I kind of always knew that sugar and I had a dysfunctional relationship. I could always tell when we spent too much time together, because after I ate it, I just didn’t feel all that great. I enjoyed it at the moment but later I was sluggish and tired. My joints got achy. My skin got itchy, my face returned to teenage zits that popped up and many times I got a cold sore. Now I think, duhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
Until I met Dr. Jack I never understood why. But if there is one thing Dr. Jack is? He is the best teacher! It’s Easter time and who doesn’t want a bite of chocolate? I used to love peanut butter eggs, or anything with coconut or nuts. Yummmmm… Although as a funny side note, anyone who ever bought me chocolate knows I don’t eat cute chocolate figures. My mom and dad could buy my siblings a cute bunny but I got ugly stuff because I can’t break off the cute bunny’s ears and eat them. Ask them about the chocolate Snoopy dog that was in our fridge for five years…I digress because what used to be my sluggish brain now charges a million thoughts at a time! Lol …back to the point!
We actually were not raised on overly sugared foods and to date my brother, sister and I still prefer less sugared, homemade baked treats. I was never one who wanted the end piece of birthday cake and I much preferred a piece of more fruited pie than anything with frosting. But the issue is the same. It’s sugar.
When I started working with Dr. Jack, he explained some facts to me. Sugar is sugar. It doesn’t really matter much where it comes from. He told me once how people give their kids cereal, sugar, fruit, sugar, milk, sugar, and juice sugar for breakfast…..yikes….And he told me how the standard American diet is loaded with it. I didn’t think I consumed all that much sugar until I stopped to think about what I used to eat, reading a few labels, and started realizing that all these “great choices” I had made were filled with sugar or were foods that turned to sugar in my bloodstream. I always thought I was doing so great, but in reality, I was hurting myself and making my disease worse!
I started doing research so I could understand the whole thing better and in a nutshell, it goes that Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune disorder. You want to get rid of it? Then you have to stop aggravating your body to the point that it causes immune responses. What are immune responses? All those things I mentioned that happened to me were immune responses I didn’t recognize. So what causes immune responses? Cellular inflammation does. What aggravates your little cells so that they make those reactions? Lots of things like stress and…….. Sugar.
The American Arthritis Foundation…
It may be hard to resist desserts, pastries, chocolate bars, sodas, even fruit juices. However, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition warns that processed sugars trigger the release of inflammatory messengers called cytokines. Sugar goes by many names so look out for any word ending in “ose,” e.g. fructose or sucrose for example.
So where do you see those words? On all kinds of foods and especially processed foods. Sugar puts your immune system on high alert. And what’s going to get healed while that is going on? Absolutely nothing! It can’t heal when it’s busy doing other things.
Dr. Jack told me right from the beginning that sugar had to go if I was going to heal my poor little cell membranes. Was that easy? Absolutely……. not! But it can be done. I didn’t realize all the foods it was in and I especially didn’t realize how addictive it is. The first weeks it was hard. I would see it and want it. But as weeks went on, it got easier.
Now? I am afraid of it. I worry that if I had a little, then I might want more. I worry that it will cause things I have worked so hard to fix become a problem again. I am way too far down the road of happy and healthy to risk it all for an M&M. Besides I would rather fill up on a great meal than wolf down a minute candy bar. Dr. Jack and I have worked way too hard on curing all my crazy symptoms to go backwards now.
So keep the cute chocolate rabbit, and pass me some yummy vegetables that makes my little cells scream, “Thanks, Chris!!”
Happy Easter!!