Just recently, on Friday night and nothing else to do, I turned on Netflix and of course found nothing worth watching. As I was scrolling through and endless sea of movies, I saw a documentary called Fed Up. I thought, “okay, this is snooze worthy. At this point all I needed was something other than a sleeping pill to put me to sleep”. I thought, okay, this will do it. Boy, was I wrong! This documentary, hosted by Katie Couric – so cute – is about the sugar industry and how it is making the world fat. This was a revelation. The documentary followed a few children and their parents as they struggled to lose weight. It was indeed a losing battle for many of them. Why?….They were all eating the wrong foods…..their food choices contained too much sugar. These people were not dining on pies, cookies and cakes, but foods that many of us think is okay, if we limit our portions….crackers, low fat chips, fat free salad dressings….FAT FREE DRESSINGS???!!!?? People FAT FREE = LOADED WITH PROCESS SUGAR TO MAKE IT TASTE GOOD.
Over the years, my internist and I have been going back and forth about how, I need to eat less and stay away from deserts and exercise more. He even had the nerve to say to me, “you can’t expect to lose weight while eating Snicker bars and drinking Cokes.” I’m like really Mother F@*%$#…..you are really going to insult my intelligence like that. Do you think I enjoy swallowing poison on a daily basis to reduce my blood pressure? Do you really think I feel good about my having a stomach that strongly resembles that of the Michelin Man? Come on dude, really?!?!?!? So I walked away thinking, okay it’s me. I am intended to get old and fat! Hell, no! Old maybe, but FAT!!! Hell to the no!
Back
to Netflix, after watching this documentary about just how much sugar is actually in the foods we consume, I was in shock. Have you ever noticed that on food labels, the percentage of sugar is not on the label? Why? Maybe because 75% of what makes the product is actually sugar. So, why not just buy sugar and a spoon and have at it? I was also in shock about how the body deals with sugar and the pressure it places on your liver and pancreas. I was devastated to learn that my food cravings having nothing really to do with will power but more with my addiction to sugar. Sugar addiction, according to the documentary is just as strong as cocaine addiction. The affects that sugar has on the brain is the same as that of cocaine. So, when we crave food we are not really craving food, we are craving the process sugars, the extra added sugar, the glucose, fructose, lactose, processed sugars that have been placed, hidden in our foods to make it taste good.
After watching this very informative program, I decided to make a change, make a commitment to end my addiction to sugar. To forgive myself for not knowing and not doing the research. Maybe now the pounds will come off, but now the struggle looks different. The exercise will feel different. I know I’m not fighting my body anymore, but an addiction. My goal is to be able to walk into my internist’s office and say, you know, I figure out you can’t lose weight eating low-fat salad dressings, reduced fat, artificially sweetened anything.
Watch this documentary on Netflix, or watch it on YouTube, watch it with a friend and take the challenge. What are your thoughts on sugar addiction?
Flashes and Lashes 