What’s Your Taste?
Are you a sugar bear? Salty dog? Maybe you’re crazy for carbs… We all have our favorite addictions...
I once was a carb addict. Every meal included pasta noodles or bread, rice or potatoes. I ate a lot of vegetables, very little meat, but the carbs, they were my favorite and always had center stage. Every afternoon my thoughts would drift to noodles dripping in a thick white sauce topped with cheese. Yum. And of course my specialty, home baked dessert (don’t skimp on the sugar!)
It took decades before I realized the shocking fact that is rocking the world today: Carbs are sugar. White flour, white pasta, pretty much anything in the white, refined food world, is not only unhealthy, it contributes to the epidemic of diseases (symptoms) that are crippling America and anyone else that has succumbed to the “sugar diet.”
Seems the experts have figured out that the body processes refined carbs just about as well as white sugar. And it’s not a pretty picture. Fatty liver, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, you name it. It’s gotten so bad, the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA), after 20 years (of bribes, etc.) is putting the heat on the sugar industry. According to the FDA, “New Nutrition Facts label for packaged foods to reflect new scientific information, including the link between diet and chronic diseases such as obesity and heart disease. The new label will make it easier for consumers to make better informed food choices.”
With much wailing and gnashing of teeth, despite countless millions of dollars changing hands via lobbyists, the Sugar Association may be in for a wake-up call. The word is getting out. Sugar is killing us.
Dr. Robert Lustig, pediatrician and founder of the Institute for Responsible Nutrition, has blazed the trail in his research to discover the effects of sugar on the human body. “Most people think of sugar and junk food as empty calories, but they are way worse, sugar turns into unhealthy fat in the body, and processed food, including supposedly healthy choices such as fruit-flavored yogurt, is loaded with added sugar.” -Robert Lustig, M.D.
It’s doubtful we’ll be putting the sugar spoon down any time soon, but when we know sugar has 56 names, and with the new labels coming out, we can be more aware every time we open a box, can or package. And the white noodles? You can get used to whole wheat. It takes time but you are so worth it, right?
Carbs are okay. Unprocessed, in small amounts with a lot of organic produce (gotta get your minerals or you’ll suffer from malnutrition. i.e. diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, etc.).
The main thing to remember is to keep the main thing the main thing: Health & wellness. Okay, two things.
Food: The good, the bad, and the ugly…
Sources
Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label
Sweet Revenge Robert Lustig, M.D.
