Tame that sugar monkey! redux

I ain’t no doctor

a weekly column by charles faris, hhc

Last week I began looking at a question from Massachusetts Sugar Fiend, who claimed to be “plagued by the desire to eat sweets; breakfast, lunch and dinner, morning, noon and night”, and wanted to know “what foods are good alternatives to satisfy my sugar craving?” We then looked at sugar cravings from a primary food perspective, examining relationships, career satisfaction, spiritual practice, and physical activity for insights into what might be causing these cravings, and how to restore some balance which might reduce the cravings.

This week we’ll look at sugar from the perspective of the food we eat. We’ll look at the foods that nourish us and lessen the cravings, and we’ll look at the foods that let that monkey right in the front door, leaving a trail of gumdrops right up onto your back.

It’s a chemical reaction

Having dealt with primary foods last week, we can dispense with ideas like comfort and sweetness and childhood associations, and dive right into the nitty gritty of how sugar works in your body. On the simplest level, sugar is food as energy. Fast energy. When you need something done fast, sugar is on point. Which cuts both ways, as we will see below.

Your brain, not surprisingly, consumes tons of the stuff. So do your muscles, if you use them. So sugar is vital to life. And yet…too much of a good thing can lead to mucho problemo.

It’s all sugar to me

Now, it can get very confusing if when you start to consider that talking sugar with a nutritionist is a lot like talking snow with an Inuit. You won’t understand them, and they won’t understand you. Since I ain’t no doctor, that ain’t no problem with me. I know that your brain and your muscles run on glucose, which is stored in you muscles and your liver. I know that most of the sugar you eat is in the form for fructose (fruit sugar) or sucrose (table sugar).

Nevertheless, it’s all sugar, so for all practical purposes we can call it all sugar. Just know this. The type of sugar that your body uses is made from the type of sugar that you eat, and from starch, and from fat. And the sugar that you eat can be turned into fat. It’s a two, three, or four way street in your body. Transmutation is the rule. Anything goes pretty much.

So let’s just call it sugar, and let’s remember that your body can turn sugar into fat, and fat into sugar. And that simple fact is what makes eating a lot of it problematic.

Up and down and all around

We’ll wrap up this technical stuff asap, so we can get on to the practical applications. Just remember that because sugar moves fast, eating too much at one time can upset your body’s homeostasis, and low or high blood sugar can both cause serious health problems and ultimately death.

So here’s the process in a nutshell. You eat some sweets, your blood sugar rises, your pancreas secretes insulin to mop up the excess, which is then stored as glucose and as fat. Now your blood sugar is low, so you crave more sweets, and the whole gosh-darn thing starts all over again, resulting in a day spent stumbling from one good source to another.

The one hand giveth and the other hand taketh away

As promised, there are two ways to approach this thing from a food perspective. We’ll begin with the nourishing stuff that will help to crowd out the low quality sugars and lessen your cravings.

• In general, high quality proteins, fats, and fibers will all help to cut your cravings for sweets. In fact it’s pretty much a given that if you are craving sugar you are probably a bit deficient in protein. Include these in all of your meals and snacks.
• Start your day with a good nutritious breakfast, making sure to include a good balance of protein, fat, and fiber.
• Have we had the water conversation yet?
• Eat an abundance of fresh fruits. Berries are loaded with nutrients and antioxidants, and apples in particular have a good effect on sugar cravings.
• Many people swear by cinnamon, which seems to have a positive effect on blood sugar levels as well.
• The standard line regarding vegetables applies here as well. Eat a good variety, eat them a lot, focus especially on the leafy greens, and mix up the raw and the cooked.

Now that we have basically reiterated what we say all the time in terms of How to Eat, let’s look at a few things in the world of supplements that may be of help, remembering that everyone is unique and individual and what works for some of us may not work for others. And remembering that this is not health advice, as i ain’t no doctor. This is just some stuff that might be helpful.

• A high quality fish oil can be helpful for reducing cravings.
• Chromium has been indicated as an aid in reducing cravings, taken before meals.
• L-glutamine can stop cravings in their tracks (give or take 10 minutes), and is recommended as a morning, noon, and night sort of thing.
• That said I don’t go much for supplements myself (aside from krill oil), and between the chromium and the L-glutamine you’ve got the whole “breakfast, lunch and dinner, morning, noon and night” thing covered!

So  now we’ve covered the good stuff, the nourishing foods that you can use to crowd out your sweets. Now on the the things you are going to want to avoid.

The dreaded “other hand”

Herein lies the dreaded list of foods that are sugar, foods that act like sugar, and foods that will increase your cravings for sugar. Yikes! Please don’t try to be too radical with all of this. Do what helps and don’t fall into the trap of all or nothing. Dealing with sugar works best as a slow and steady thing.

• High fructose corn syrup, dehydrated cane juice, sucanat, maple syrup, barley malt, molasses, rice syrup, corn syrup, honey, date sugar, fruit juice concentrates: These are sugar, they will act like sugar in your system, and they will make you crave more sugar. Yikes! Triple threat!
• Refined carbs: Sorry…this includes bread, white rice, crackers, cookies, granola, pasta; even alcohol and fruit juices. Refined carbs act like sugar and will increase your cravings.
• Dried fruit: Yikes! I am so very sorry! This includes dried mango (my personal favorite), raisins, apricots, dates…all that super concentrated “natural” stuff. These are actually a triple threat also.
• Watch out for fat-free foods. They are usually loaded down with sugar by one name or another, and quite often virtuality equal in calories to their full-fat counterparts.
• Artificially sweetened “foods”: These will spike your cravings. 

And herein lies the list of foods you might want to let go of for a month or so, until the cravings die down to a low roar.

• High glycemic foods like corn, beets, potatoes, bananas, watermelon, and grapes: Lot’s of my favorites on this list too. Good thing it’s just temporary. These foods can do a good job of giving you something sweet to eat.
• Dairy products and whole grain foods: Just to give your bloodstream and your pancreas a brake. Healthy whole grains like quinoa and barley and oats will do you just fine once you get through the worst of your cravings.

Okay then. That’s enough for me. All this talk of sugar has me wondering where the dried mango got squirreled off to. Good luck in your quest to free yourself of that dratted sugar monkey, and feel free to drop me a line if you have any other questions.

Charles Faris, hhc

“i ain’t no doctor”

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