Sugar Shock!
Serendipity, coincidence, who knows? But right on the heels of my recent ”white” paper against refined sugar (see below), comes some solid, indeed damning evidence that maybe I wasn’t just overreacting in my indictment of the sweet stuff.
While at the CamExpo health show in New York on Friday, I ran into Connie Bennett, a fellow ASJA member (American Society of Journalists & Authors), who was promoting her new book Sugar Shock! How Sweets And Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life — And How You Can Get Back On Track. Not since Sugar Blues, written decades ago, has a book so forcefully presented the argument that our addiction to sugar may be responsible for many of the ills we experience in our lives today. The book, with a forward by Nicholas Perricone, M.D., implicates refined sugar and over-processed “quickie carbs” like white rice and white flour, used in breads, pasta and desserts, as the culprits, which are stripped of nutrients and fiber, causing an immediate surge in blood sugar followed by an energy-depleting crash. Long-term effects are even more disturbing.
Connie, whose medical consultant on the book is Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., quotes numerous studies showing how a sweet tooth can trash your health, contributing to, among other things, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, mood swings, depression, memory impairment, poor sexual performance, infertility, pimples, wrinkles…the list goes on.
But the book is not all doom and gloom. There’s an entire section on “Pulling the Plug on Sugar Shock! for a Happier, Healthier, Life” including Connie’s top 21 sugar-free success secrets and strategies.
And a couple of things I failed to mention in my last post. For many years I suffered from GERD, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, better know as heartburn. I used to pop Tums and Pepcid like a druggie pops bennies. Since giving up refined sugars, I rarely get heartburn, only after a very spicy meal, and then only mildly. The Tums sit dormant on my bathroom shelf.
The other thing is, I can taste the natural (slow-digesting) sugars in vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, peas, spinach, and others much more keenly than I ever have. I actually look forward to eating them now, if you can believe that.
That’s it. Lecture over. I don’t want to sound like one of those health crackpots. But I think it well worth your while to read Connie’s book and at least decide for yourself. The title again (click it to find at amazon.com) is Sugar Shock!
Entries
