Hello my chocolate cookies,

Do you love sweets? I do!

I can eat a full box of Kaju Katli, and Gulab Jamun. Yummm! And of all the chocolates, I love eating ‘All of them’. Lol. Still I don’t think I have so much craze for sugar as I see few mad lovers of sugar. At least I can resist it! (Not for Kaju Katli though :P)

However when I was diagnosed with Cancer,  sugar was a strict ‘No, No’ stuff for me.  I stopped eating even fruits too as I was afraid of consuming sugar in any form. Though with time and more articles I have read, I now eat fruits which are less sugary i.e Green Apple, berries as eating no fruits do more harm than NOT eating them.

However, talking about Cancer Kelly Turner in her book Radical Remission says that cancer cells consume (i.e metabolize) sugar-glucose) at a much faster rate than normal cells do. This is how PET scan works: first, you drink a glass of glucose, and then the scan detects where the glucose is being metabolized the fastest in your body. Those glucose ‘hot spots’ are the areas in your body that are most likely cancerous.

Good to know: The connection between cancer cells and sugar was first discovered by Otto Wagburg in 1920 fir which he won Nobel prize too!

Even if you are pretty healthy, I am sure you might know someone who has diabetes, Cancer, acne, PTSD or any health issue and as soon as one removes sugar, the condition improves.

But then, is every food containing sugar bad?
Half information can be always harmful, and that’s what happened to me 3 years back when I was diagnosed with Cancer. I stopped/minimize eating sugar of all kinds. But then I was tired throughout the day. More research and I found out some interesting reads. And here is what those books/articles said. I just tried to make things readable for you.
So, here you go!
  • Glucose acts as fuel for our body’s cells. The cells use that energy to function, heal our damaged tissues and grow. But how do they access the glucose? Ummm…
  • Well, here comes the role of our pancreas.  Pancreas keeps monitoring your blood steam. As soon as you eat something, the food gets broken down to glucose by liver, and stomach acid.
  • Meanwhile the pancreas notices the rise of glucose in blood stream, and in response it produces a hormone called Insulin.
  • Insulin then carries the glucose to the cells by absorbing it from blood.  If you see Insulin does two work here, first carrying glucose to cells, and second ,maintaining  your blood sugar level.

What if the cell has all the fuel it needs for the moments? Insulin then moves that extra glucose to your liver where it is stored as fat. This extra fat is used as fuel (which keeps you running) when you do not eat for a longer time or when you do any physical activity.This is the best scenario. However, if you are keep on dumping lots of sugar food in your body, there is more glucose in the body than what the pancreas can handle. With continuous stress, pancreas stops producing enough insulin and you develop insulin resistance.

Do you know that carbohydrate are sugary part of food? All carbs including white bread, pasta, rice breaks down into glucose which the body uses as fuel.

Did you see that coming?

However, you still need glucose for your needs to work. And that’s why it’s important to have sugar in your diet. But then ‘added sugars’ are bad because they are heavily processed, and you don’t get any nutrient for your body.
On the contrary, natural sugars like what fruits have, contain enough minerals, fiber, vitamins, antioxidants. (Fiber in fruits slows down the absorption of sugar into our bloodstream.)

Therefore, it’s always good to stop eating processed sugar and get the energy from natural sugar. What if you still have craving or sweet tooth? We do have substitute for that too.

  • Dates: When I was in Vipassana meditation center, I saw that they would have dates in the breakfast. Dates are too sweet, but act as wonderful option as natural sweeteners.
  • Maple syrup: There are times I want to make something sweet during any holiday season, and the first option I have to go for is Maple syrup. It contains decent amount of minerals like calcium, zinc, potassium.
  • Honey: The benefits of eating honey has been mentioned a lot in Ayurveda. Eating honey can lower the risk of many diseases as it helps raise the number of antioxidants in body.
  • Coconut Sugar: There are many articles about how coconut sugar can be substituted for sugar, as it contains antioxidants, and many minerals. However, I read few other articles when they discouraged having coconut sugar as they are very high in calories, and very high in fructose too. 
  • Monk fruit: Monk fruit sweetener is about 150–200 times sweeter than sugar and is made from extracts of the monk fruit. It contains , Mogroside which are antioxidants that don’t raise your blood sugar when metabolized, making monk fruit sweeteners calorie-free.  Though some people do complain that these sweeteners have an aftertaste.

Sugar is good!

After all, it puts so much richness AND sweetness in our lives, which we are missing constantly. However, it takes conscious efforts to choose the correct form of sugar. Eating anything which practically does ‘Nothing’ to your body creates more harm than good. Choose wisely.

Eat sugar which is good for you mind and body.

It’s good if you love sugar but it’s better if you allow it to love your body too!

Love and healing always,

Ankita

Mind/Body

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