Decreasing Sugar in Our Diet
Reducing sweeteners in our diet is a positive step that each one of us can take. It requires an effort, but reducing our dietary load of sugar and sweeteners is of key importance for our health and our children’s health.

Sugar is added to different foods under many different names, as shown below:

Sugar Substances Added To Foods

• Artificial sweetener
• Corn syrup
• Dextrose
• Fructose
• High-fructose corn syrup
  
• Honey Malt syrup
  
• Maple sugar
• Sucrose

 
Avoid Sugar Foods and Snacks

• Artificial Juices
• Breakfast Cereals
• Cakes and Candies
• Corn syrup
• Cookies
• Dough nuts
• Ice cream
• Pies
• Puddings
• Sugar
• Soda Pop
• Sorbets
• Sweetened Drinks
• Sweets
• Cake
• James and Jelly

Avoid Hidden Sugar in Foods

• Baking Mixes
• Breads
• Canned Fruits
• Crackers
• Cheese Dips
• Frankfurters
• Frozen Vegetables
• Ketchup
• Luncheon Meats
• Prepared Seafood
• Pickles
• Peanut Butter
• Relish
• Salad Dressings
• Soups
•  Sausages
• Soups
• Sweetened Yogurt
• Tartar Sauce

Although sugar addiction is common, sugar withdrawal is usually physically mild, with periodic strong cravings. Emotional attachments and withdrawals may be more pronounced. For those who are sensitive to refined sugar or sweeteners, or who consume them in large amounts various symptoms of abuse and withdrawal may occur. Some of these symptoms include fatigue, anxiety and irritability, depression and detachment, rapid heart rate and palpitations, and poor sleep. Most symptoms if they do occur, last only a few days.

Most people who have kicked the sugar habit find that they no longer tolerate sugar very well.

A diet that is rich in whole grains and other complex carbohydrates, vegetables, and protein foods can also help stabilize blood sugar and minimize the desire for sugar. There are many people who are protein-deficient that seem to crave sugars and carbohydrate foods.

Conversely, eating a diet that focuses on protein and vegetables is a good way to minimize sugar cravings. If you do not tolerate sugars and sweet foods well, then few fruits should be eaten and fruit juice avoided.

Habits can be changed. We can change what we eat, how we eat, and when we eat. We can shed addictions to sugar or other specific foods. We can gain new attractions to more wholesome foods, and lose weight, allowing our body to find its more optimal shape and metabolism. Any change, however, does require motivation and time to allow for physiological readjustment and even withdrawal to take place, this usually takes at least a few weeks.

If you are concerned about whether you are diabetic or not, there is a simple self-test kit that you can use as an initial screening test while waiting to see your health practitioner for further testing and advice. This home health test is to detect the presence of glucose (sugar) in the urine - at an early stage before symptoms develop.

There are also a number of nutritional supplements and herbs that can be used to help with sugar addictions such as:

Vitamin/Mineral Therapy
 

B-Complex vitamin supplement. With extra B1, B3, B5, B6, B12 and pantothenic acid. Has a stabilizing effect on the nerves and blood sugar.

Vitamin C for stress, either taken as a powder, or as tablets.

Chromium is good to take because it enhances the action of insulin.
 

Essential fatty acids Omega 3's and Omega 6's.

Chlorella is the world's richest natural source of Chlorophyll.

Multi-minerals containing calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, iodine, chromium and zinc.

Vanadyl sulfate, a trace element that mimics insulin, has been found to restore elevated blood glucose to normal in diabetic animals. In chemically induced Type II diabetes in rats, vanadyl sulfate lowered the insulin requirement by up to 75%.Vanadyl sulfate can reverse diabetes in rats for up to 20 weeks after supplementation ceases. Short-term treatment with vanadium, prior to and for a two-week period following the induction of diabetes, eliminated hyperglycemia in rats, even after withdrawal from treatment. The researchers stated, 'This property of vanadium would appear to be useful in the treatment of prediabetic and newly diagnosed patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. In humans with Type II diabetes, low doses of vanadyl sulfate increased insulin-mediated glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis, and suppressed endogenous glucose production. This resulted in decreased lipid oxidation rates and reduced plasma free fatty acid concentrations.
 

Herbal Therapy

The spice cinnamon improves blood glucose and reduces triglycerides, total cholesterol, and LDL, the bad cholesterol, in patients with type 2 diabetes according to a recent study in Diabetes Care.

Gymnema sylvestre, known as the "sugar destroyer", is showing up in more and more over the counter weight loss products and blood sugar balancing formulas. The main focus of gymnema research is blood sugar regulation and glucose metabolism. It has been used in India for treatment of diabetes for about 2000 years. Today in India it is being used to treat primarily type II diabetes and type I as well. The herb has shown to reduce blood sugar, glycosylated haemoglobin and glycosylated plasma proteins when used for 18-20 months. The effect is gradual rather than immediate with conventional drugs. The active components responsible for lowering glucose are the gymnemic acids. It is also said that the herb reduces cravings for sugars. Some believe that the sugar taste blocking feature has a factor in not only the reduction in cravings, but the hypoglycemic reactions as well.

The good news is that more and more people are choosing natural foods and losing their tastes for unnatural, oversweetened, salty, greasy, meaty foods. Preparing simpler meals with simpler foods in modest quantities spread out through the day is a healthful way of eating that has come back into vogue.

References and Bibliography

1. McCollum, Elmer Verner, A History of Nutrition: The Sequence of Ideas in Nutritional Investigation, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1957, p. 88.
2. Op. cit., p. 87.
3. Price, Weston A., Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects, The American Academy of Applied Nutrition, California, 1939, 1948.