Our life can be full of paradoxes, sometimes representing our collective way of turning our back on problems, and our approach to sugar addiction is one such area. We invest a great deal of time, work and resources (and with good reason) into the ongoing war on illegal drugs, and in an effort to try and get our population to stop smoking. Smoking is surely the biggest single addiction in our society, we are told and is directly linked, quite vocally so, to many serious illnesses. Quite surprisingly however, when it comes to sugar, almost nothing is discussed in the mainstream media about its ability to cause a powerful addiction, ticking away in the background of our lives – day by day, causing debilitating health issues in people everywhere.

Professionals in the field of holistic nutrition say that our diets should be balanced, and that we should cut out any ingredients which are commonly known to be counter-productive or potentially dangerous. Government nutrition experts however do little to point out the significant problems caused by our over reliance on sugar and how this rather simple and unassuming product can cause an addiction as bad as some of the items listed within restricted schedules.

Just as with every other addictive substance, refined sugar has next to no value at all for your body. Quite the opposite actually, as ingestion of this substance tends to leach away vitamins and minerals from your bloodstream to be metabolized. We can see quite an analogy between some of the most addictive and dangerous banned substances and our innocent act of eating or drinking sugar. Each has the consequence of creating an unnatural “high” and each can cause long-term organ damage over time.

When we choose to add sugar to foods or drinks or elect to consume processed items which are packed with simple sugars, then we’re choosing a quick boost energy and a feeling of satisfaction because of our “sweet tooth,” regardless of the subsequent crash we’re well aware of, and the conversion of the by-products into stored fat. While most of the illegal, scheduled drugs might be widely known to cause significant problems for our major organs, excessive use of simple sugar can lead to a pattern of repeated highs and lows of insulin production, which over a period of time, can lead to the onset of diabetes. All that stored fat will invariably lead to obesity and all the problems that condition brings with it.

When sugar was first introduced to our diet it was touted as the purest form of food and one which required very little in the way of preparation. It is this very simplicity that has undoubtedly caused simple and refined sugars to become one of the scourges of our modern diet. Drugs often represent the easy way out within any situation and sugar represents an easy, every day, “acceptable” fix.

In most instances, holistic health solutions focus our attention on eating a balanced, natural diet, leading a healthy lifestyle, exercising and avoiding any kind of excess. Moderating our sugar intake ranks very highly on a list of concerns and requires us to realize that our sugar addiction can be very damaging indeed.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,