Sweet PoisonWritten by Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed.
You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge as long as you follow my requirements. The entire byline at end of article must be included and content should be left unchanged. The actual url must be visible, not a link connected to unrelated words. The bio and url must be placed either directly above my article or directly below my article, not on a completely different page. The bio and url must be typed in a large enough font that it is clearly visible to eye. If you use article, please notify me with a copy of your publication or a url to where it can be found. For print publications, please contact me to discuss and to obtain US mailing address to send a courtesy copy. cynthiap@frognet.net Sweet Poison By Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed. What is most common addiction in our society today? Well you may be surprised to learn that it is sugar. That’s right, those pretty white crystals sitting on most people’s kitchen table. The average American consumes 32 teaspoons of sugar a day. Not only is it addictive, but this very common everyday product that is falsely believed to be harmless is responsible for many health problems we find in our society. There’s a very significant difference between white refined sugar and naturally occurring complex sugars that are found in whole foods. In this article we are speaking specifically of refined white sugar, or its cousins, other refined sugars, such as brown sugar, powdered sugar or raw sugar. White refined sugar is not a food. It is a chemical. It is an addictive drug. Yes, that’s right, an addictive drug and when you remove it from your diet you can experience withdrawal symptoms as excruciating and serious as alcohol withdrawal, including tremors, flu like symptoms, headaches, and mood swings so intense you would damn near kill for a chocolate bar. Some say it is as addictive as heroin. The biochemical make up of white sugar is almost identical to alcohol, except for one molecule. Refined white sugar is stripped of any nutritional value and is an empty calorie food. In addition to that, in order to be metabolized in body it has to draw from your vitamin and mineral reserves and therefore is responsible for depleting mineral and vitamin levels, which in itself creates numerous health problems. What is very sad and devastating is that sugar is an acceptable addiction. It’s not uncommon for people to know they have a sugar addiction and to make a joke of it. It’s not seen as a serious matter, when in reality it is very serious indeed.
| | Some words about anti-aging and disease preventionWritten by Knut Holt
The aging process is for greater part no mystery anymore. It consists for a great part of daily damages done on macroscopic, tissue, cellular and genetic levels. These add up as years are passing. These damages have specific causes like oxidating agents, sun beams, mechanical wear and tear, psychological stress, lack of some nutritional components and too much of others, like fat. Another component of aging is reduction of telomere chains at chromosome ends, as each cell division occurs. However, body has means to repair these ends again, with an enzyme called telomerase. The rapidity of aging process depends on lack of efficiency in this repair process. The above mention aging causes also slow down this repair process. The factors causing aging, also causes other diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease. Both aging and these diseases can in great extend be prevented with knowledge possessed today, and damages can in great extend be reversed. The components to achieve this are: -Adequate dayly food containing whole cereals, peas, beans, vegetables, fruit, fish, mushroms, fouls and seafood, and with just a moderate amount of red meat. -Just a moderate amount of fat and most of fat supply comming from sources like olive, fish, nuts, sun-flower, etc. Then you will get a good balance between mono-unsaturated fat (olive), poly-unsaturated fat of omaga-3-type (fish) and poly-unsaturated fat of omega-6-type.
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