Sugar, Sugar, Ahhh… Honey, Honey
Proverbs 25:16, Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, that you not have it in excess and vomit it.
Many autoimmune diseases are incubated in a body that has a high intake of processed sugar and sweets. Sugar isn’t just considered sweets, like cake and candy, but also includes white bread, white potatoes, white pasta, crackers, etc. because it turns to sugar in the body at a really quick rate once in the ingested.
Some common autoimmune diseases are:
- rheumatoid arthritis—inflammation of joints and surrounding tissues
- systemic lupus—affects skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs
- multiple sclerosis—affects the brain and spinal cord
- celiac disease—a reaction to gluten (found in wheat, rye, and barley) that causes damage to the lining of the small intestine
- anemia—decrease in red blood cells caused by inability to absorb vitamin B12
- psoriasis—a skin condition that causes redness and irritation as well as thick, flaky, silver-white patches
- inflammatory bowel disease—a group of inflammatory diseases of the colon and small intestine
- Hashimoto’s disease—inflammation of the thyroid gland
- Addison’s disease—adrenal hormone insufficiency
- Graves’ disease—overactive thyroid gland
- reactive arthritis—inflammation of joints, urethra, and eyes; may cause sores on the skin and mucus membranes
- Sjögren’s syndrome—destroys the glands that produce tears and saliva causing dry eyes and mouth; may affect kidneys and lungs
- Type 1 diabetes—destruction of insulin producing cells in the pancreas
There have been thousands of studies world wide from major universities that show that the effects and addiction of sugar can be as intense at cocaine and alcohol. A few years back I read a study that captured my attention. This particular study featured lab rats that curled up in the fetal position after their sugar was taken away from them. Sound familiar? They needed their sugar fix! Read more on this study:
“Lab rats with unlimited access to a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet almost eat themselves to death. They’ll voluntarily walk across an electrified plate and endure painful shocks in order to get their junk food hit. In one study, when rats had access to high-fat, high-carbohydrate food for only 1 hour a day, they consumed 65% of their daily calories in one sitting, continuously gorging until the food was removed. However, when the food disappeared they didn’t simply shrug their rodent shoulders and turn back to regular chow. Instead, they withdrew and curled up into a fetal position, soothing themselves with nervous hand-wringing, and becoming excessively twitchy and easily startled. They were hungry for their fix. Without it, they ended up with “the shakes” (Johnson & Kenny 2010).
Lab rats will quickly develop a tolerance for sugar, eagerly quadrupling their daily sugar consumption in 1 week. If the sugar’s taken away, the hunger for their fix is relentless and leads to withdrawal symptoms. They’ll start fighting with other rats, shaking and getting angry. Once the rats become addicted to sugar, they are far more eager to gobble up amphetamines, alcohol and cocaine in huge quantities—and they become almost instantly addicted to those substances as well. When given the choice between sugar, cocaine and alcohol, those cross-addicted rats will always choose—you guessed it—sugar (Johnson & Kenny 2010).”
Why should we limit processed sugar in our diet? Sugar lowers the immune system and also pulls zinc from the body. You need to have a certain level of zinc to help fight off sickness and disease and it is also responsible for a number of different functions in the human body. It also helps stimulate the activity of 100 different enzymes. People who crave a lot of sweets may have have a mineral deficiency, possibly chromium and zinc.
When my oldest daughter was 12 we were having a well child check up with her pediatrician. He complimented her complexion, height/weight ratio, reflexes, etc. He asked me the usual questions about her diet and so forth. During our discussion he literally put his head in his hands and said, “Laurie, I wish we could get parents to understand how important it is to limit sugar in their kids diets.” He went on to tell me that he saw hundreds of overweight children each month who had a steady diet of soda and candy because their parents would not say no. The impact of the high sugar diet showed up in low immune systems, brittle bones, type 2 diabetes and obesity in these patients. This was over 7 years ago, imagine what it may be like now!
Having a low level of zinc makes a person more susceptible to disease and illness. In fact, zinc deficiency is responsible for over 800,000 childhood deaths in the world every year.
Research conducted at the University of Toronto and published in the journal Neuron revealed that zinc has a crucial role in regulating how neurons communicate with one another, affecting how memories are formed and how we learn.
Zinc is also also helpful for:
- Treating the common cold
- Healing wounds
- Preventing age related macular degeneration – vision loss
- Acne
- ADHD
- Osteoporosis
- Preventing and treating pneumonia
Now don’t run out and buy a big bottle of zinc, over usage can be harmful as well. Add some of the foods from the list below to your diet or get the daily recommended amount in your multivitamin. If you happened to be taking prescription medications, supplements may prevent proper absorption. Always be sure to talk your doctor before introducing supplements to your diet.
As an alternative to supplementation, you can easily add zinc to your diet with some of these nutritious foods:
Foods with the highest Zinc content are:
- Oysters
- Crab
- Lobster
- Veal Liver
- Roast Beef
- Lean Beef patty
- Pork loin
- Lamb
- Baked beans
- Cooked Mung Beans
- Toasted Wheat Germ
- Cashews
- Pumpkin Seeds
- Spinach
- Dark Chocolate, 90% cocoa
- Mushrooms
Sugar, sweets and candy all increase inflammation in the pancreas. The pancreas is an organ located in the abdomen. It plays an essential role in converting the food we eat into fuel for the body’s cells. The pancreas has two main functions: it helps in digestion and it regulates blood sugar. If you are experiencing left neck and mid back pain you could be having a reaction to the amount of sugar in your diet.
What about natural sugar found in fruits?
Bananas, raisins, pineapple are high in concentrated sugar and they can also raise inflammation levels in the pancreas. Fruits such as pears, plums and apples have been shown not to trigger the inflammatory response.
Another clue that you may have too much sugar in your diet:
Most individuals who have too much sugar in their system are loved by mosquitoes and usually get bitten even with repellent on. They get bites and whelps on their skin after they are bitten. Their skin may also ooze at the site of the bite.
So you can see the problem – if the pancreas helps regulate blood sugar, but it has to work overtime to regulate all the sugar and sweets eaten it tends to have a inflammatory response that can cause the neck and back issues I mentioned earlier and if it continues to be overworked autoimmune diseases are impending.
What can you do when these sugar cravings take you down to the fetal position? Try these tips:
Craving chocolate? You might be deficient in magnesium or copper. Incorporate yellow foods like butternut squash, organic corn, apples, apricots, and nuts. Still want some chocolate? Substitute with carob or add a teaspoon of raw cacao to a smoothie.
Experience sweet and sour cravings? Your liver is congested and is attempting to cleanse so that it can perform its over 5,000 functions better. Add lemon to your water!
Craving sweets and starches? You might have a serotonin imbalance.
Craving sugar? You either have a candida yeast overgrowth or are lacking in good nutritional sugars (or both).
If you crave sugar after eating salt, you ate too much salt. If you crave sugar after studying it’s because your brain burns glucose as its energy source.
Try eating carrots or a piece of fruit, wait 15 minutes
See full article at: https://www.livingwhole.org/causes-of-food-cravings-revealed/
The best fruits to eat at this time pears, plums and apples – these fruits do not trigger the inflammatory response. See if the craving goes away. If it doesn’t, and you still want something sweet, rest assured you will be less likely to eat the whole bag because of the nutritional sugar you got from the fruit.
Incorporate more healthy complex carbohydrates into your diet such as brown rice, sweet potato, squash, quinoa.
Alternatives to Processed Sugar
Bugs love sugar to and sugar cane so it has to be grown with an overabundance of pesticides. If your going to eat sugar, purchase organic. They stock it at Walmart now and it’s not that much more than the regular processed sugar.
Agave is a more natural source, still organic is best to buy again because bugs like sweet at cactus grown commercially will have lots of pesticides used in the growing process.
Stevia plant is great, it’s a perennial flower that you can grow yourself, wash, dry out in the sun or on a low heat in the oven on a baking sheet. Crush it yourself for tea and coffee. You can purchase it at the grocery store as well. It only takes a little to go a long way, make sure the only ingredient listed is stevia.
Honey is also good. Go local and you’ll reap some allergen benefits as well. Eating honey from bees in your own local area helps develop immune to pollen in your area. Proverbs 24:13, My son, eat honey, for it is good, Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;
Remember that as Christians we have a power like no other. When we struggle to get our sweet consumption under control there is help available through prayer. The Lord wants to see us free in every area of our lives and if there is something that is a stronghold holding us in bondage He wants us to seek Him for the answers and for our deliverance. Psalms 46:1 says , He is a very present help in time of trouble.
