to the same refining processes and produce identical products. In the repeated processes of washing, boiling, centrifuging, filtering and drying, nearly all of the plant’s nutritional elements are lost. What remains in the raw sugar product is 95% sucrose along with nutritionally insignificant minerals. "Raw Sugar" is not a raw or natural product at all, but is the highly refined, nutritionally depleted, 95% sucrose product before it is even further refined. IF sanitized by steaming this "raw sugar" can be marketed as turbinado. To produce the white crystals we call table sugar, bleaching agents such as lime and carbon dioxide are added. The sugar is then further "purified" (refined) and whitened by being filtered in a water-added liquid state through beef bone char. This process removes even more minerals. Sucrose in its completely refined stage is more familiarly called table sugar. "Pure" sugar refers to chemical purity, devoid of all nutritional and other elements, and not to a wholesome quality.The completely refined white sugar product is now over 99.9% sucrose and for all practical purposes contains no nutritional elements such as vitamins, minerals, proteins or fibers. This accounts for expressions such as "empty calories" and "junk food".

So there you have it. Refined sugar is basically devoid of all nutrients.
more later.