Sugar and what it does to your body, the truth revealed.

Sugar, a pragmatic approach.

Sugar is not a problem to the body when it comes from a whole food source.

The impact on the body from sugar, is only detrimental when it comes in a refined form, ie. when the fibre or water has been removed, for example, cane sugar, fruit juices/root vegetable juices, honey, alcoholic drinks and syrups such as maple or dried fruits.

Your body is fuelled by sugar, that is why it breaks everything down to glucose, the most simple sugar, for fuel. The problem comes when there is no fibre to buffer (to restrict or lessen impact) the release of sugar.

Your body is naturally designed to process whole foods only. There are no refined foods in nature. So when a refined food enters the body, the body doesn't recognise it as a food perse'. It cannot slow down the release of the sugar, due to the lack of fibre, and so gets a big rush of sugar into the blood stream, which demands an emergency kickstart from the pancreas to release more insulin, which in turn, requires an emergency kickstart from the adrenals, to tell the pancreas that there is a life-or-death emergency at hand.

With dried fruits, this is a different picture. Both water and fibre take up a lot of room in the stomach. Part of the satiation ("You've had enough") signal by the body is to do with calories consumed, but also, to do with how much volume has been taken up in the stomach. The lack of water in the stomach means that you can consume more dried fruits, than you would be able to eating the whole fruit, without feeling full as soon.
The lack of water causes the sugars to concentrate in the dried fruits also.
It is possible to end up eating more sugar than your body can actually metabolise, causing elevated blood sugar levels. This would not happen with a whole food, as the water and fibre levels will send signals to the brain that tell you to reduce appetite and stop eating. e.g eat fresh dates, instead of dried dates, an orange instead of squeezed orange juice.

Sugar is also an issue when more excess fat is consumed, than can be metabolised by the body. This is because fat molecules are relatively large and take up a lot of space in the blood stream. So if too much is consumed, it can stick around for up to 24 hours. This can cause all sorts of problems, such as the fat molecules blocking the insulin receptors. This means that the sugar cannot get out of the blood stream and into the Mitochondria cells via insulin. So blood sugar levels can remain unnaturally high for long periods.

Fat is seen as fat by the body, no matter what its source. If it is animal fat, or plant oil fat, the body will not differentiate.

This is where problems like diabetes, weight gain, candida and adrenal fatigue can occur, especially when refined sugars are present in the diet. With diabetes, this chronic over-demand on the pancreas every day, over a long period of time, becomes too much of a challenge (weakening insulin release), with the adrenals also.

With weight gain, more sugar is present in the blood stream than can be used to at any given time One of the things the body can do is convert and store the sugar as body fat, since it cannot store carbohydrates well.

This could never happen on a whole foods, low fat diet, since the body makes it difficult for you to over-eat.  As far as candida is concerned, Candida is a friendly organism, which the body needs to preserve its health. It only causes problems when high blood sugar levels come into play. The body allows candida to reside in the body since it consumes sugar.
This means on the occassions that we might over-eat for our requirements, perhaps because we have been inactive that day, Candida can play a helping role in reducing blood sugar levels. Candida only consumes excess blood sugar. The problem comes into play, in todays unnatural dietary environment, where we have refined sugars and high fat diets. So people have unnaturally high blood sugar levels, often 3 or 4 times a day, instead of the possible once a week or once a month we might find in our natural situation.

In turn this can lead to an excess growth of candida and the respective problems caused as a direct result.

As long as fruit is consumed in its whole, natural form, and you consume a relatively low fat diet, you will get no problems with weight gain, tooth decay and loss (cavities, inflammation), diabetes, candida, adrenal fatigue or any other conditions typically associated with a high sugar diet.

To suggest that ALL sugar is bad is total fabrication and myth, but mainly due to misinformation. Our bodies are dependent on simple sugars and in the case of the brain...it is the only fuel it can use.

Donna recommends that to satisfy a sweet tooth hunger pang, to eat 2 fresh dates per day maximum.

To order dates online visit the website below. The fresh dates, guaranteed to be delivered in 3 working days, taste great!

Cost: £4.60 for 24 FRESH dates, cheaper in price than any UK supermarket, even including the postage to your door! Remember to refrigerate.

WEBSITE FOR FRESH DATES*: http://www.freshdates.org.uk/

* feelgoodagain is in no way affiliated to freshdates.org.uk and does not assume responsibility for any actions freshdates.org.uk make, in respect to a customer order.