October 30, 2011, is the first annual Sugar Addiction Awareness Day, appropriately, since the next day is Halloween when most American children are allowed and even encouraged to stuff themselves with candy.  Sugar addiction is real, and wide-spread, and, according to some, is a stronger addiction than even cocaine.  Dr. Serge Ahmed, of Bordeaux, France, has found that when given the choice between cocaine and sugar, rats will choose sugar.  Sugar produces dopamine in the brain, “the body’s own happy, feed good, chemical.”

When I talk with people about how to eat a healthy diet, one of the first reactions is often “No sugar?  No way.”  Be honest, ask yourself, “Could I stop eating sugar cold turkey?” Many of us can’t even face the possibility of going sugar free.  That’s a good indicator of how strong sugar addiction really is.  The only negative reaction to most of the other changes needed to eat a healthy diet is “It costs too much.  I can’t afford to buy organic produce, grass-fed beef, eggs from pastured chickens” and so on.  Rarely does anyone argue about the benefits of a diet of unprocessed, whole, organic foods, but the idea of giving up sugar is just too much.

Let’s look at how much sugar is in the standard American diet.  Some estimates say that Americans eat 200 or more pounds of sugar every year.   It is found in almost every type of food we eat, especially processed foods, and not just the desserts and snacks.  Even so-called savory dishes often have some form of sugar–a very sweet barbecue sauce, a honey glaze, ketchup, honey mustard sauce, and so on.   Look at the labels on almost any processed food–the baked beans, salad dressings, sweet and sour sauces, and especially the breakfast cereals.  Sugar is everywhere!  It’s also important to know that sugar can be included (hidden?) in foods under many different names.  Some of the most common other names for sugar are corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, evaporated cane juice, fructose, maltose (in fact most anything ending in -ose is a form of sugar), maple syrup, succanat, and turbinado sugar.  All of these are processed by the body in similar ways and too much of any of them is destructive to our health.  One of the reasons sugar is added to so many processed foods is that it is cheap; another reason is that people like (are addicted to?) the sweet taste which can cover up the inferior, tasteless ingredients in so many processed foods.  Sweeteners are so common, in fact, that our palates have been desensitized to sugar, so manufacturers keep trying to hide more sugar in their products.

So why should we give up sugar to be healthy?  First, remember that sugar in high concentration is rare in nature.  We need sugar in our bloodstream, but our bodies can’t handle sugar in high concentration.  Our bodies are simply not prepared to deal with the amount of sugar we are eating.   Excess sugar consumption is disastrous, especially for children.  Sugar can interfere with the way our hormones work, disrupting the physiological developments taking place during puberty.    Sugar can bind to hormone receptors and leave us insensitive to the hormone insulin.  Insulin resistance can drive blood sugar levels even higher and lead to diabetes and its related disorders.  Sugar also causes the collagen to stiffen in tendons, joints, and skin, which can cause arthritis and premature wrinkling.  This is just a brief mention of some of the effects of sugar on the body, but there are references below for more extensive information about the dangers of too much sugar.

So how did I deal with the sugar problem.  Until a few years ago, I was one of those who were suckered by the widely-promoted, high carbohydrate, low fat, and very little red meat diet.  [Unfortunately, this type of low nutrition diet is still being pushed as ‘healthful’ by the federal government, doctors, nurses, nutritionists, and prominent health ‘experts’ and journalists.] Was it easy for me to give up sugar?  For the most part, yes, it was easy, because I had read quite a bit about the effects of sugar (carbohydrates) and I really wanted to be healthier and feel better.  I had no problem skipping desserts and swapping sweetened, cold cereals for smoothies with raw kefir and egg yolks.   The most difficult change for me was to stop drinking my morning tea with sugar and lime juice.  I loved the sweetened citrusy tea, but could never adjust to drinking tea without sugar.  I rarely drink tea now.   Lately my morning drink is freshly ground organic decaf coffee with stevia and real cream.  My family occasionally–once every few weeks–indulges in homemade ice cream made with real cream and a little organic sugar or a baked custard with a 1/4 cup of maple syrup [see recipe], and occasionally we have fresh fruit for dessert.  I have made pies for special occasions like birthdays and Thanksgiving but that’s about it for sweeteners.

Update, November 7, 2011:  Just learned about the risk of mycotoxins in coffee from Natural News:  “A form of fungus, mycotoxins make their way into coffee by adhering to dried coffee beans. Once the mycotoxins have latched onto the dried coffee beans, they are incorporated into the process of grinding and roasting them down and, eventually, may end up in your cup. ” Apparently it’s worse in decaf coffee because the caffeine protects the coffee beans from the mycotoxin fungus. So I’m switching to organic green tea with lime and stevia for my morning drink.   There’s too much caffeine in regular coffee for me.

Resources, websites and books:

http://www.endsugaraddiction.com/helpful-resources.php
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-rubaumkeller-/is-sugar-addictive_b_217115.html
http://www.sugarstacks.com/

Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan, MD
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS
Life Without Bread by Christian B. Allan, PhD and Wolfgang Lutz, MD
Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes