When protein and fats are eaten, the first use by the body is for tissue repair and to manufacture cells, enzymes and proteins. In fact, these compounds must be metabolized into our cellular structure before they can be subsequently broken down and utilized for energy in the absence of carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates, on the other hand, are our only source of daily, easily accessible energy.

When consumed, carbohydrates are converted into simple sugars to provide a steady source of energy to all of our cells, especially in our brain. If one ingests carbohydrates in a whole natural form --organic fruits and vegetables -- the release of simple sugars takes many hours as they are bound up with fats, proteins, and cellulose. This then slows down the production and release of insulin to a normal and useable level reducing inflammation to natural levels that the body is designed to handle. When our carbohydrate supply is from refined sugars and carbohydrates (white flour) the body converts them rapidly (within minutes) into simple sugars. In this process abnormal amounts of insulin are required to appropriately manage the high levels of simple sugars ingested. Insulin is responsible for controlling the level of sugar in the blood that regulates the amount of sugar (delivered as glucose) throughout the body, subsequently storing the rest for future needs when readily available food energy sources are scarce.

The Body has Only Two Places it Can Store Excess Sugar: the Liver, as glycogen, or as fat
Yes, that’s right. The unused sugar is stored as fat and the hormone that does this is insulin, and the pancreas always releases insulin when one eats carbohydrates/sugar. Therefore, if you are not very physically active when you eat refined carbohydrates, you will store any excess as fat. Additionally, the consumption of refined carbohydrates, by definition, means you are not obtaining adequate minerals to maintain normal cellular functions especially those associated with sugar metabolism and management.

The Natural Human Desire for Sweet Foods
Historically, during the summer and fall months when food is plentiful, all animals strive to put on weight as fat reserves to sustain them through the lean months of winter and spring. Eating sweet foods is the natural way to do this as they have higher levels of easily accessible sugar that the body can convert to fat stores. If this isn’t done to a sufficient degree, the animal may perish when food is hard to find. During the winter months, sugar rich foods, in fact most foods in northern climates do not grow. Man instinctively followed this eating pattern of storing fat for lean times. Over time though, we have learned how to preserve food and store it over the winter months without having to store it on our body. In fact, we have now taken the art of packaging foods to a new level. We now just don’t preserve natural foods in their original state; we now blend many different kinds of foods together and deliver them in many unnatural ways. The next time you go to the market try to identify anything in a box, bag, can, or jar that has been preserved in its natural state. It is hard to do. Next though, try to find how many of these foods do not have sugar added. This is even harder to do. Why is this? The reason is that the packager knows that the sweetness of their product is triggering a basic human desire. The sugar will make you crave the product and stimulate you to buy it again. This increases sales of the product as it decreases the nutritional value for you, the consumer.

The packaging of foods today is not to accommodate the consumer through the lean times of winter. It is for convenience to the consumer at any time of the year and to make money for the manufacturer by increasing sales. Manufacturing packaged food has become a very lucrative and competitive business that often forsakes the health of the individual in exchange for profit. In the process consumers are paying exorbitant prices for foodstuffs designed to save a few minutes of time and provide increased shelf life so that we do not have to shop as often as we would were we eating fresh whole foods. These time savers contain excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates (and unhealthy additives, stabilizers, dyes, etc.) that stimulate our sweetness senses and keep us coming back for more. Without the minerals in these packaged refined foods, as well as other natural compounds which are delivered by nature to properly manage sugar, we become susceptible to most of the health problems that our society is currently experiencing.

How to Overcome Your Basic Desire for Sweet Foods
When I was young I acquired a taste for iced tea and drank it daily in the summer months. I would always load it up with sugar. One day my father asked why I put sugar in my tea. I told him it made it taste good. He asked me to try the natural flavor of the tea without sugar. I did so, and to my surprise I liked the natural flavor of the tea. I can’t say that I was converted at that point to go natural with everything I ate, but the concept was logged into my consciousness. Why do we need to sweeten everything we eat? Is it because nothing in its natural state tastes good? Or, have we been programmed to think sweetness is the only taste that is truly satisfying because sugar has been increasingly added to most packaged foods? It is interesting that if you stop eating sugar laden foods you will acquire a more refined palate and when you eat something sweetened your tolerance will be diminished. Sweetened foods will seem to be too sweet.

To do this you must read all labels to avoid the hidden sugars in everything from potato chips to breaded fish. An effective way to begin weaning yourself from sugar is to experiment with healthy sugar substitutes such as xlitol, agave nectar or stevia. These sweeteners have a much lower glycemic index. This means they do not convert as rapidly as simple sugars.

We need to ask ourselves if the food we are eating is naturally sweet and if not, is it truly any good for us if the only way it is palatable is by adding sugar. We also must ask ourselves if the food we are eating is whole or have parts of it been removed by man. It is always optimum to consume foods in their whole state so that we have all of the nutrients nature provided to digest and utilize the nutrients it contains. This is the way we have evolved over the last many thousands of years we have been on this planet. It has only been maybe 100 years that mankind has had access to the commodity of sugar at very cheap prices. It has only been during this time that so many of the maladies we currently experience have begun to manifest themselves. This is not accidental. A majority of our current health issues experienced today are a direct result of an over consumption of refined sugar and white flour. If you are tempted to eat a food which is not whole, ask yourself if you are eating to nourish your body and quench hunger or are you just satisfying a psychological need for a particular taste sensation - notably the taste of sweetness. In order to stay healthy and vital in our current environment a discriminating knowledge of what we put in our bodies is crucial.

In good health,
 
Rick Wagner