July.
Sugar is bad for us.
We know this. It rots our
teeth, makes us fat, and turns us into mood-swinging slaves. I am a sugar addict. (Well, recovering now.)
In July I started seriously considering giving up refined
sugars after I read in a few places that white sugar and other processed sugars
can contribute to muscle pain and depression.
I have been dealing with chronic muscle pain in my upper
back for about 20 years. Over the
past year or so, I’ve tried all kinds of medical approaches to ameliorating the
pain: Anti-inflammatories, physical therapy, cortisone injections, a TENS unit,
anesthetic patches, traction. None
of these treatments did much good if any.
So, when the doctor was out of ideas, I decided it was time to jump into
the world of voluntary diet restrictions and give up refined sugars.
This promises to be a huge undertaking. Sugar is in just about everything you
can buy at the supermarket. A
refined-sugar-free diet requires a level of vigilance in the reading of
ingredients lists that I would never have dreamed of. To be successful in cutting out refined sugars, one will
need to cook mostly from scratch.
Even some canned beans contain sugar; that means that even a simple meal
of beans and rice is no longer so simple.
On one hand, there’s something really appealing about the
idea of cooking with only fresh vegetables and whole grains. But for me there is the hurdle of my
daily struggle with pain. Cooking
kills my back. All the standing at
the counter, chopping vegetables, washing dishes, and standing at the stove ignites
a fire in my shoulder blades that generally forces me to take long breaks in
between kitchen tasks to lie on the living room floor and whimper. Even shopping hurts.
So, for me, the first step in giving up refined sugars is to
think long and hard about it. This
isn’t merely an adjustment of the foods I eat. This promises to be a big challenge to my resolve, not just
in my eating, but in all my habits and routines from shopping to cooking to
socializing.
In the coming weeks, I hope to share this journey with you
in it’s many shades and angles.
We’ll see how it goes!
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