The Sugar Addiction:
Watch Your Health Soar When You Can Break this Addiction

Most people don't associate addictions with sugar addiction. Most people don't associate poor health with over-consumption of sugar. It's time to start changing your views, because sugar is very bad for you, and you'll probably be surprised at your improvement in health (and weight and energy) by significantly reducing this one ingredient.

When I first met my fiance, she was a sugar addict. Large desserts and snacks would consist of ice cream or a big brownie every day. I told her to begin eating less sugar by following this rule: "Never eat sugar to satisfy hunger. Eat it only as a dessert or snack when you are not hungry."

This rule is vitally important, because when you are hungry, your body is craving nutrients. Refined sugar is not only devoid of all nutrients, it also leaches nutrients from your system.

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At this point, my fiance was taking Plaqenil, a steroid prescription drug which eliminated her joint pain from Lupus (like many drugs, it eliminated the symptoms, however she still had 100% of her lupus, and the drug has pretty bad side effects like possible blindness, pockmarks, etc). Despite the drug working for joint pain, she was having severe headaches, and they started getting more and more often. I asked how much sugar she was eating, and she first said not that much. Then I asked her to list everything she had eaten. Brownies, candy bars, and ice cream started to pop up on the list.

I told her that I was confident that her headaches would reduce if she eliminated her sugar addiction. It took tremendous will-power for her to do it, but she did. Now for almost 2 years, she has eaten over 95% less sugar each day.

After breaking the sugar addiction, her headaches almost vanished within two days (except for a very, very minor version which happens now every 3-4 weeks).

After you avoid feeding your sugar addiction for a few months, you'll find that very sweet things now taste "too sweet" to you, almost to the point of being gross.

Here are the reasons you shouldn't eat sugar

1. It leaches necessary nutrients from all areas of your body (causing any of a thousand different types of symptoms, i.e. severe headaches).

2. It spikes your blood sugar, and is the highest food listed on the G.I. Diet.

3. It will make you fat and keep you fat far more than eating fat in the diet (except trans-fat perhaps).

4. It will cause tooth decay/cavities. Similarly, it will eat away at your bones (teeth are bones).

5. It will severely compromise your immune system.

6. It can cause a fatty or enlarged liver.

7. It can cause heart disease, raise LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and lower HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

8. It can lead to a sugar addiction, which obviously causes even more health problems.

Sugar Substitutes: It is important to never use Sweet and Low, Equal, or any of the artificial sweeteners. (Note, I haven't read enough on Splenda to make a conclusion, but see the list below for many options that are absolutely healthy). Studies show that these do not help you lose weight at all. In fact, you would probably lose weight by switching back from Diet to Regular soda. However, I highly recommend against both of these.

Here are ways to substitute foods for sugar.

1. Eat fruits for dessert, as fructose in it's natural form is not nearly as unhealthy as refined sugar. Can you call yourself deprived by having a bunch of strawberries, or apples with cinnamon? (Try baking apples and sprinkling cinnamon).

2. Satisfy your chocolate cravings by buying extra dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% cacao. I buy 85% Lindt brand chocolate and it tastes great. You'll see by reading the package that the sugar is low. Try to have less than 5 grams of sugar in a serving and only do it a few times a week at most.

3. Sweeten tea, coffee, or any other food/recipe with cinnamon, raw honey, stevia, or xylitol (the latter three available at health food stores).

4. For deserts I eat sunflower seed butter or almond butter and a small amount of strawberry jam on Ezekiel bread. This satisfies my sweet tooth.

5. If you love to bake cookies, try healthy recipes like those found in Christine Pirello's books (link coming soon)

6. Use brown rice syrup or barley malt in place of sugar in baking recipes.

7. Never order soda/pop. This is one of the most unhealthy foods on the planet regardless of whether it is regular or diet. Diet soda, I believe, causes as much and probably stronger addictions than sugar addiction. How many people do you know that are addicted to diet soda? I'm betting at least a few. There was a pastor in my area suffering from kidney disease. He had been addicted to soda. As soon as he learned that soda can be bad for the kidneys, he stopped drinking it. The kidney problems completely went away, and he has been preaching against soda since then. Instead of soda, get unsweetened iced tea and sweeten with stevia packets. Or just order water at restaurants like I do. It will also save you hundreds of dollars a year.

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