sugar | The Sweet Life Sugar Free, LLC

Tag Archive for sugar

What to Do About Those Little Ghosts and Goblins?

Posted on October 29, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

Happy almost Halloween! I have to admit, this is not my favorite occasion. For obvious reasons, the sugar aspect causes issues in our family, but the doorbell that makes the dog go crazy, kids out in the dark, and then the after effect for the next two days isn’t so much fun either. I LOVE fall, but I am always happy when the 31st of October has come and gone, and there is an official start to the holiday season that awaits around the corner.

The holidays are a whole other ball game, but let’s get through Halloween first. Erin posted earlier in the week about how she handles Halloween for her daughter. We do things slightly differently, mainly because we have older children. The age/s of the child/ren in your household can make a big difference. My children are 10, 8 and 5 if that helps at all. They range from being all about Halloween and the candy, to really just wanting to be with their friends.

We are extremely fortunate to be invited to the same party with the same people every year. This helps me because I don’t have to have my internal struggle about handing out candy at my house. I have a voice in me that screams, “How can you hand out candy when you preach about sugar?” Luckily, I get to turn that recording OFF! The kids (and adults) are fortunate because we are all with friends and the focus turns to playing and visiting instead of tracking down the best candy in the neighborhood. Don’t get me wrong, I let the kids trick-or-treat, but that is not our sole focus of the evening. This helps a TON!

I do have a few ideas for your weekend:

Watch the forbidden food syndrome. Unless sugar is going to have severe health consequences on your child (sort term), let them partake in trick-or-treating. These years fly by, and if they enjoy it, it is one night out of 365.
Give them a time period that candy will be allowed in the house. I tell my kids (you are not going to believe this one), “Eat what you want on Halloween, pick out a few for tomorrow, and on the third day it will magically disappear.”
Find a place to donate the candy. Yes, I know it is bad for everyone, but there ARE people that deserve a treat every once in while like our troops overseas. There are places around that will take donations (Schools, banks, etc.). They collect unwanted Halloween candy and ship it to the troops.
My friend, Mona, recently told me about the Switch Witch. You can give your kids a choice (or not) to leave their pumpkin full of candy on the front porch on Halloween night, and the Switch Witch will take the candy and exchange it for (you fill in the blank – some toy they want, baseball or football cards, dark chocolate, an iTunes gift card just to give examples). Start planning now if you want to use this idea.
Divy out a certain number of pieces for each day – and specify the number of days. Then stick to it!
Use the candy for teaching any number of things. For younger children, it is great for sorting, patterns, and counting. It is always fascinating to people how much sugar is in those little pieces of candy. This is a great time for the older children to understand conversions. Read the labels. Remember, for every 4 grams of sugar or carbs, that equals 1 teaspoon of sugar. This is a great multiplication and division activity for the older ones. You can even make up word problems about the candy. Tina, that one was for you!

No matter what you decide to do with your candy, you, just like I, will get through this day. It is one of my most dreaded, but we always power through. Your kids will be on a sugar high, but then we will be there to catch them on the way down to lift them back up with healthy foods. The best thing you can do is to have a plan in place. Figure out how and when you are going to dispose of that white powdery substance disguised as candy and follow through. Then life returns to normal.

Have a very safe and memory filled Halloween!

God Bless!

Posted in articles, Holiday Dish, Kids, Snacks, special Occasion, Sugar, tips, Treat tagged with Candy, Halloween, Holiday, sugar, tips

Spreading the Word!

Posted on August 26, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

Erin and I are super passionate about health and healthy eating! We have both struggled with sugar addiction and were able to kick the habit.

We love sharing our stories and are super excited about our “Sweet Surprise” discussion tomorrow at Fit Fusion Studio.

Please join us Thursday, August 27th at 9:00 AM!

Cindy will be sharing both stories about how sugar wreaked havoc in both lives, and how changing your eating habits can change your life for the better!

Send your friends, your parents, your kids and your siblings! It is FREE!

Posted in Cancer, Research, Sugar, tips, Uncategorized tagged with Discussion, Fit Fusion, sugar, Talk

But it said, “Sugar Free”!?!?

Posted on June 30, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

For the most part, I think most would agree that sugar is bad, very bad! It causes a copious amount of diseases, is almost entirely responsible for the obesity epidemic in our country, and is 8 times more addictive than cocaine. Yes 8 TIMES more addictive than COCAINE!

So what about all those “sugar free” choices out there? Well, this is the definition by the FDA of “sugar free” : “Sugar Free”: Less than 0.5 g sugars per RACC and per labeled serving (or for meals and main dishes, less than 0.5 g per labeled serving) (c)(1)
Contains no ingredient that is a sugar or generally understood to contain sugars except as noted below (*) You can read their definitions on the FDA website here. The problem with this definition is the fact that there are a lot of ingredients these days that are hidden in our foods that will spike your insulin levels faster than cane sugar and are not identified as so called “sugar”. Many of these are sneaky ingredients in foods you would never guess like salad dressings, spices and seasonings, and marinated products. These are foods that you may still be eating because I know you are not eating those awful processed foods anymore, right?

You need to know that just because you don’t see “sugar” or dare I say, “high fructose corn syrup” on the label does not mean you are home free.

Here is a list taken from JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet book:

The Many Names for Sugar

Barley Malt

Beet Sugar

Brown Sugar

Buttered Syrup

Cane Juice Crystals

Cane Sugar

Caramel

Carob Syrup

Castor Sugar

Confectioners’ Sugar

Corn Syrup

Corn Syrup Solids

Date Sugar

Demerara Sugar

Dextran

Dextrose

Diastatic Malt

Diatase

Ethyl Maltol

Fructose

Fruit Juice

Fruit Juice Concentrate

Galactose

Glucose

Glucose Solids

Golden Sugar

Golden Syrup

Grape Syrup

High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Honey

Icing Sugar

Invert Sugar

Lactose

Malt Syrup

Maltodextrin (This is a BIG one!)

Maltose

Maple Syrup

Molasses

Muscovado Sugar

Panocha

Raw Sugar

Refiner’s Syrup

Rice Syrup

Sorbitol

Sorghum Syrup

Sucrose

Treacle

Turbinado Sugar

Yellow Sugar

And don’t forget the sweeteners:

Acesulfame Potassium

Alitame

Aspartame

Aspartame-acesulfame salt

Cyclamate

Isomalt

Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone

Nutrasweet

Saccharin

Spenda

Sucralose

If you see any of these ingredients – Stay away – far, far away. If you are still drinking diet drinks – wean yourself, by drinking sparking water, La Croix, fresh brewed tea, or water! It does the body good!

The sneakiest one on the list for me has been the Maltodextrin! It is in more than you could imagine. I have found it in sauces, and especially seasoning mixes. For instance, I used to love dumping a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix into 16 ounces of sour cream for a yummy veggie dip. Then, I actually took a minute to look at the ingredients, and there it was, in black and white – #3 on the ingredient list – Maltodextrin. That was a huge wake up call for me when I thought I was doing it all right! I cannot say it enough, “READ YOUR LABELS!” A really good rule of thumb to follow is this: If it has more than 5 ingredients, you probably shouldn’t eat it, but if it has ingredients you cannot pronounce, you definitely should not eat it! I guarantee that if you saw the manufacturing and chemical processing of these products you wouldn’t want them in your body. Best to choose foods grown from the earth or raised grazing the green grass. These are your REAL FOODS!

The other mention on this subject is the Glycemic Index. There is more study needed on this index, but it is a good resource going back to ingredients like Maltodextrin. The Glycemic Index measures how much the food you eat affects your blood sugar levels. The higher the rating, the greater the effect the food will have on your blood sugar. The scale ranges from 0 to 100, with 100 being the highest (well-used to be the highest). A 100 rating will shoot your blood sugar through the roof! Here are some examples:

Remember that Maltodextrin? Well, it measured higher than pure Glucose which used to top the scale:

Maltodextrin – 110

Pure Glucose – 100

Splenda – 80

Sucrose (Table Sugar) – 65

Maple Syrup – 54

Honey – 50

Lactose – 45

Coconut Palm Sugar – 35

Maltitol – 35

Agave – 15

I like this website published by the University of Sydney, that allows you to enter in foods to calculate the impact it has on your body. This website published by Harvard is also an eye-opening chart that lists common foods with their Glycemic Index as well as the Glycemic Load which takes into account the serving size, or “dose” of sugar. The difference between the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load is the serving size. The “Index” measures the sugar impact on the same amount of food, not a typical serving size. The “Load” uses the Glycemic Index as its foundation but takes serving size into account.

Watch out for those hidden sugars. “No Sugar Added” always mean sugar! Food labels are tricky. I really like the way JJ Virgin writes in her book, “Let’s be honest. You get excited when you see that sparkly starburst on the box telling you there’s been no sugar added to those fruit roll-ups. Well, I’ll be delicate here. They’re taking some poetic license – with you health. Manufacturers give you some credit, and they know that if you saw a box that read “21 teaspoons of added sugar for your metabolic upheaval!” you might think twice. So they’ve spent a lot of time and money testing ways to get around your sensible objections so they can manipulate you into buying as much of what they’re selling as possible, guilt and worry free. They’ve made all your favorite treats “without added sugar,” so you could have your cake and eat it, too….And just because a manufacturer labels a food or drink “no added sugar,” that in no way means that it doesn’t contain sugar. No added sugar does not mean sugar-free. It can also mean they’ve used fruit juice concentrate as their sweetener. That’s essentially fructose without the fiber. (Fructose goes straight to your liver!) And remember that white flour will end up as sugar anyway, so many of the ingredients in your no-sugar added cookie will turn into sugar as soon as you start munching. Labels can be misleading.” JJ Virgin – Sugar Impact Diet.

In a nutshell, read your labels – the ones on the back, buy “Real Food”, and know your sugars and their impact. And remember:

Posted in articles, Cancer, Health, Research, Sugar, Sugar Substitute, tips, Uncategorized tagged with Added Sugar, addiction, Article, Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load, Research, sugar, Sugar Substitutes, sugar-free, tips

The Finishing Touch

Posted on June 27, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

A great Bar-B-Que Brisket or Ribs is perfectly Keto, and one of our very favorite weekend or holiday treats. The question becomes, how do you finish those beauties off? That wonderful tangy sauce out of a bottle is gone for more reasons than one, but the main problem is all those added sugars in the bottle. Oh, and don’t forget the hidden sugars.

I am putting it lightly when I say, my hubby is a sauce fanatic! He concocts all types of sauces, and combines things I would never think of placing in the same bowl. Some are good, and some not so much.

He left it to me to find a good recipe for a Bar-B-Que sauce though. The best one, meaning lowest in carbs, out of a bottle, we could find was Stubbs Original with 5 Carbs and 4 grams of sugar. The serving size is 2 Tbsp. Let’s be honest – who just eats 2 tablespoons of Bar-B Que sauce? Here are some of the ingredients:

Sugar, Molasses, Tapioca Dextrin, Brown Sugar, Corn Starch, and Corn Syrup! And this was the best we could find!!!! Let’s see…sugar, sugar, carb/sugar, sugar, carb/sugar, and oh, sugar!

There is a reason we always say to read labels, and we don’t just mean nutrition labels. You HAVE to read those ingredients too. It sends my blood sugar soaring just reading them!

So this is the REAL food ingredient list for my new Bar-B-Que sauce:

3/4 cup White Vinegar

2 Cans (30 oz) of Organic Tomato Sauce

5 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

3 Tbsp Yellow Mustard

1 Tbsp Tabasco or other hot sauce (I used 2 Tbsp and it was SPICY so do to taste)

1 Tbsp Pink Himalayan salt

1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

2 Tbsp Liquid Smoke (The one pictured is made in the great state of TEXAS)

1/2 Large Lemon (4 tsp squeezed)

1/2 tsp Trader Joe’s Pure Stevia

Directions:

Combine your tomato sauce and vinegar. Bring to a simmer.

Add your Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and Liquid Smoke. Combine. Add all remaining ingredients except the yellow mustard.

You need to temper your mustard like you would an egg. Place your mustard in a heat safe bowl. Add a few spoonfuls of your hot tomato mixture and stir well.

Once mixed, add back to your sauce.

Whisk until you have a smooth sauce. Use immediately or store in a mason jar. This will keep for a few weeks in the refrigerator.

Enjoy with that yummy broccoli slaw!

Posted in Dinner, Groceries, Holiday Dish, Kids, Lunch, Main Course, recipe, Sauces and Dressing, Sugar, Uncategorized tagged with bar-b-que, Fourth of July, Holiday, sauce, Stevia, sugar, Tomato

Sweeteners; How to Choose the Right One

Posted on June 25, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

We know sugar is BAD! The sad truth is that many “No Calorie Sweeteners” are also bad. The choices are plentiful! The health consequences of these are also plentiful!

My first choice of sweetener when we decided to go Keto was Splenda (Larger name is Sucralose.) because that was my husband’s sweetener of choice, and you could bake with it in equal amounts. Then…I heard the story about how Sucralose was invented. It was invented by a group of chemists looking for a new formula for pesticide. Yes, I said pesticide! When you eat Splenda or other versions of Sucralose you are eating the mistake of chemists looking for a new improved pesticide. When Chemist A said to Chemist B, “Have you tested it?”, Chemist B responded, “It tastes sweet!” Obviously mishearing, taste for test, Chemist A was horrified that B actually put this poison in his mouth. But, the formula for a new product began at this point. Let’s see when you put that stuff to your lips again.

There are many other choices…We are all familiar with the blue stuff, the pink stuff, and the list goes on. Then you have honey, agave, and maple syrup. Granted, these are natural sweeteners, but have an effect on blood sugar. Honey, agave and maple syrup can all have a dramatic effect on your blood sugar, and leave you craving for more. Honey? I know, but just like everything else, it has become highly processed, and basically “all the good stuff” has been removed. The only exception I would find, would be a good local source that you know has quality honey from the area in which you live. I still would not eat it, but I would use it to sweeten things such as grass-fed plain yogurt and other quality foods for my children. If you can find good LOCAL honey, it is great for allergy resistance for your children in very small amounts – I emphasize SMALL. Please use with caution because it still will spike blood sugar. If you are trying to lose weight or have insulin resistance at all (which over 70% of our adult population does) stay away and stick to the others mentioned next. To read more about the worst and best sweetener, check out this article, The 4 Best and 3 Worst Sweeteners to Have in Your Kitchen, written by Dr. Mercola.

Natural sweeteners that do not have an impact on blood sugar are Swerve, Stevia, and Chicory Root, and every once in a while, Xylitol for certain foods (be careful with Xylitol – toxic for pets). These are the ones that we choose to use. You can purchase Swerve at Whole Foods, Sprouts, or in our Amazon store, here. There are many different forms of Stevia on the market. Be careful, and READ your labels. I have found all sorts of added ingredients. This is the Chicory Root powder sold by Chocoperfection:

This is granular swerve, good used on anything that is NOT cold, such as coffee or baked goods. Choose the purple confectioners for cold items, such as puddings or custards.

We do all need to try to be as sugar free as possible for so many health reasons. The problem is, any time there is a good thing, the food industry can take it and make it BAD! Take for instance, Stevia. Stevia is a great product, used for centuries in South America. It is all natural, has a low glycemic index, and a little goes a long way. The food industry in America saw that this was an up and coming sweetener, and has come along and ruined it in many ways. For example, Pure Stevia used to be the only thing you could buy. Now you have huge food and beverage companies coming into the market, and adding other ingredients, such as sugar (yes, sugar) maltodextrin, and a variety of other ingredients we do not want inside our bodies. My point of this post is to tell you to be careful when choosing sweeteners and reading labels. We need to cut down on the “sweet” period! That is, teach our tongues not to crave the sweet. If you do need a little sweet every once in a while, choose carefully by doing your research, and reading your labels. Do not go by what you see on the front of a box! At the moment, I buy the Sweet Leaf packets:

And Stevia Drops which come in a variety of flavors and you can purchase at Whole Foods, Sprouts, or our Amazon store here:

Sometimes as a treat, I use these drops to sweeten plain unsweetened almond milk for the children. When I use the chocolate drops, it magically turns into a chocolate milkshake!

Stevia measures VERY VERY differently than any of these other sweeteners which more or less can be measured cup for cup just like sugar. This website is a great resource for conversions if you have any questions. Just click here for a conversion chart! This works for PURE Stevia only.

I ordered a “Pure Stevia” off of Amazon last week, and was livid when I received it to find that the “other ingredient” was Malodextrin which has one of the highest glycemic index values out there. It is BAD stuff! Needless to say, it is going back, and I will continue to do my research to find an actual PURE stevia with no other added ingredients. It is becoming harder and harder to do this. The one place I have been able to find actual pure, organic, non-GMO stevia for baking is Trader Joe’s. While there, pick up some coconut cream, ghee, nuts of many varieties, and some Creme Fraiche! Yum!!!

So the take away of this article is to READ, READ, READ you labels! There are new brands of Stevia, especially, coming to the market daily because it is a HOT item. To make them better, companies are making these sweeteners worse for us. Take care and sweeten carefully!

Posted in articles, Cancer, Dessert, Groceries, Health, Research, Sugar, Sugar Substitute, Uncategorized tagged with Article, Splenda, Stevia, sugar, Sugar substitute, Suggestion, Swerve

Refreshing Summer Limealicious Dessert

Posted on June 12, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

Going Keto means no sugar, but it doesn’t mean no desserts!

Every once in a while, I like to experiment with sweet recipes. Sometimes it is as easy as taking an old recipe and just replacing the sugar with Swerve or Stevia. Sometimes it takes a little more creativity, and other times, I can find new Keto recipes online and adjust to our taste.

I was a legitimate sugaraholic before I started Keto. I was one that had to have desserts after every meal. Once I started on something sweet, I had to finish it, even if I was completely full! Keto has helped with this sugar addiction tremendously. I still like sweet, but I don’t crave it like I did. We also keep sweets to a minimum so that the kids don’t expect something sweet after every meal. It is always a special treat!

When I say addiction, sugar is a real addiction! Did you know that sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine? In fact, sugar has almost the same molecular structure as cocaine. That is a pretty scary statistic knowing all the diseases that sugar causes and progresses. We will talk about this more, but sugar is BAD!!!!

I will no longer eat anything with sugar, but have substituted it with Swerve and Stevia. I am also going to try chicory root in the near future too! The following recipe uses Swerve. Some, like my family, love Swerve and cannot tell the difference. I have heard others say they experience an aftertaste. I do sometimes taste sweet on my tongue when I drink water after eating something that was made with this substitute. Overall, I think it is a great sweetener with no glycemic effect, no GMOs, and no digestive effects like Xylitol can have on some individuals. It is all natural made with Erythritol, and is diabetes friendly and gluten free. Another great component is that it measures just like sugar so you can use it in your old recipes when sugar is the only substitution needed. It is great for us Ketoers.

We will do a post soon on all sweeteners, but Swerve is my primary go-to. It can be purchased at Whole Foods, Sprouts, and other health food stores, or online. Even Amazon has it, and we have it in our Amazon store here. There are two different kinds. One is granular like white sugar (orange package), and the other is Confectioners Style (purple package) which is more like powdered sugar. I use Confectioners in this one.

The Granular is great for anything baked, but can get grainy when refrigerated.

That being said, any time I make something cold, I use the Confectioners Style.

Without further ado, here is a scrumptious recipe for you to try that is perfect for summer!

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars

Crust:

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 cup Honeyville almond flour

1/2 cup Swerve (Granular)

6 Tbsp butter, melted

Filling:

3 1/2 8 oz packages of Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup Swerve (Confectioners)

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

1/2 cup Key Lime juice (Yes, it makes a difference – this part is time consuming so take that into account)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9×13 pyrex baking dish with butter or coconut oil. Grease well!

Combine your almond flour, 1/2 cup of Swerve granular, cinnamon and melted butter. I use my hands to really combine well because it is a thick crust-like consistency.

Press all the crust evenly into your baking dish or use a mini muffin pan with liners to make mini cheesecakes.

Bake the crust for 8 to 10 minutes.

For the filling:

In a large mixing bowl, beat your room temperature cream cheese until soft and fluffy.

Add your cup of Swerve confectioners, and vanilla. Continue to beat until well combined. Add your eggs, one at a time, beating in between each. Add your lime juice slowly, while beating constantly. It should be fairly runny and smooth.

Pour the mixture over your baked crust. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until firm. (About 15-20 minutes for mini-muffins, but check because sizes can differ.) Cool completely, and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.

Cut and enjoy. Serve with Keto whipped cream if you desire for a super rich dessert.

Note: This crust is delicious, but can be crumbly so use a very sharp knife and a spatula to remove from dish.

Posted in Dessert, Health, recipe, Sugar, tips, Uncategorized tagged with addiction, cheesecake, Desset, keto, limes, sugar, Sugar substitute, Swerve

How Can Keto Help You?

Posted on May 16, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

As a follow up from Erin’s emotional post on her Cancer survival, I thought this article apropos to post. Erin gives so much credit to her survival of Cancer and continued remission to the Ketogenic diet. Erin also did traditional therapy, but the results were much faster because of Keto. So fast, in fact, that her doctor asked her what she was doing in addition to traditional therapy! We often wonder if Keto could have cured it all, but at 31, she needed to do everything humanly possible to get that disease as far away as possible – forever! So, we are definitely not saying to avoid traditional therapy, but we are saying that you can help yourself move towards faster healing by eliminating sugar from your diet because sugar feeds Cancer! As you will read in the article, a majority of Cancers have been proven to be metabolic diseases. All are not simply genetic, or a case of bad luck, as so many of us have been told and believed for quite some time.

How are metabolic diseases treated? Answer: Diet

If you have not already read our page entitled, “What is a Ketogenic Diet?” I encourage you to do so. While we often speak to Cancer, the Ketogenic Diet can be used to treat many other diseases and illnesses, and help you live a stronger, healthier and more fulfilled life. For instance, it reversed my pre-diabetic status, put my PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome symptoms at bay, and alleviated every bit of lower back pain I had from an injury I sustained while training for a marathon several years ago when I ruptured a disk.

This article is excellent in explaining how great the Keto diet is for most Cancers, and why we don’t hear more about it (hint…$$$).

I also encourage you to do your own research or talk to your doctor about how this type of lifestyle might be able to help you with your own ailments or even just living a healthier lifestyle. I will tell you; I have never felt better, been stronger, or had clearer skin in my entire life! I just wish I had learned about it sooner than a year and a half ago. I hope that it can help you too! Let us know how we can help you!

Posted with Love,

Cindy

From examiner.com:

In an exclusive interview, Dr. Seyfried discussed why the ketogenic diet has not been embraced by the medical community to treat cancer despite its proven track record both clinically and anecdotally.

“The reason why the ketogenic diet is not being prescribed to treat cancer is purely economical,” said Dr. Seyfried, author of Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. “Cancer is big business. There are more people making a living off cancer than there are dying of it.”

http://www.examiner.com/article/low-carb-ketogenic-diet-beats-chemo-for-most-cancers-says-dr-thomas-seyfried

Posted in articles, Cancer, tips, Uncategorized tagged with Diabetes, Diet, Disease, Joint Pain, keto, Ketogenic, Metabolic, PCOS, Seyfried, sugar, Therapy

Mars, Inc. Makes a Big Announcement!

Posted on May 11, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

Yes! You are reading correctly! We are talking about the candy company! You know..the one that makes M&M’s, Snickers, Twix and Skittles, along with numerous others?

They announced on May 7th that they are going to recommend to consumers to lower their added sugar intake to 10% or less of their daily caloric intake.

Check out this link:

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/maker-mms-supports-government-recommendation-people-limit-sugar-intake

Now, don’t get me wrong, we are not advising you to go out and buy a bunch of candy, or any candy for that matter!

We are, however, very excited that someone is listening! Sugar is bad! Very bad! It is responsible for many diseases, and we learn about more each day through more research and reading.

I am sure there are some ulterior motives to this announcement, but companies are realizing that they need to stay ahead of the game as more and more research and evidence is coming out about nutrition, health, and disease. Every company that makes it into the media urging consumers to consume less sugar is doing a public service!

Thanks, Mars, Inc. for making more noise about the need for consumers to consume less sugar! Every little bit helps!

Actual Mars Announcement:

http://www.mars.com/global/press-center/press-list/news-releases.aspx?SiteId=94&Id=6576

Posted in articles, Sugar, tips, Uncategorized tagged with Articles, Caloric Intake, Candy, Guidelines, Mars, sugar

Treatment, cancer, and sugar

Posted on May 1, 2015 by thesweetlifesugarfree

By now, most of you know that I am a cancer survivor. I have been in remission for 18 months now, but due to the advancement of my disease (Stage 4) my doctors would like me to stay on “maintenance treatment.” This means that every three weeks I am back in the treatment room, feet propped up in my chemo chair.

This is not my favorite place on the planet. But honestly, and this may sound a little crazy, I get a big dose of grateful every time alone with the drugs. I am grateful that I am still here, grateful that I get to watch my daughter grow, and grateful for the support that I have been given through the whole dang thing. It’s often referred to as a cancer journey, and that is incredibly true.

I am also annoyed. As I look around the treatment room, I see candy dishes, bags and bags of fast food, and even route 44 Sonic drinks. Let’s be real here. These things aren’t good for those healthy among us, and yet here, in a treatment room, they are the norm.

I’m sick of it.

I’m sick of what is not being said. I am sick of the knowledge not being shared. On occasion I see the loved one that honestly thinks they are doing the right thing when they bring in the egg white bagel sandwich with baked chips and a large diet coke. There are mini snickers on the nurses counter and meal replacement shakes (with the three ingredients after water being corn syrup, sugar, and vegetable oil) right next to them. It’s truly amazing the gobs and gobs of fruit juice and crackers consumed around me.

This is all SUGAR people, and we cancer patients are not being told to stay away from the stuff! Heck, from all obvious angles, we are being encouraged to consume it!

Let me go a little further.

Every six months I have to get a PET CT scan to look for any new or re-occurrence of cancer. The whole processes stresses me to the core, but let me tell you a little about the routine.

I am told to fast for 12 hours; dinner the night before should consist of no sugar or carbs, heavy on the protein.

After check-in the fun begins. I get called back for my injection, my power port is not accessed for this 🙁 and that syringe is full of radioactive glucose. Yup. Radioactive. Sugar.

Why glucose? Cancer loves the sugar stuff and will light up like a Christmas Tree when they stick me in the machine.

After the injection, I am placed in a tiny room, alone, to ponder life for about an hour. That gives the liquid time to fully saturate my body. After the timer dings, I get to hop into a tiny tube in my massive hospital gown.

The tube part doesn’t take long, and then I’m off to worry about the results for the next 24-48 hours until I hear from my doctor or nurse. The waiting is the hardest part. I’m incredibly impatient – I call as soon as that 24 hour mark hits, and pester and pester until I get those results. Then I know that I have made it another chunk of time. I know it means that I will get that much more time.

So lets think about this, and lets try not to get upset, or frustrated, or angry. In effort to see the cancer in the scan, science has found the best thing to do is FEED IT. What is Cancer’s favorite fuel?

SUGAR.

Why in the world then, are we patients not being told to stay as far away from the stuff as possible? Instead, we are only told to steer clear of sugar and carbs just before a scan.

Why are we not being told that cancer loves any and all sugar? Sugar is sugar! Be it fake, natural, naturally derived, or whatever else. Sugar is sugar, honey is sugar, fruit is mainly sugar, starches and grains are also sugar!

I have yet to have an oncologist tell me that diet matters. Yet, I know they have to be out there…

Believe it or not, I have been told that “these people” meaning cancer people, my people, don’t want to change their diets – it would just be too hard.

I have a very hard time believing that.

Everyone in this room is a fighter. Most of these folks have seen multiple doctors, shoved in countless tubes, have been treated like pin cushions and guinea pigs, and watched their reflection age like something out of a movie. At least give them the knowledge and the choice.

Cancer patients, their friends, and their families need to know, and we need to tell them. There is more they can do for themselves and their loved ones than just get chemo and pray.

Posted in Cancer, tips tagged with cancer, glucose, sugar, treatment