Much advice –
often conflicting – abounds about what comprises the healthiest diet. Eat less fat!
No, eat fewer carbohydrates! It
can be hard to sort out. In reality, the
percentage of protein, carbohydrates, and fats in our diets might vary
according to how active we are, whether we are trying to lose or gain weight,
and how our individual bodies react to various nutrients. The main thing that I see in common between valid
dietary recommendations is that they advocate getting away from processed
foods. In particular, all of us can
benefit from reducing the amount of refined sugar that we eat.
One unexpected
change I’ve experienced since my crash is that I don’t have nearly the sweet
tooth that I used to. (Maybe that’s the
one that was knocked out – ha.) In the
first few months after the crash, my body seemed to crave particularly healthy
foods. I think it knew what it needed, especially
as I continued to train and race while my jawbone healed. It’s not that I didn’t have a healthy diet
before, but some things that previously I might have eaten became pretty unappealing. For example, one day a coworker brought in a
box of store-bought pastries, and it practically turned my stomach just to look
at them. Eventually, I quit having such
visceral reactions. However, because my
desire for sweets really hasn’t returned, I’ve just kept riding that wave.
I used to
make dessert fairly often for Robert and me, but we’ve developed a new
habit. Just about every evening after
dinner, we have a cup of hot tea instead of dessert. Sometimes our tea is an herbal variety that
we drink straight. Other times it’s a
variety that I might doctor up with a little honey and cream, like Earl Grey. Earl Grey is my favorite! I told Robert that whenever I kick the
bucket, he’ll know that I’m really gone if I don’t respond to an IV of Earl
Grey tea.
And you know
what? I feel a lot better not eating so
much sugar; I never feel bloated anymore, and my weight doesn’t fluctuate as
much. Not only that, I’ve become more
and more convinced that sugar is toxic, at least in the quantities that
Americans typically consume.
The cover
story of the August 2013 issue of National
Geographic featured sugar. It was a
fascinating article that described both sugar’s role in world history and its
physical and mental effects on us humans.
We probably all learned in elementary school about the triangular trade
of the eighteenth century. European
countries colonized the New World primarily to grow sugar. Sugar then was shipped back to Europe for finished
goods. The finished goods were shipped
to Africa for more slaves, who were sent across the Atlantic Ocean to grow more
sugar. It’s pretty sobering to realize
that the slave trade came about largely to satisfy people’s craving for sugar.
Today, we Americans consume more sugar than
ever. More than 22 teaspoons of added
sugar per day to be exact. That’s 77
pounds per year, compared with 4 pounds per year for the average Englishman in
1700. Much research has been conducted
regarding the increased consumption of sugar and ever-increasing rates of
diabetes and obesity. One scientist made
quite an interesting observation in the National
Geographic article. It’s not that we
lie around on the sofa watching TV that causes us to eat lots of sugary
food. Because we eat lots of sugary
food, our energy is zapped, and so we lie around on the sofa watching TV. Food for thought…
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