Madhura - The Sweet Taste
The photo for this article. Don't you just want to sink your teeth into those soft, fluffy donuts? An occasional treat like this is one thing, but eating these types of food daily, weekly, or even monthly, can have a negative effect on our long-term health. We see these things all the time, I am not trying to tempt us. Fact is, we will be tempted. We can go barely go anywhere without seeing hundreds of products like these all making us rethink our health goals, even if for a moment.
I have talked myself out of my vision many times. Oh you know the excuses - "I've had a hard day." "I've been good all week." "I am thin, I can afford it." "Sugar is not THAT bad for you." "I'll do better tomorrow." The classic - "Everybody's doing it." "My great grandmother lived ‘till 90 and she ate this stuff all the time." I could keep going but that should suffice. Let me remind myself, my great grandmother who did live until 90, lived the last part of her years with Alzheimer's Disease. She didn't remember anyone. She even forgot who she was.
We are told from a young age that sugar gives us energy. In our older years, we may find ourselves giving children sugar-filled cookies and the like without regard for its negative consequences (stomach aches and hyperactivity). Then when we get older, we are told we have diabetes and must abstain from all the "sweet" things in life. We learn very early on that sugar tastes delicious and most of us also learn that too much-refined sugar is not healthy for us. Sweetness is in our taste buds. Our first food, mother's milk, is sweet. Sweet tooth is not the problem. Refined sugar sweet tooth is.
Refined sugar has been the greatest crutch in my entire food habits and the greatest change I am making today for a healthier body and mind, again. Yes, again. I get on the wagon, then I get off. I get on again, then I get off. I know someone out there will be encouraged to hear my personal struggle with sugar and how today, plate by plate, I am learning to make better choices for my life and for my family. We only have one life to live where we can make a difference and I want to live it with strength and self-control, not with weakness and overindulgence. To the best of what is within our control, we should want to strive to grow up healthy and strong. It begins with our plate of food and of course, a little knowledge goes a long way.
Refined sugar, or poison as it is sometimes referred to because of its ability to actually cause disease and create an unnatural reaction in the body, really does have a large impact on our immediate and long term health. According to Ayurvedic science, refined sugar is difficult for the body to digest, creates ama in the dhatus or tissues of the body, and leads to disease. Refined sugar is processed as a toxin in the body, not as food. My Ayurvedic practitioner and teacher, Myra Lewin, says she avoids refined sugar like the plague and has so for over 30 years. She is a beauty and fresh breath of air. Most of all, she has learned that it is better to feel good in her body than to eat refined sugar or sugary foods. Anxiety and depression both have a close link to the overconsumption of refined sugar as well. But when the temptation is real, it is very easy to make refined sugar seem like no big deal and that is probably because most of everyone consumes it and we have learned that it’s just part of our daily diet. Most would say that you don't have to cut it out completely and it can be consumed as part of a healthy diet. At least that is what dietetics teaches. I stand to believe otherwise. Would you give a heroin addict "just a little?" The truth is, we do not need refined sugar, and everything our body does need can be found in nature, unprocessed, and simply prepared. It is of great value to remove sugary foods and refined sugar from our diet.
I have consumed refined sugar long enough to know what it does to me. I grew up on everything from sugary processed cereals, to muffins, cakes, gummy snacks, soda, and anything else you can think of that is full of refined sugar. Even as a child I remember feeling very unwell with definite stomach aches after consuming pastries and sugary cappuccinos. I would search for a seat at all times to get some sort of momentary relief. If I couldn't find one, you would find me hunched over while standing. As an adult, I have noticed every time I consumed processed, refined sugar my heart rate would increase rather quickly, and if I ate too much of it, I would start getting a hot feeling in my head and feel anxiety. My restless leg (body) syndrome would get so intolerable, to the point of wanting to cut my own limbs off. Consuming refined sugar always has left me feeling weak, mentally unclear, added to feelings of irritability and depression, and has always increased my stomach aches almost immediately after consumption, something I have struggled with my entire childhood into adulthood. It is a wonder that I have kept consuming and baking with it.
Since the birth of my son almost 8 years ago, I have become more serious about my health and the health of my family. I made the choice to change my eating habits. I can even say I have gone a week without refined sugar, several months without refined sugar or sugary foods, and as soon as I would consume it again, all of the symptoms I just shared would immediately come back. This tells me something. How you feel 15-20 minutes after eating anything, will tell you a lot about how that particular food agrees or disagrees with your body. So pay close attention.
Sometimes we just need to read about something and hear the facts just once more to be encouraged or re-encouraged on the right path. Sometimes we just need to hear what we already know to be true, in order to get the courage to choose the right way, once again. We all know refined sugar is not healthy for us, but do we understand the implications it really has on our body and mind when we consume it, or when our children consume it.
Numerous studies have been conducted regarding refined sugar and its qualities, or lack thereof, and the effects it has on our body. I know for me, I have to hear it once more, twice more, a few times more. I need to hear the alarms of it, once again. I need to hear testimonies of persons who it has really affected. I need to hear of diseases that are linked with sugar. Then I will be encouraged once again on the path. The world has its way of making harmful things seem not harmful. We can know better.
The sugar we are speaking of here is largely the refined sugar of our day, raw cane, beet, or corn sugar that has been processed and stripped of everything good it ever was. This includes organic sugar. Just because it's organic doesn't mean it's good for you. It just means no sprayed pesticides and non-GMO. I was a sugar addict. Unknowingly. It seemed normal to me to consume it just as I always had and just as I seen others do. Just as a person is addicted to prescription drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, or street drugs, my body was addicted to sugar. My body craved it, wanted it, needed it, and I would find every excuse to have it, even hiding to consume a little in regret. I have now learned that overproduction of yeast in the body lives off of sugars we consume, even the natural forming sugars in fruit will allow the overgrowth of yeast to survive, but I believe that my problem goes back to all of the refined sugar and was a cause of my need for it. I am going to share with you some facts about sugar that I hope will encourage us to limit how much we and our families consume.
First of all, it’s everywhere processed food is. That is, anything that has not been pulled from the ground or killed. Some of the items found in many homes that have sugar include cereal, muffins, “nutrition” bars and drinks, condiments such as ketchup, chips, yogurt, “fruit” juice, infant formula, cheese, and well, gummy snacks. This is obviously not a complete list but shows a range. Refined sugar as we know it, tastes good but is not good for us. It hypes us up, as we all should know. There is so much to say about sugar and many books have been written about it and thousands of experiments conducted by scientists that could be read but my purpose here is to break it all down for us in layman’s terms. I do encourage us to continue reading more about refined sugar and its effects. Let’s just take a quick synopsis of things we already have heard and maybe some things we didn’t know about it. All of these facts have been concluded by research. Still, in the midst of research, experience gives us the most valuable information.
Refined sugar…
May be feeding cancer cells when consumed in large quantities over a long period of time.
Can trigger weight gain by forming fatty acids in areas of our body (dimple thighs) when the liver has overconsumption of sugar and has no need for it.
Can weaken bodily organs, such as the heart and kidneys, when the fatty acids have nowhere else to go and thus can lead to chronic diseases such as heart, liver, and kidney disease, as well as increasing the likelihood of a "fatty heart" and a "fatty liver"
Can promote premature aging and wrinkles as it draws water from the body.
Contrary to popular belief, fat does not make one fat per se, but overconsumption of refined sugar does.
Can create an acidic environment in the body, a cause of many diseases such as cancer and osteoporosis.
Can cause brain function impairment; sugar has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
Can cause immune function weakness.
Can cause tissue growth impairment.
Can cause abnormal blood pressure and diabetes
Major factor in dental decay.
Can raise cholesterol (yes, and we thought meat was the only culprit).
Refined sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and the like, have all been depleted of its life forces (vitamins and minerals). After processing, and in many cases bleached white, what is left in this sugar is pure carbohydrates, something our body cannot utilize on its own without being present with vitamins and minerals. Incomplete carbohydrate metabolism leads to the formation of toxic metabolites such as pyruvic acid sugars containing 5 carbons instead of 12. This interferes with the respiration of our cells and if our cells do not get proper oxygen, they cannot survive and function normally. This is exactly what can happen in cancer as cells are being driven "crazy", and in Alzheimer’s disease and inflamed brain tissues. Essentially, it is primarily from the foods we eat over a long period of time, including the overconsumption of refined sugar. If it couldn’t get any worse than refined sugar not even adding one iota of good to our health, consuming it depletes our body of vital nutrients because it causes our body to take from itself in order to process the sugar properly. Sugar lacks the natural vitamins and minerals found in raw cane or beet sugar. Sugars occurring in nature, such as in an orange or a banana, is not refined or processed and comes packed with naturally occurring fiber which slows the absorption of the sugar, thus protecting our heart and our liver from being overloaded with the sugars too soon, and thus having to pump out abnormal amounts of insulin. Should we then think about adding "fiber" to our brownies? No. Modern brownies have refined sugar and carry with it all the health detriments discussed above. Fruits and vegetables can and should be consumed regularly and without hesitation, as they include a balanced array of essential vitamins and minerals that promote health and healing. Our body needs these foods found in nature to help daily cleanse and rebuild.
Dr. Serge Ahmed, a scientist with the University of Bordeaux in France conducted a study “Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward.” Quoted from journals.plos.org:
“Principal findings -
Here we report that when rats were allowed to choose mutually-exclusively between water sweetened with saccharin–an intense calorie-free sweetener–and intravenous cocaine–a highly addictive and harmful substance–the large majority of animals (94%) preferred the sweet taste of saccharin. The preference for saccharin was not attributable to its unnatural ability to induce sweetness without calories because the same preference was also observed with sucrose, a natural sugar. Finally, the preference for saccharin was not surmountable by increasing doses of cocaine and was observed despite either cocaine intoxication, sensitization or intake escalation–the latter being a hallmark of drug addiction.”
Very interesting. You can read more about the study on the site I noted above.
An Ayurvedic Perspective
Madhura is the sweet taste and is one of the six tastes noted in Ayurveda that should be part of every balanced meal. Madhura has earth and water elements. It is cooling, oily, pacifies vata and pitta dosha and increases kapha.
The sweet taste is natural to enjoy. It is the first taste of the 6 tastes, experienced by us when we are born, found in mother's milk. Sweet taste is also found in grains. Teaching our tastebuds to enjoy the sweet taste means learning to enjoy the sweet tastes found in nature. In moderation we can enjoiy raw, unprocessed honey, maple syrup, and jaggery to be excellent choices for sweeteners as they naturally come with protective antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. They should not be overindulged, however, as they can increase our overall consumption of sugars in our blood, and they should be added to other ingredients rather than straight into the mouth, as the other ingredients will help with the rate of absorption, especially if paired with protein, such as jaggery added to dal (lentils).
Our body is an amazing “machine” and it will always strive for homeostasis and will always attempt to evolve and survive on what it is given to function. Therefore, I believe that our body can be sensitized to the toxic effects of sugar and depending on other factors, such lifestyle and genetics, no one can say how truly long the body can put up with its damaging effects. This is why we cannot compare one persons long term health with another persons. We can only gain insight and strive to journey towards the road that shows most bodily health.
All sources of dietary sugar contain a mixture of glucose and fructose, even honey in its natural, unprocessed form. Our body runs on glucose for energy and this may be why our parents passed around the cookies when we were feeling lethargic. It works, but its not healthy. In vegetables, fruits, and complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, beans and peas, the natural, unprocessed sugars are mixed with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytonutrients and fiber, all which balance the metabolic effects of the (natural, unprocessed) sugars and is healthy for our bodily systems and skin.
Let me encourage us to not consume refined sugar on a daily basis. We are not losing anything when we say no to refined sugar and its treats, remember that. We are only gaining! We are gaining our health back, we may even lose a lot of unnecessary weight by this choice alone, we will be able to concentrate better and have more clarity, the self-control alone could lead to having self-control in other areas of our life, and most importantly, we are one step towards that extra cleansing energy and healing that will take place inside of our body and will be made visible on the outside.
Okay, so we may never miss the Ihop Anniversary 57 cent pancake stack, or skip the caramel popcorn on Fourth of July but let us not hinder our health through daily consumption of that which is noted to be detrimental to our longevity and health of our bodily system. Let us strive towards good health and be an example. I am human as well and of course I enjoy a slice of cheesecake like the rest but having a long term quality of life for myself and for my family is more important to me than that slice of cake. I can enjoy a juicy pear just as much and get the psychological benefit of knowing I am positively contributing to my long term health (and not having to deal with a stomach ache afterwards is a huge motivator for me!). Remember, we do not need refined sugar to live or have energy; actually it is quite the opposite. We are better off without it, as nature’s foods provide our bodies with everything it needs to remain a strong machine. Nature provides all of the essential vitamins and minerals and active enzymes our body needs to cleanse, strengthen, and re-build itself from the inside out. Let me encourage us to desire that goodness from foods found in nature. I encourage us to take a two week sugar withdrawal and then see how we feel. It isn't about depriving ourselves. In fact, our tongues were designed to need and enjoy sweet tastes. Let us just improve the quality of our sweets and therefore nourish our body from the inside, out.
On this journey together,
Kari