Viewing Category: Tips, Tricks, Info & News

Check Out Sugar Stacks

May 07, 2009 • Comments (1)

I’m not sure who they are, but the people behind Sugar Stacks must hate corporate-pushed sugar addiction as much as I!

The website simply shows images of products along with a corresponding amount of sugar cubes representing the amount of sugar in that product, like so:

They’ve also started a new blog called Sugar Delirium that’s worth the read.

I find it interesting that the authors of the site have chosen to remain anonymous (at the time of this writing). Perhaps they’re worried that large corporations will come after them. It sounds like a movie, doesn’t it?

“Corporate hit men raid renegade anti-sugar group’s offices. Says anti-sugar propaganda website was damaging their credibility. The unsweet terrorists have been detained and are being water boarded with High Fructose Corn Syrup. Officials anticipate the terrorists will soon give up the password to their website so the sugar companies can erase the offending website.”

Posted on May 07, 2009 • Comments (1)

Monsanto Food Strong Arms Us Into A Genetically Modified Future

April 22, 2009 • Comments (0)

Future of Food

I just watched the movie, The Future of Food on Hulu.com. You can watch it too by clicking the link.

I recommend you watch it. Corporations are taking over the food chain and poisoning/polluting natural food growth. They’re not only genetically modifying foods but they’re patenting their brand of mutation and setting it free into nature and allowing it to destroy current forms of plant life! This is outrageous! Something must be done.

It makes me scared to eat! It makes me afraid to raise kids!

Please, at least watch the movie and then tell me that you’re not worried!

Posted on Apr 22, 2009 • Comments (0)

Common Trigger Foods

April 05, 2009 • Comments (47)

I have yet to meet someone who struggles with sugar that hasn’t got a trigger food. A trigger food is something that “triggers” your desire to eat uncontrollably. It’s a sweet that makes you want to binge. When you have a little, you want to eat nothing but that food until you can’t possibly consume another bite. Often people will eat so much of their trigger food that they’ll become sick and wonder why they ate so much.

Chocolate

Of the sugar-addicted people I’ve spoken with, the most common and universal trigger food is chocolate. Chocolate can be found everywhere and there’s a reason for it. Eating chocolate has been said to make you feel happy and experience the same feeling as being in love. People who love chocolate jokingly label themselves “chocoholics.” Are you a chocoholic? It is common that chocolate trigger foods come in a variety of shapes and sizes. For me it was chocolate chips, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate candy bars, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, etc.

Soda (diet)

Soda Some people’s trigger food is soda pop. On the Internet I found statistics saying that the average American drinks more than 53 gallons of carbonated soft drinks annually. Imagine having 53 gallons of soda in your house and it’s all you can drink for the next year. For some people that’s heaven. For some people it’s reality. I say it’s gross! Imagine trying to explain to your home insurance provider that you want to claim for a leak from a 53 gallon soda container! And diet soda is even worse. People drink it thinking they are avoiding the sugar. Well that may be true, you’re not drinking sugar but instead you are drinking chemical sweeteners that have been linked to health problems.

Coffee

Coffee Coffee is most certainly a trigger food. It’s often had with added sugar to sweeten the taste. Some people buy and drink several cups of coffee daily. If you purchase coffee from a specialty shop, you’re getting the caffeine high plus the sugar high. Flavored coffees have all kinds of sweet additives and chances are you’re getting some High Fructose Corn Syrup in there. It’s not called an “adult drink” for nothing. Who would give their kids a cup of coffee every morning? Nobody I know. But people will pour it into their own bodies at alarming rates.

Cigerettes

Cigarettes

Some smokers say that a meal isn’t complete without a cigarette afterwards. I knew someone who would have a cup of coffee and a cigarette for breakfast every morning—no food! Is that you? Did you know that sugar is a key ingredient in cigarettes? Who would think smoking was so sweet? Funny thing—when you get off sugar for some time, sweets look and taste gross. It’s very similar to when smokers quit smoking and they get grossed out by the smell of smoke.

Energy Drinks and Energy Bars

Energy Drinks Marketed as healthy alternatives to other forms of candy, these products are readily available in gyms, fitness centers, bike stores, department stores, convenience stores, and are often given out for free when you participate in a community race or bike ride. What you’re getting is a form of sweetened candy disguised at something healthy. With all that sugar, of course you get a burst of “aliveness” but it fades fast leaving you grabbing for more. Energy Bars

What Are Your Trigger Foods?

It’s rare that you will have just one trigger food. So how do you know if your favorite treat is a trigger food? If you are honest with yourself you probably already know. But if for some reason you’re not sure, try going without it for a month. If the very thought of doing that makes you cringe, you’ve probably already identified one of your sweet trigger foods!

Posted on Apr 05, 2009 • Comments (47)

Why Do You Keep Struggling With Sugar?

March 29, 2009 • Comments (1)

Swwet Squirrel Why do you keep struggling with sugar cravings? Why is it that you can make it for weeks without anything sweet and then one day you take it up again? Why is it that you keep thinking about sugar when you don’t have it?

I know why. You want to know why?

Because you’re an addict and you are addicted to sugar.

Some people laugh at this idea. Ha ha. Addicted to sugar.

Nobody would rob a bank to pay for drugs if it were in everything we ate and drank and could be purchased at the local convenience store for under a dollar.

People don’t rob banks to pay for their sugar habit because they don’t have to.

Sugar is everywhere and in everything.

So why is it that you can’t get it off your mind?

Because you’re addicted and large corporations know that. They have lots of money to make off your addiction.

Dealers go to play grounds and get kids high for free. Then they charge ‘em out the nose for drugs.

Companies give you sweets for free, or for dirt cheap. Then they sell you the stuff on every single street corner in America.

They lobby to move daylight savings time a few weeks later so that it’s still light on Halloween so that kids can go trick-or-treating and have positive experiences that surround candy.

Large companies aren’t the bad guys though. You’re part of those companies. You buy cookies for your lunch meetings and put bowls of candy in the waiting rooms.

We take our kids out for ice cream whenever they get good grades or win a game. Sweet cake is a standard part of our right-of-passage life rituals.

So that’s why you just can’t shake the sugar. It’s in everything. It’s given to you when you don’t want it and when you do. And when you don’t eat it, it’s still advertised everywhere.

I knew an alcoholic who had been clean and sober for over ten years. He was going through some stressful stuff and I was surprised when he said, “It took everything I had to keep myself from going to the bar today.”

But as a sugar addict I have a clue that addictions don’t go away, they get managed.

So stop asking yourself why you can’t shake the desire for sweets and start asking yourself how you’re going to manage your addiction.

Because you are an addict and it’s not funny.

We’re addicted to sugar. It’s an ongoing struggle that never goes away but it can be managed if you want to learn how to do so.

Posted on Mar 29, 2009 • Comments (1)

Quitting Sugar is Not ALL or NOTHING!

March 23, 2009 • Comments (3)

Why is it that most people who attempt to quit sugar fail? Because they’re attempting to quit sugar! That is, they are trying to stop themselves from doing something they love to do. And, quite often, they’re trying to do it alone with no support.

What happens? They make it several weeks, possibly several months, and then they get stressed out about something and go right back to bingeing on sweets. This is not uncommon and people shouldn’t feel badly about it if this happens.

Don’t feel badly, just start again!

Imagine if you stopped trying to talk the first time you mispronounced a word.

Imagine if you quit learning how to read when you came across a big word.

Imagine if you stopped going out because you once tripped and fell.

To Stop Being Sweet means to create a sustainable sugar abstinence plan. For some it means eating sweets once a week. For others (like me) it means eating sweets once a year.

Figure out what works for you. Doing so doesn’t happen quickly. There is no magic meal plan that will work for everyone. It’s up to YOU to figure it out.

Posted on Mar 23, 2009 • Comments (3)

10 Sugar-Free Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas

January 25, 2009 • Comments (1)

1. Go Out

Do something that requires spending time together. What’s more memorable, a box of candy or an evening listening to the symphony?

2. Surprise!

You’ve been talking about taking a class together, going to a casino together, or joining the gym together. Make a date and do it! Don’t tell your partner what’s going to happen and make sure the activity is something they love to do. Nothing ruins the evening like taking your sweetie to do something they really don’t want to be taking part in. If you’re making it a complete surprise, choose an activity that neither of you have ever done so you can share a new experience together.

3. Make Dinner

Take the time to whip up a nice meal, light candles, and rent that movie you’ve been wanting to watch. Shut off the phones, the pager, the Blackberry, and disconnect the Internet. The only sweetness there is the sweetness you create.

4. Give a Coupon Book

Make a coupon book with “foot rub, back rub, neck massage,” labels and make one an, “I’ll run out and get it right now with no questions asked,” card.

5. If You Must Buy Something…

...do something extra to make it more meaningful. If your partner has been pining away for that special thing that will make their life a little better, get it for them. Get an inscribed iPod and load it with love poems you wrote, read and recorded. If you get the store bought thing, make sure you have to climb a mountain or fight a band of Ninjas to purchase whatever you got.

6. Take Action, Make Time

A thoughtful, hand-made gift goes a long way. It says, “I am prepared and have been working on making you happy for a long time.” Make a card by hand, but don’t use one of those computer programs—that’s cheesy. Construction paper and glitter, good. Microsoft Word, bad. Make a video declaring your love and post it on YouTube.

7. Avoid Red Store-Bought Stuff

Nothing says, “I thought of you… on my way home while stopping at the supermarket,” like a box of chocolates in a red heart-shaped box. If you must buy at the store, (see #5) make it WOW!

8. The Weekend

Give a small gift on Valentine’s day and then whisk your sweetie away for the day or for the weekend. Stay at a small hotel and explore some little town two-to-three hours drive from where you live.

9. Flowers at Work

Getting flowers at work is a favorite for women and men. The recipient always feels special. If you send flowers, add a secret note that gives a hint to your surprise (see #2).

10. Combine Any Two (or more) Ideas

Give your partner flowers that hint at the dinner you’ve prepared and ends with you taking them away for the weekend while they listen to the love songs loaded on their brand new engraved iPod!

Posted on Jan 25, 2009 • Comments (1)

Making It Through The Holidays Sugar Free

December 25, 2008 • Comments (4)

Unless you stay home, prepare all the meals yourself and have a supportive family, it’s nearly impossible to remain sugar free during the holidays. Most people won’t even try to make it through December without eating sugar. After three years of avoiding sweets I still want to binge on chocolate desserts for the whole month. Especially being with my family.

I am not in my home this year; I am visiting my parents. The first gift I got was from my good-humored mother. This was on the night table in the guest bedroom.

Start Being Sweet

The label reads, “Start Being Sweet” and inside the bag are spoons coated in chocolate (stir them into anything hot to add chocolate flavor) and other sugary goodies. I honestly don’t know what else is in the bag because I haven’t looked. It’s too tempting!

She also made sweet desserts. The cheese cake? I already know just how good it tastes so I’m not missing anything by passing it up. The chocolate pecan pie? Let me tell you, it is good. But I didn’t eat any this year. My father purchased “sugar free” syrup—but it’s sweetened with sugar alcohols. I’d rather eat pure maple sugar but ended up eating the sugar alcohol maple (flavored) syrup. It was the lesser of two evils when compared to the High Fructose Corn Syrup maple flavored syrup. And yes, I ate pancakes. (They don’t make me want to binge and I don’t do it often.)

At the supermarket I saw that pure maple syrup sells for $7 to $10 dollars per jar compared to the fake stuff which sold for a $1.99. Skippy peanut butter was only $2.19. A smaller sized jar of all-natural peanut butter was over $4. High Fructose Corn Syrup laden bread was .99 cents a loaf while bread without HFCS (but still containing sugar) cost $3.99 for a smaller sized loaf. Eating well isn’t cheap.

Why was I at the store? I was purchasing apples and natural peanut butter. I’ve made it through the past several days by eating that plus cheese and crackers. The crackers contain sugar but so does everything else in the house. I’d literally have to buy a boat-load of groceries to stay sugar-free while visiting. There have been several requests for me to bake cookies but so far I have not done it because then I’ll be tempted to eat some. And this brings me to my point.

When you stop being sweet it isn’t all or nothing. To get through the holidays you must continue to avoid the refined sugars and especially the super sweet desserts. If you are struggling, eat your borderline replacement foods. You might also end up eating more than you usually eat. There’s no need to freak out about this. Just go slowly, take it one bite at a time, and avoid the urge to throw in the towel and postpone your unsweet habits. Hang in there! In less than a week everyone will want to stop being sweet with you and you will be light years ahead of them!

Posted on Dec 25, 2008 • Comments (4)

Stevia Receives GRAS Status in the United States

December 20, 2008 • Comments (3)

The FDA approved Stevia this week as GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe). This means that as soon as you finish reading this post you will start to see Stevia based sweeteners in products all over America.

Stevia is a plant which produces a sweeter-than-sugar flavor but with zero calories. It also doesn’t spike blood sugar. The plant itself cannot be trade marked or patented but companies have been extracting the sweet part of the plant and creating trade marked and patented brands of sweetener with which to sweeten foods and drinks. On its own, Stevia has a licorice after taste that many people find objectionable in their sweets—but the processed stuff eliminates that.

The major beverage companies, Coke and Pepsi, have been working on Stevia based drinks for years. During that time the FDA had banned Stevia in America from being sold as anything but a form of vitamin supplement. Coincidentally, the major beverage companies had product ready to sell on December 17, the day the FDA approved Stevia.

Everyone is happy. PETA is glad that Stevia no longer needs to be tested on animals. Stevia companies are free as their products are no longer limited in how and where they can be sold. And bakers are excited because this means they can purchase Stevia based sweetening products and use them in baking instead of sugar. Expect to see “natural” drinks and snacks sweetened with Truvia, PureVia, and any number of other Stevia based sweeteners in 2009.

I believe Stevia could be a good thing. I even invested in it (but not in the soda companies). However, I have yet to try Stevia and wonder if eating Stevia based sweets instead of sugar based junk food will help sugar addicts get off sugar. We’ll soon see. I’m going to get some Stevia sweetened products and review them. In fact, I might be able to get some and use it to make Christmas cookies.

Whatever happens, hopefully it’s for the best. Maybe in the future we’ll look back at this time and wonder how in the world anyone could have eaten so much sugar “back then” even though we knew it was so bad for us. Won’t that be the day!

Posted on Dec 20, 2008 • Comments (3)