More on the sugar connection...

I love experimenting with my own health, especially when the results are so resoundingly clear and positive!  I have kept sugar and white flour products out of my diet since I began this most recent experiment in November, and the good news is that I not only got rid of my aches and pains, but I lost 12 pounds, completely without effort. 

I'm not a doctor or a scientist -- I just do things with my health that make sense to me and observe the results.  One of the things I observed in this particular experiment with sugar is that I not only lost 12 pounds, I didn't gain it back over the winter this year.  I always crave sugary things in the winter, for some reason, and I have always gained five to ten pounds over the winter.  My cravings seem to diminish in the summer, and I lose the weight.  Since I'm not overweight anyway, I don't pay that much attention to it...I just attribute it to some latent hibernation instinct, laugh about it and live with it.  This year, I didn't crave sweets, and I didn't gain weight. 

The progress of my little experiment suggests a couple of things to me: 1) Sugar creates its own craving.  When I stay away from it altogether, I don't crave it, and 2) When presented with just healthy food items, my body has its own intelligence and finds and maintains a healthy, stable weight.

And here was more good news from my experiment: my blood glucose went down 50 points!  My cholesterol went down 25 points!  And my HDL (good) cholesterol went up 20 points.  Recent reading I am doing tells me that my yearly weight fluctuation was a  warning sign of the type of inflammation that can lead, in time, to diabetes, heart disease, cancer and dementia.  Indeed, my blood glucose was in the danger zone even though I wasn't overweight.  As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, and it appears the science confirms it, sugar-induced metabolic disruption (metabolic disorder and  pre-diabetes) is implicated in the development of the diseases that have become epidemic in our time. 

My experiment was based on an intuition I had, and it brought me great results.  In the meantime, I happened to see Dr. Mark Hyman on a WTTW fundraising drive program and was impressed with what he had to say so purchased his book, The Blood Sugar Solution, to read on my Kindle.  I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the most recent science related to health and nutrition -- and, by the way, weight loss.  I also appreciate a Plan he worked out with Saddleback Church in California: http://www.danielplan.com/.  Take a look -- perhaps its a program you'd like to initiate in your community.

Now I'm trying a new experiment.  My bone density is decreasing.  In part, I believe that's a natural process at a certain age, and I'm not getting too excited about it -- but I will also concede that lifestyle has an impact on that, and I want to do what I can to maintain optimal health, including bone strength.  My (former) doctor prescribed expensive bone pills.  I researched the pills and found the side effects and controversy surrounding these pills somewhat unsettling -- not to mention that I don't want to go down the road of loads of expensive pills as I get older. 

I read that dried plums (formerly known as prunes) have been demonstrated to increase bone density.  I researched it and found that tests have been conducted on both animals and humans, and there is a measureable increase in bone density at a certain "dosage," which I understand is about 10 prunes per day.  I hear the drug companies are working to come up with a prune concentrate (for which they can charge a bunch of money).  I think I'll just eat prunes.  They are delicious on my morning "cereal," a bowl of nuts and dried and fresh fruits with yoghurt and flaxseed.  I'll let you know what happens with this one!