Back in the 80s Fats were a food group that were totally demonised. Then when we discovered that low fat diets led to low testosterone, depression and a host of other problems the finger of blame for all of our dietary woes was pointed firmly in the direction of carbs. A whole new era of dietary demonization was born. You were fat not because you were stuffing your face past the point of satiety or were a gold medal contender in the couch potato Olympics, no man it was those pesky carbs.

Now that carbs have come back in favour , especially for those of us who engage in heavy , glycogen depleting resistance training , it’s time to find a new fall guy. That fall guy my friends is Sugar.
But is Sugar really the problem? That’s the question I would like to explore today so that we can all as a collective start to move beyond the demonization of food and food groups and into a world where we are more honest with ourselves.

“To thine own self be true,
and it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
William Shakespeare

If Bodies could talk…..

Well it turns out that bodies do actually talk. They talk to us all the time. Not however in words. Our bodies talk to us via feelings, perceptions and sensations. This process is called biofeedback or body awareness. As a highly sensitive and intuitive person I know without a doubt that my body is talking to me ALL of the time. It’s giving me feedback on the last meal I had, the workout I did yesterday, the hike I did on Sunday and the stress levels my client was pretending to hide on Tuesday.
If I misidentify and misapply the awareness my body is sending me or I don’t like the awareness my body is sending me then I might try to stuff this awareness or numb it out in some way. For the vast majority of people, especially in the western world, their lives are ruled by their heads; logic, strategy, goal setting, rationalising. However if you let the maniac upstairs rule your life then you have very little chance of ever mastering body awareness.

Why do people get sugar cravings?…….
The real reason people get sugar cravings has nothing to do with some inherent evil property of sugar. All carbs that you ingest break down into a variety of sugars (e.g. glucose, sucrose, maltose, and fructose). Including the carbs in your green smoothie! On a low carb diet? The body still produces sugars (in this case glucose) from the proteins you ingest or from your own muscle tissue. That’s how important sugar is in the body.

You may get cravings for several reasons. The following are but a sample:

Stress: If you are stressed one of the most common thing that happens is that you start to crave sugar. Ingesting sugars create a surge of insulin which mitigates high cortisol. What causes stress? Read this blog: What is Stress?

Toxicity: The modern world is highly toxic. Our livers are required to detoxify upwards of 800 chemicals a day. What do the vast majority of toxins do? They create disruption of the body’s homeostatic controls; the body’s attempt to keep everything on an even keel. One of those homeostatic controls is blood sugar regulation. If your blood sugar regulation is disturbed due to toxicity you can get CRAZY sugar cravings!

Malnutrition: Now I am not talking about starving babies in Africa here. I am talking about the average westerner trying to maintain a “healthy” diet. Even these folks end up with deficiencies. See: So You Think You Don’t Need Supplements . Deficiencies can cause real sugar cravings, again because the body is out of balance.

Glycogen depletion: If you have burned up that intermediary store of energy, glycogen, chances are you will get major carb or sugar cravings. The body is trying to communicate a need. Working with a biosignature practitioner can help you distinguish between true need for carbs/sugars and false need based on the other examples of cravings I have given here. Hint: As Charles Poliquin says; you have to earn your carbs!

Numbing out: The head trippers of the universe, aka those ruled by the maniac upstairs, have no interest in biofeedback or body awareness. Why should they? They get all the awareness they need by reading the latest book on how evil sugar is or by consulting the latest bio hack nerd who by the way knows more about your body than you! These slick marketing types make a whole living off that fact that you are ruled by the maniac upstairs. You see unlike the body the maniac upstairs is swayed by the appearance of science, logic, being on trend or even better maybe even the cutting edge!

The body tells you the truth ALL the time with the constant stream of feelings, perceptions and sensations it is sending you.
Many times those awareness’s it is sending you are very uncomfortable:

Example:
I have a presentation at work, I feel really anxious about it and I will eat a bar of chocolate to calm my anxiety.

I am way too busy to engage in Self Care as my schedule is bursting at the seams, I feel unloved and unvalued most of all by myself so the only comfort I get is in buying my favourite chocolate chip cookies and eating the whole bag. It gives me a sense of comfort I don’t give myself in other ways.

I feel really fearful about my security and my future due to the global crisis in the economy. I don’t want to feel those feelings or acknowledge them even though my body feels those feelings so I will just bake myself a “sugar free” cheese cake ( made with different kinds of sugars ; ) ) and eat the whole thing.

So you see folk’s sugar isn’t really the problem. Just like alcohol isn’t really the problem for the alcoholic or cigarettes aren’t really the problem for the smoker. You can become addicted to anything! People become addicted to exercise, work, other people, perfectionism. All of these addictions are a way to numb out the biofeedback or awareness your body is giving you all the time.

Perfectionism.

Perfectionism is just another word for low self-esteem. Those who don’t feel good about themselves either don’t bother trying or they swing to the other side of the coin and try to be perfect all the time. Eliminating sugar completely really stokes the flames of this dysfunctionalism. If you are suspicious that you’re still not good enough i.e Perfect you will be lured in by the marketing hype of those trying to sell you the t –totalism of sugar free living. How many people on the planet are walking around feeling shitty to the core about themselves? If the sales of sugar free cook books are anything to go by it’s a serious number of people.

Treating yourself to the odd slice of apple pie or ice cream for the shear hedonistic pleasure of it is good for the soul. For more on this read my blog: FOOD AS A DEFENCE AGAINST THIS REALITY. It turns out that seeking pleasure is an evolved pursuit. If you are fully present in your body and have access to your body awareness you will know when the time is right to indulge.

Those of us with an internal locus of control know that nothing outside of ourselves is greater than us so we have no need to fear anything.

Those with an external locus of control will sell their personal power to anyone with enough marketing savvy to pimp the latest fad.

Which camp are you in?

So you see sugar isn’t really the problem. Your lack of willingness to be aware is the real devil in disguise.

For information on metabolic typing and learning how to read your body’s biofeedback contact:
info@clarerooney.com
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