Sugar, sugar
Britta Schiemann | Fulcrum Contributor
How often have you eaten a complete dinner, only to suffer an out-of-control sweet tooth afterwards? In terms of addiction, sugar is one of the most dangerous substances we can consume—it creates a chemical reaction in our brain that makes us feel good.
“If we look at the amount of sugar in a child’s breakfast cereal, you might as well be rolling up the kid’s sleeve and putting in heroin because [the strength of addiction is] the same,” says bestselling author Dr. Christiane Northrup in Hungry for Change, a documentary about sugar’s addictive qualities.
Many of the products North Americans consume are highly processed and have little nutritional value. Yes, we should eat less sugar, but in our defence, it can be challenging these days to find food that doesn’t contain it. Alarmingly, sugar is in everything. Sugar is in tomato sauce, in bread, in canned vegetables, in soups, in yogurt, in cereals, in sushi, in crackers, in vegetable drinks, in milk, and in thousands of other products.
“What sugar does, is it increases beta-endorphin in the brain and that’s a feel-good, natural opiate morphine-like substance,” says Northrup. “So when you are depressed or under stress, you want to eat ‘comfort foods’ which are foods that have a virtual delivery system of sugar right into body fat.”
Food companies disguise sugar in products by using words that are so challenging to pronounce the meaning is lost on most nutrition-label readers. There are more than twenty different names for sugar. For example, anything ending in “ose” on the label means sugar; so does anything with the word “syrup,” and there are plenty more.
The solution may seem obvious: just eat the diet version of whatever product you are craving, and you’re in the clear, right? Think again—in order to make sugar-free products taste good, food manufacturers add artificial sweetener to their products. Take, for example, a diet cola, which is sweetened with aspartame. When the aspartame combines with the caffeine in the drink, it creates a chemical called an excitotoxin which kills off brain cells. What makes cola so addictive is what occurs before these cells die; they experience one last jolt—which creates a sugar high in the drinker. Our body is satisfied for a short period of time, and we will likely buy another bottle when that craving hits again.
Yes, excessive sugar consumption can lead to health problems, but sweeteners can lead to health problems too. Aspartame on its own can cause migraines, formaldehyde buildup in the brain, and visual disturbances.
In the U.S., four people die every 18 minutes due to a food-related illness. For the past four decades, American parents have raised children who will have a shorter life span than their parents due to the foods they consume. Canadians don’t seem to be too far behind in our eating habits; we are eating for enjoyment, not to nourish our bodies.
Nothing in life is easy, and trying to avoid both sugar and sweeteners while keeping flavour in your food can seem like you’re running a culinary obstacle course. But as they say, less is more: unprocessed foods are the order of the day. We should consume whole foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats (think avocados, flaxseeds, and olive or coconut oil). The bottom line is that the food and drink you choose should fuel and nourish your body, not just give you a sugar high. Your sweet tooth will have to wait.
