Sugar, Sugar You Taste So Good

Did you know that sugar is more addictive than cocaine!? But it is totally legal and it’s hidden into the foods that we buy all the time to keep you coming back for more. Sugar literally gives your body a high and then drops you back down where you came from. This is when your brain says “more sugar please!” because it likes how it felt way up there. And with how easily accessible sugar is in the American diet, it’s a very difficult cycle to break.

I know you don’t want to hear what I am about to say but hang with me! Your life (and your children’s life) depend on it. And I promise in my next blog post I will share some of my favorite healthier treats so you can still get a sweet tooth fix.

Sugar in children is linked to a lower immune system, decreased concentration and even things like asthma or eczema, not to mention the more well known link to obesity. Sugar is in everything we are pumping into our kids all day everyday throughout the year (think breakfast cereal and juice boxes, pasta and cookies, sports drinks and ice cream) and come Halloween - forget it! It becomes a literal non-stop sugar pump.

I feel very strongly about teaching our kids how to eat a proper diet without loads of sugar for a couple of reasons.

1. They will feel better! Kids don’t have the words to tell us how they feel so it tends to come out in behavior. Kids also don’t have the fully developed brain to make the good decisions about food on their own. We need to guide and teach them.

2. Somehow we have this expectation that kids will grow up to be adults that magically know how to eat properly. I am here to say that I am an example of someone who was not taught proper nutrition and grew up on devil dogs and milk shakes. I grew into an overweight, exhausted, back pain ridden adult.

Here is where I tell you that I do not have kids and you all throw judgement at me telling me I don’t understand the struggle. True. I can however share two amazing resources with you - people who do have kids and who are training them how to eat in a healthy way. I have seen it done with friends with their kids as well. It doesn’t mean it’s always easy or always perfect. It means you are training your kids to mostly eat well and setting them up for a long, healthy life. I don’t think any parent can say they don’t want that for their kids.

Here are the people you need in your life:

1. Vani Hari aka the Food Babe. You can find her easily with a google search and on Instagram as well. She breaks down foods and their hidden poisons regularly. She recently did one on M&M’s on her IG which showed that M&M’s use artificial colors in their product in the US but they do not sell them with the artificial colors in other countries because they have to carry a warning label on the package in other countries. Vani is constantly pointing out the marketing tricks of big food that your kids are the victim of every single day. Last year around Halloween Vani shared how she handles trick or treating with her daughter and the fun tradition that they started so she still gets to experience the event that other kids do, but she is not ingesting the chemical and sugar laden food everyday for months moving forward.

2. Kelly Leveque aka Be Well By Kelly. She has online courses specifically for how to feed your kids, how to feed yourself and how to feed yourself when you’re pregnant. She has a couple of books as well, Body Love and Body Love Everyday. And you can find her on Instagram where she is constantly showing what she is feeding her kids and giving you healthy food ideas for kids.

I highly recommend following both these women who are leading the way when it comes to raising a healthier generation.

Okay, but what is it about sugar that is so bad?

Kelly Leveque explains this really well in her book Body Love and I will do my best to share this with you here. Your body uses glucose in different parts of the body such as the liver and your muscles. However, it only has so much capacity for it in those places so excess sugar ends up in the blood stream and this is where insulin comes in to balance your blood sugar levels. When you are constantly ingesting sugar your body will stop responding normally to it - this is known as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance sets the stage for type two diabetes.

According to the CDC, one in ten Americans have diabetes and 90-95% of those people have type two (this is preventable!!!). While it was typically seen in older adults it is becoming increasingly common in children, teens and young adults. Type two diabetes is linked to many (also preventable) diseases such as kidney disease and heart disease. Sugar also leads to weight gain because when your body cannot use the sugar to fuel your body it stores it as fat. I think it’s also important to note when I talk about sugar it is also including wheat flours (think bread and pasta) which convert into sugar in your body and will require insulin to balance.

Kelly’s philosophy is all about blood sugar balance and eating protein, fiber, fat and greens with every meal so that you are not constantly spiking your blood sugar which will lead to that insulin resistance. I highly recommend checking out her book(s) and/or her courses to become educated on how to take care of yourself and your family. No one expects you to know it all. Most of us were not raised on proper nutrition so the only way to do better is to learn. I have read (or listened to) countless books on nutrition, I still to health experts podcasts regularly and I follow them on IG. This means I am constantly learning, but it also helps keep me on track. It's not about perfection, it's about progress. Don't let yourself feel shame for where you are, instead, feel hopeful about where you are going.

Since we aren’t perfect, we will encounter sugar and indulge in something sugary from time to time. One of the best things you can do if you know you are going to indulge (especially helpful in the holiday season) is to workout prior to your event. Depleting the glucose already stored in your muscles will help them to put the sugar you are going to eat later to better use in your body. But please be aware, there is no way to out train a bad diet. You cannot use “I worked out today” as an excuse to eat poorly everyday. While working out helps, it is not going to totally prevent your body from reacting to the sugar it is receiving. You can and should also make sure you are well hydrated (with water people). Consider a smaller portion of your indulgence as well. Sometimes we want the taste but we don’t need the whole cake.