Women and Sugar

[Earth Walker]

Did you ever stop to think about all the women you
know who have some sort of problem with their menses? Pain and cramps, headaches, backaches,
aching feet and legs, depression, constipation, diarrhea-
we have probably had them all at one time or another.
Our menses are a constant by which we check our health. If we are in optimum health, we will experience none of these symptoms. If you don't know anyone who goes through a painless menstrual period, that indicates
how many of us are not in good health.
So what does this have to do with sugar? Simply that
our health is built upon the foods that we eat.
Our bodies are made up of about forty known nutrients. If we eat whole foods, which contain all the known nutrients, then our bodies will have what they need to grow, repair tissue and bone, and maintain our
health. When we eat food that is only partially complete
because it has been refined and processed, its original
plant shape disguised and its original life energy
destroyed, we are not providing ourselves with all we need to remain healthy.
The longer we eat incomplete foods, the longer our bodies will lack the needed nutrients. We then fall into
a state of disease; we are missing some of the necessary links to the nutrient web. There are many
different diets and philosophies of food, but most
agree on some basic types of food we should eat daily
to insure that we get all we need.
We continue to need these nutrients all our lives.

[Earth Walker]

The greatest nutrient needs come at different phases of
life: when we are infants; as young children; at puberty;
as teenagers; when using contraceptive pills; during
pregnancy; while nursing an infant. There is another
time in our lives when we have greater nutrient needs,
and that is when we have our monthly menses. If we
haven't taken in all the necessary nutrients, this monthly
elimination will offset the equilibrium that our bodies have established, just enough that we experience how
many more nutrients we need than we are getting.
At each menses we eliminate blood and other waste from our body. Each month we have a chance to grow
and repair tissue, and we upset our balance the least
if we have all the necessary nutrients to make that
growth and repair work possible. One of the nutrients
needed in large quantity, to replace the monthly loss
of blood, is iron. Women need almost twice the amount
of iron that men do. The average diet in the U.S., and
Canada fails to provide women with enough iron.
It is standard practice to prescribe iron supplements
automatically to all pregnant women, the assumption
being that the woman would not possibly get what she
needs from her food. If you are eating white flour
products, refined grains, few vegetables of little variety,
some meat, some eggs, some cheese and lots of sugar
(usually in the form of soft drinks, sugar in coffee or tea,
candy, sweets and alcoholic drinks) you can be certain that you are NOT getting what your body needs to
maintain its health.

[Earth Walker]

When sugar is digested, it actually pulls other nutrients away from your body because it does not have its own nutrients to aid its digestion. Not only does sugar lack nutritive value and rob you of needed nutrients, it adds many unnecessary calories to your diet. Our bodies can handle only a limited number of calories--approximately
2000--a day. If most of our calories come from sugar and
from oils and fats, which have a disproportionate ratio
of calories to nutrients, then we are leaving very little
caloric room for the foods which contain the nutrients
we need daily.
We have to stop eating the patriarchy's factory food,
and return to eating the foods that women once knew
how to make. These foods were simple but delicious
because they were whole, live foods which fed and nourished. The less sugar and fat we eat, the more we open ourselves to eating foods that keep us whole.
Sugar was not a common food even fifty years ago.
Today it is so pervasive that if something isn't "sweet," we feel it "doesn't taste good."
Americans & Canadians now eat more sugar than ever
before--over two pounds each Per Week. We have let
the taste of sugar make us forgot other tastes.
Sugar has been proven to cause tooth decay. 98% of
all children in Canada & the U.S., today have tooth decay and over half the people in Canada & U.S., aged
fifty or older have no teeth. Sugar is a death-gift from
the patriarchy. Take the power of food back from the
food industry. Cut down now, and eventually eliminate
all sugar from your diet. Any change will take time, so
don't rush it--just do it. You will see what a difference
it makes in your ability to want to eat and enjoy a
greater variety of food. You will also feel better in many
ways. One method of cutting down on sugar intake is to
stop eating processed foods. Read the labels on things.
The ingredients are listed on the label in order by weight; if sugar is a primary ingredient, don't buy that food. Get to the point where you don't have to buy
canned or commercially manufactured food. You will thus
eliminate most of the empty calories in your diet.

[crystal_night]

I had no idea how much problem that sugars and processed foods caused a person. I grew up with my mother making almost everything and buying just the bare essentials to make the food she set on the table. At the time she had a lot of mouths to feed.
A few years before I left home she suddenly stopped these lovely home-cooked meals. Suddenly there was pizza from a box, soda in the can, chips, all this processed food that she was buying was replacing everything else.
Growing up I'd never had a weight problem. I'd always been one of those gangly kids that were all arms and legs, and as a teenager I didn't exercise much but still maintained a steady healthy weight.
It wasn't long after my mom introduced these foods into the household that I noticed that I started gaining weight. I'd exercise like crazy and the weight kept coming on. I could also probably blame most of my acne, cramps, irritable moods etc on this new diet also.
It's a hard thing to do to turn a person who gets used to this sort of 'junk food', or 'processed' diet back into a person with healthy eating habits-but it can be done.
Little over a year ago I quit soda cold turkey and started drinking ice water. Behold, the women I worked with saw me do it and followed my example. It's amazing how much weight a person can drop just by quiting soda and replacing it with water. From there I started introducing more healthy foods into my diet and am beginning a new lifestyle.
Also, being pregnant brought some other issues to my attention. Not only is it the sugar that is the culprit, but the salt as well. Just as sugar is in everything, salt is in everything. You always hear that you shouldn't eat salty foods while you are pregnant. It causes you to retain water and leads to swollen feet, ankles and legs. Well, guess what I have a problem with? Yep, achey, swollen feet, ankles and legs.
Look at the label on the back of that block of cheddar cheese and notice how much sodium is in 1 oz. Look on the label of that delicious apple juice and notice the sodium content. You see this and wonder exactly WHY your doctor tells you to eat cheese, drink juice etc etc. and then tells you to stay away from sodium. Doesn't HE read these labels?
The beginning of my pregnancy went quite well. I craved water, fruits and vegetables constantly. I couldn't get enough. Therefore for the first six months I didn't gain weight because I was eating healthy foods. It's just here in the last few weeks of my last trimester that I am being plagued with pesky pounds and swelling.
I should be counting my blessings that these problems waited this long to show up-but instead I'm raving mad that these 'healthy' foods are so deceiving.

[Mariposa De La Luna]

Oh My Goddess! Looks like its time for a diet change! seriously.

BTW some one at a herbal shop told me cow's milk formula was the cause of most ear infections in babies, soy formula caused thyroid problems in adults who had it as babies exclusively, and that pasturized cows milk is terrible and irf you wanted to be healthy drink unpastuerized goats milk. Does anyone know if this is true?

[Mairwen]

Speaking of the "salt thing", I've been on a salt-restricted diet my entire life ~ meaning, if it has it in it already (ie, processed food), no using the salt-shaker, as well as restricting the sodium to a certain amount per day/week. Watch labels claiming "fat free" or "low in fat" ~ because that means "high in salt". For example a food with 8 fat grams may contain 1100mg of sodium (I've seen it) ~ hey, without the fat, they have to preserve the food somehow.

As for the goat's milk, it's the healthiest thing you can drink, aside from pure, spring water. My mom was lactose intolerant and was raised on goat's milk. She has three healthy, adult children, and six healthy grandchildren. :D

[Earth Walker]

Originally posted by SAHM
Oh My Goddess! Looks like its time for a diet change! seriously.

BTW some one at a herbal shop told me cow's milk formula was the cause of most ear infections in babies, soy formula caused thyroid problems in adults who had it as babies exclusively, and that pasturized cows milk is terrible and irf you wanted to be healthy drink unpastuerized goats milk. Does anyone know if this is true?

Cows milk is not good to drink, as well as goats milk,
etc., and this has to do with the growth hormone
developed by Monsanto, and which is used quite
extensively by farmers.

[Earth Walker]

Genetically engineered foods have become widespread
in the Canadian and American diet in the last four years.
Consumers eat genetically engineered food in their
everyday diet, including: soy lecithin in chocolate bars,
soy milk, canola oil in margarine, mayonnaise and
baked products, corn starch, corn-based sweeteners in
soft drinks, corn, potato chips and french fries.
Milk, eggs and poultry are produced from animals fed
genetically engineered canola and soy meal and
genetically engineered corn.

[Mariposa De La Luna]

GE stuff is a whole conversation in itself. The problem is its kinda expensive to go grocery shopping at Whole Foods

[Maggie]

Originally posted by SAHM
Oh My Goddess! Looks like its time for a diet change! seriously.

BTW some one at a herbal shop told me cow's milk formula was the cause of most ear infections in babies, soy formula caused thyroid problems in adults who had it as babies exclusively, and that pasturized cows milk is terrible and irf you wanted to be healthy drink unpastuerized goats milk. Does anyone know if this is true?

Uh--having had kids, in my experience ear infections were due to upper respiratory infections or allergies with the mucus secretions blocking the short (in babies and toddlers) eustachion tubes. I wouldn't drink any raw milk, too easy to get a bacterial case of food poisoning from it. That's why cow's milk was pasturized in the first place. I have never heard the one about the soy before.

Maggie

[Tanna]

i could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure i've heard that sometime before you're in your double-digits your body changes and you can't get the good stuff out of milk anymore anyway.

:confused:

[Maggie]

Originally posted by Tanna
i could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure i've heard that sometime before you're in your double-digits your body changes and you can't get the good stuff out of milk anymore anyway.

:confused:

Sometimes. This is one of those things where ethnic background actually does have some influence. Some groups have more members who can drink milk as adults, others it's rare to find an adult without lactose intolerance as an adult.

Regards,

Maggie

[crystal_night]

I don't know if it has any relevance or not, but I've always despised the tast of milk. Since I got pregnant suddenly that has changed and some days I can sit down and drink two to three glasses at a time.
My mother-in-law told me once that the closest thing to human milk as you can get is mare's milk. That 'way-back-when', if a wet-nurse wasn't available when a mother had died during child-birth etc that they would milk a mare for the baby to drink.

[Maggie]

Originally posted by crystal_night
I don't know if it has any relevance or not, but I've always despised the tast of milk. Since I got pregnant suddenly that has changed and some days I can sit down and drink two to three glasses at a time.
My mother-in-law told me once that the closest thing to human milk as you can get is mare's milk. That 'way-back-when', if a wet-nurse wasn't available when a mother had died during child-birth etc that they would milk a mare for the baby to drink.

You better watch out for this baby--s/he is already expressing needs and wants! :)

I don't know about mares specifically, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Maggie

[Earth Walker]

The Detox Diet, by Elson M. Haas, M.D.

A clear, thorough guide to cleansing you body from
such toxins as sugar, caffeine, nicotine, and more.

:cool:

[crystal_night]

My husband and I are independent distributors of herbal products (I won't promote it on here so I'm not mentioning names). We have a thing called the 21 Day Cleanse and then there's always Aloe Juice which also cleanses and you can buy it at any health food store. I drink the Aloe Juice for upset stomach, sore throats and other ailments. It is also said to help with morning sickness.