If you pay any attention to mainstream medicine and media, I'm sure you know that all sugar is created EVIL!
Anything sugary that you put into your body - whether it's a slice of pound cake or a slice of a peach - is bad for you. It spikes your blood sugar, causes Diabetes, makes your children go nuts, increases belly fat, on and on...
But this hatred of all things sweet is not just limited to the cooked food world.
Most raw foodists are very wary of the sweet stuff and shun eating more than a piece or two of fruit a day. Some even eliminate fruit altogether, for fear of Candida overgrowth and fermentation in the intestines
In fact, the most sugar-bashing I have seen has come from RAW FOODISTS!
But is this really true? Is all sugar really created equal and, therefore...evil?!
We Have a Sweet Tooth for a Reason
How many times have you heard someone claim they have a "sweet tooth"?
How many times have you finished a big starchy, meaty cooked meal and wanted nothing more than a big bowl of ice cream or a piece of chocolate to truly satisfy you?
In my cooked food days, a meal was never complete if I didn't finish off with a cookie, candy, or pastry...or two.;)
There's a reason for this sweet obsession and the reason is clear: humans need sugar!
Just look at the way your body processes food. Every single thing you eat - carbohydrate, protein or even fat - is broken down into sugar (glucose).
This is the only way your cells can utilize the food for fuel.
So...if our cells must break everything down into glucose anyway, wouldn't it be efficient and make sense to eat food that is already in this form?
And wouldn't it be even MORE efficient and make MORE sense to get this sugar from a healthy, whole, easy-to-digest source?
But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Refined Sugar vs. Fresh Fruit
Of course, you can't just eat ANY ole' sugary substance and become a beacon of health. Unlike what modern medicine, media, and mainstream raw foodists will have you believe, all sugar is NOT the same.
I'm the first to admit that junky, empty calorie, processed and packaged foods like breakfast cereal, candy bars and fruit gummies are NOT healthy and contain little to no nutritional value whatsoever.
But these foods are not unhealthy because they contain simple sugars glucose and fructose. They are unhealthy because they contain *refined* sugars!
Even the so-called "natural" products containing "natural fruit flavors" are still completely refined. They contain nothing more than the concentrated sweetness of the whole, raw ingredient they are meant to resemble.
Fresh fruit, on the other hand, is well...fresh! When you eat whole, ripe fruit, you are getting all of the simple sugars completely unprocessed, along with the oh-so vital water, fiber, and other necessary nutrients.
No refined sugar. No nutrient damage. No preservatives.
Yet another problem only tied to *processed* sugar products? Many of them are quite fatty. Just look at some of the ingredients in America's favorite dessert dishes:
- Apple pie - granulated sugar, butter (100% fat), eggs (63% fat)
- Brownies - granulated sugar, butter, eggs
- Chocolate chip cookies - granulated sugar, butter, eggs
Are you seeing a pattern?
When eating these foods, you get a double whammy: nutrionally-ruined refined sugar AND copious amounts of fat!
And I'm sure I don't have to tell you the problem with eating a diet even moderately high in fat...
And eating this fat with copious amounts of sugar?! Oh man, that's just *begging* for trouble!;)
Ditch the Processed Desserts, Go for the Gold (Apple)
Moral of today's story? All sugar is clearly NOT created equal OR evil!
When it comes to refined sweets, most people have it right. Processed sugary foods provide nutritionally deficient calories and hold no place in a healthy diet.
But when it comes to WHOLE, RIPE, RAW sweets, ignore the hype and use your better judgment. Our species thrives on simple sugars and the best way to give your body what it needs is to eat a diet high in delicious and nutritious fruit!
Go raw and be fit,
Swayze
