Sugar

Epidemic of obesity continues despite all the public efforts. The simple reason is that obesity is a disease and not just what people do to themselves.  It  is genetic and environmental, meaning that you get it if you're prone to sugar intolerance and you still use the sugar.  Once you are addicted, it is hard to stop it.  Just like other addictions (tobacco, alcohol, hard core drugs) it gets worse with stress.   Obesity is the mother of variety of other problems, like diabetes, heart disease, joint problems, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and many others.  Once obesity develops it’s very hard to treat it, (though there is some progress with new medications) it is hard to lose weight and even harder to maintain the lost weight. We need to concentrate  on prevention of obesity and its ramifications.   Start from the baby in the mother’s womb, children, youth and the rest of us.

Parents can play very important in influencing their children's health habits. Unfortunately most of them influenced them in the wrong way if children are given soda at home or sweetened juices and quickly  get used to the sweet taste and develop an early addiction to it.  Regular sugar consumption eventually is going to turn into some kind of a medical problem.

For practical purposes, there is not a lot of difference between sugar and heroin; both are derived from natural plants and sugar from sugarcane or sugar beets as 90% of the nutrients are discarded to form the crystalized sugar. Heroin as you know is derived from opium poppy seeds. Both sugar and heroin are causing craving, addiction withdrawal and dependence.  As a matter of fact sugar addiction costs a lot more deaths in United States -about 300,000 per year compared to heroin that is about 600 per year.

"Want to eat something sweet" is a sound coming of the tired brain. Would a piece of dark chocolate do it?  Not always! 

Just because diet drinks are calorie free does not mean that those are risk free.  Zero cal can seem good but artificial sweeteners are bad for people.    When person is eating diet foods, they think that they're consuming fewer calories

and as a result the give themselves an opportunity to eat more. The artificial sweeteners confuse the brain and a person eats more. 

So, what is the solution?

Read the labels; avoid anything when sugar is one of the first ingredients.  Eat honey in small amounts, seasonal fruits and dark chocolate when you “crave” sweets. And, baklava on a rare occasion. By the way, the real baklava is sugar free, the sweetness comes from honey.