Massachusetts First

You are what you eat and drink, and I drink my organic coffee black, no sugar!

Hide your eyes if you don’t want me to enlighten you about how you are poisoning your body.

We all know that sugar increases our endorphins, the feel-good chemicals. It’s pleasant to envision your coffee with a sweet and creamy taste (which covers the rich taste of the coffee, hmm). I used to put a spoonful of sugar and a little milk in my coffee, but I became enlightened about the deficits of cane sugar and came to appreciate the lovely taste of black coffee.

A nutrition teacher told me, “Imagine every teaspoon of sugar like grains of sand in your bloodstream, leaving little scrapes and crevices all along your blood vessels.” 

This was the day I stopped taking my sugar intake for granted.

Your body is a genius and learns to repair these crevices like an expert plasterer, slapping a bit of cholesterol here and there to keep your vessels from splitting open. White processed cane sugar is a statin (cholesterol medication) manufacturer’s best friend.

We were taught that sugar is energy, and if we don’t burn those calories, we store them as fat. This omits a few key facts about how our bodies must produce insulin to process that sugar. And when our bodies can’t keep up with the insulin demand, we become insulin deficient and diabetic.

Sugar burns calories like a match, quick and high energy. Think of those overly excited children hyped up on Halloween candy, who then pass out hours later.  Fat burns calories slowly and evenly like a candle. Your brain needs fat to function. (Mad for Healthy Fat on another day’s rant!)

Even if you eat real, healthy food and don’t add white sugar to your diet, you are not completely sugar-free. But you are in a much better position to make the insulin your body needs.

Mad-pinion of other sweeteners:

Corn Syrup is genuinely the unhealthiest thing you can add to food.  AVOID!

Stevia does not cause an insulin spike like white sugar. Its powder form was billed as a savior until they over-processed it and ruined any benefits. Liquid Stevia is tolerable, and may provide other health benefits.

Agave: We love it. We hate it. We love it. We hate it. I jumped off this roller coaster. The jury is out on this, so research until you get the answer you want!

Honey should be used medicinally. Always use it at room temperature to maintain its health benefits. And try not to use a metal spoon. (Perhaps another article, Mad About Honey!)

Xylitol looks and tastes like ordinary sugar and is used in many chewing gums. I recommend the one made from birch bark. Introduce it slowly because it can cause bowel discomfort. It tastes naturally sweet with no aftertaste.

Xylitol is my choice for a straight-up sugar substitute or medicinally for a mouth rinse. It’s shown to have significant benefits for teeth and even your whole body.

***NEVER give Dogs Xylitol. It shuts down their liver.***

by Mad Hatter