The Big article this week is from the LA Times:?Sugar Can Harm Like Alcohol and Tobacco, Regulate it?
This has been the topic of the week. I?ve seen articles, facebook posts. I?ve gotten emails and texts because yes, I love this topic and makes me get very excited for my book to come out this Spring!
Here?s my perspective?.Is this a public health problem? Yes. Do we need more access to fruits and vegetables over the more sugary processed stuff that keeps us sick and can government help us with that? Yes. That would be very helpful! But it?s NOT the answer just like the government doesn?t have the answer to our obesity problem. I believe the power is in the individual. Let me tell you why.
Here?s a scenario first. I?m on the board of the Salvation Army Kroc Center of South Bend. Last Saturday was the official opening of this mind-body-spirit focused community center for families in the area. So I?m behind a table and we?re signing people up for fitness activities and the Unhealthy Voice (Sugar triggers) start to show up (on a day when we?re opening a totally awesome holistic wellness center).
Someone brings us sitting at the table 3 huge plates of sugar cookies ?for fuel?. I thank God I brought my apple and peanut butter snack so I don?t touch that cookie. I know some of you reading this might go. What? (Well, here?s what I know it does to me: It will 1)make my blood sugar rush through the roof, 2) make me want the whole plate and hungry for the rest of the day, 3) make my stomach hurt, 4) make my mind not be able to stop thinking about sugar 5) and in the long run make me start gaining weight because I?ll be back in the game with the sugar and hating myself for gaining the weight. It?s a crappy cycle. I digress.) About 10 minutes later a child comes up with his mom who is about 10, overweight, and he b-lines right for those cookies. There is nothing stopping him. The mom doesn?t take a second thought. The woman next to me can?t get them in his face fast enough. He plowed through those like a freight train. Now, I didn?t see the sugar as ?Oh that?s bad.? No. No judgement here because I?ve plowed through my day of sugar. I looked at him with a knowing in my gut of what that is doing to him. He?s getting a total high and he is devouring it so fast because he wants it that bad, because it is like a drug you can?t get enough of, fast enough. If he keeps going he could get diabetes. He could lose his self-esteem because of his weight as he grows older and he could use food forever as his coping mechanism for life. I feel that kids pain on the inside.
I?m grateful I don?t have to pick it up today and it is NOT because I?ve got some awesome willpower. NO way. I wouldn?t have been sucking that stuff down my whole life if I did. I had enough of it and I just needed someone else to take it out of my diet. I needed people who?d gone before me with it and I needed to get knowledge around why that stuff makes me nuts. I still need those people and I still need a food plan that keeps me off it.
I?m not a scientist, grateful for that, but I?ve worked alongside experts in my own journey of getting off sugar, like Dr. Pamela Peeke, MD ?The doc who walks the talk? who first called my sugar addiction out years before I even saw it. I?ve also worked alongside them in my professional journey at Department of Health and Human Services. But when I was there ? childhood obesity was just starting to get attention so sugar wasn?t on the radar. Yeah, eat a little less but not so important. If it was I may have stayed a little longer. But the emphasis was more on ?Let?s get kids moving and eating right to stop obesity,? and I left because I knew there was more to it for me. The ?more to it? was finding out a few years later was what the sugar drug was to me.
But that?s in my book. The point here is that to me, I guess because I was there ? I know government isn?t going to fix my personal addiction to sugar any more than they are going to fix my obesity problem if I?ve got it. Can they help with regulation? Yes because it will make it easier for those who want to get off it to do so. ?But fighting government is a battle I?m not getting into today. Believe me I have fought the good fight and tried to get them to see, ?There is more to this for me than just eating right and working out!? But me single-handedly trying to bring down some industry or fight them? ?A losing battle. MY POWER is in taking care of myself mentally, physically, emotionally and making it my mission on this earth to empower others to get empowered so they can live empowered and by doing so empower the people they love. I am grateful I didn?t get the answer in government because it?s empowering me to empower you.
Blaming is an ugly face the Unhealthy Voice. If we?re blaming someone else or some big beast for our problems ? we are NOT taking responsibility for ourselves. Who hasn?t done it?! There are many people I?ve wanted to blame for things in my life. It?s the victim card and it doesn?t work, especially if you are depending on some big industry like the incredibly powerful sugar lobby or the government to change things. My recommendation is to take a step back. Take a breathe. Think about YOUR power in this. Do you want to say, ?They have to regulate this so I can stop eating sugar.? or ?Once they start regulating it, I?ll stop eating sugar?? Do you feel empowered with that thought? I mean I know ? any excuse to eat sugar, but seriously ? haven?t you been giving the Unhealthy Voice that has been making you turn to it power long enough? Are you going to give it more power by saying, ?I?ll fight you when the government says I can.?
So not worth the physical, emotional and mental insanity that sugar brings into the lives of those of us that are addicted to it. If they regulate it, great. Let them do their thing. Let those scientists fight on your behalf. But why not YOU fight for your Healthy Voice in your mind, body and spirit on your behalf. I spent toooo long wanting to blame those big guys, so much I even went into their faces by working in government. But it didn?t work. The only thing I could change in the end was myself and the way I was going to do sugar. Did I do it myself? NO. I had to get to a bottom with it. I had to get help from someone else who could get me off it and every single day I have to fight it, but I don?t crave it because I?ve got a plan that keeps me away from it. Do I want it sometimes, especially now that I?m going through grief? YES! But there is not enough sugar on this planet today to make me turn to it. I choose not to turn to it and if more of us CHOOSE NOT TO -more of us will feel powerful from within ourselves and not have to wait on government. How powerful does that feel? I don?t have to wait on government. I can make the change from within and for myself. This quitting sugar isn?t a willpower thing. It?s not purely a physical thing. It?s an insane mental, emotional and I believe spiritual thing. But in order to get out of that sugar addiction you?ve got to want you more than that sugar. You?ve got to want to live beyond turning to sugar.
So while you are figuring things out, I?m going to keep walking my road of the Healthy Voice. I?m going to choose not to pick it up today, or for this moment and I?m going to continue to do everything in my power to fight ? not against any big institution but FOR your Healthy Voice. I?m committed to empowering your HEalthy Voice so that when your Unhealthy Voice comes up in life and wants you to turn to sugar or any other drug ? you?ve got tools and you?ve got people to keep you strong so you do NOT have to do it ? and that?s got nothing to do with government.
In case you want to see it, found a video on it too:
and another article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120201135312.htm
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Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Robert Lustig, the Toxic Truth about Sugar, LA Times, sugar regulation, Dr. Pamela Peeke, Department of health and human services
Source: http://findyourhealthyvoice.com/2012/02/03/the-sugar-regulation-debate-a-healthy-voice-perspective/
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