Andie Thueson » Wellness » Healthy Living » Detoxes » Is a Sugar Detox, Right For You?

Is a Sugar Detox, Right For You?

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Sugar seems to be in almost EVERYTHING and can wreak some serious havoc on your overall health – is it time for you to complete a sugar detox?

More Sugar, are You Kidding Me?!

Sugar is everywhere!

Sugar in pasta sauce, ketchup, BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, salad dressing, bread, hot dogs and hamburger? Hamburger??

Whoa, wait minute…  

Hot dogs now that is understandable. You got to do something to make them palatable. Seriously, even a top chef can’t serve that stuff plain. You need a couple, ok quite a few, tablespoons of sugar to turn meat scraps into a tasty dog.

But sugar on everything else, really? Everything?

I heard a news report saying that the American consumer was waking up, and taking notice that their food supply is being poisoned. That the American consumer was voting with their dollars and the food companies were shaken and making changes.

Really? The Standard American Diet is changing? I beg to differ.

I think it may be more accurate to say there have been ‘minor’ changes. But we are far from curbing our collective sweet-tooth. Yes, I say “we”. As in “we” the people. As in “we” the consumer. To be more specific “we” the men, the willing leaders of our homes and communities. Until “we” wake up, sadly it will be business as usual.

Remember Hostess?

Remember, the pale yellow oblong Styrofoam – like object injected with fake flavored whitish grease? And who can forget Ding Dongs? A card boardish hockey puck covered with a thin dark greasy layer filled with a burp of creamy chemical goo.

To every self-respecting conscious human, Hostess “going out of business” in 2012 made sense. The products were essentially void of nutrients and taste. But hearing the news of Hostess going out of business, a large number of American consumers rushed to the supermarket, pressing tear-streaked faces to the storefront window fearing their beloved Twinkies and Ding Dongs were all gone?

 

A year later the company was shaken alright. Shaken and stirred to realize that ‘we’ the consumer is madly addicted to sugar. And they made changes to continue business as usual, getting the “treats” back in stores and posting $650,000,000 dollars in revenue.

No, I don’t applaud their business prowess.

Or any food company that intentionally sells, no nutrient, sugar-laden garbage, banking not on the quality of their product, but that their shit will sell based on it’s addictive nature. 

That is called taking advantage of another person.

And to my mind food companies that intentionally formulate products that trick consumers into stepping off the ledge into addictive behavior, are morally wrong and should be criminally liable.

The blatant bad behavior of these companies is outrageous, but whining and legislating is not the answer. The fact is, these companies will cease to exist when ‘we’ the consumer wakes up. Specifically, ‘we’ the men who are the leaders of our families wake up. Look the companies are only half the problem. We the consumer are the other half. To my mind, a big part of “our problem” is men who are supposed to be leading their family to become their best, yet turn a blind eye on the issue of eating healthy.

Listening to women I hear all too often how husbands sabotage their efforts to eat healthily.

This may take the form of men teasing and joking when the mother of their children strives to prepare healthier foods. Undercutting her efforts by giving the kids treats and candy from his “secret stash” when she is away. Or sadly, men openly making fun of the dinner she prepared, leaving her sitting with the kids at the table, defying the rules she spends all day teaching, then walking into the living room to sit in front of the TV eating a box of sugar cereal out of a mixing bowl!

Can you imagine how fast our families would change if Dad came home and spoke of and showed his support of his wife’s efforts to prepare healthy meals?

Face the facts. The rise in childhood obesity is directly linked to our failing as fathers. Don’t even begin to blame these little children for eating all that sugary shit. They are not slobs who can’t stop eating cake. We are the parents. We are the ones who earned the money, went to the store, bought the poison, went home and gave them a hot dog on white bread with ketchup then feed them cookies, then handed them a pop to wash it down. We are their fathers. We can change. We must change.

A house divided will fall. A home divided over food issues will never stand. Men must get up to speed on the dangers of sugar and lead the changes that need to happen in our homes and community. Men we can do better. You may initially think the world is full of projects that need to be addressed, which puts eating healthy way down on the list.

Please consider that without our physical health we cannot think clearly or act in strength to make those changes. We must care for our wonderful bodies first, then we can reach out and lift another. We must make the first person we lift, our children.

Your children need Your example of good health, not weak jokes justifying family and social traditions that undermine health and wellbeing. Men, Fathers, you are here to protect your children. Protect them from the poison that is sugar. 

They are counting on You!! 

Start your Sugar Detox today 

  1.  Educate yourself on the dangers of sugar. Read –Pure White and Deadly by John Yudkin The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes (or any of a thousand great blogs on the subject)
  2. Take the Challenge to Cut your sugar consumption in half for the next 30 days.

 

 Kick off the Challenge by 

  • Realize Sugar is Sugar:  When you spot any of the following Pay Attention – cane, syrup, nectar, words ending in “-ose,” agave, or fruit juice concentrate are all forms of sugar. Going out to eat? Say hell no to glazed, honey-dipped, or sticky options.
  • Throw the sugar out: The more sugar you have the more you crave it. Throw out all sugary packaged food and drinks. In doubt, check the ingredients list rather than the sugar grams. Why? Because nutrition labels often don’t specify how much of a product’s sugar is added. But they do list the ingredients in order of how much is in the product. Ingredient amounts are listed from the greatest to the least amounts. In other words, if you read a label that says sugar is the second ingredient, that indicates A LOT of sugar is in the product.
  • Have a backup plan: Stash an emergency snack (like grapes, apple, blueberries, nuts or low-sugar Kind bar) in your bag,

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