If suicide is such a horrible idea, than why is it so damn delicious to do it?
We’re slowly killing ourselves in a variety of fun and exciting ways - by putting sugar in our mouths.
Who would have thought poison tastes so good.
Why do we love it so much?
Eating sugar goes far beyond being yummy, it makes us feel good.
Pleasurable things activate the reward centers in our brain. When activated, they feel wonderful. Refined sugar is a rock star at lighting up those centers. So much so, that science is finding sugar to have the same effects on us as some addictive, illegal drugs.
It also makes us feel loved, safe, and have a general sense of well being. By eating sugar, all of life’s little negatives go away.
But refined sugar is the ultimate trickster. It fools us by giving short term pleasure, then actually gives us long term pain. It slowly kills us.
Sugar. Is. Poison.
Sounds too dramatic?
Let’s look.
Refined sugar is not a required nutrient, so we don’t need it. Besides giving us short term energy as a simple carbohydrate, it has NO HEALTH BENEFITS.
Once it passes our tongues, it wreaks total havoc. Like scourging Vikings laying a town to waste. No offense to the Vikings, of course.
Sugar does this in many ways:
1-It causes weight gain. It’s not just the extra calories, it makes you feel hungrier so you eat more.
2-When you do gain weight, you put on the most unhealthy fat type possible.
3-Sugar is linked to heart disease(our #1 killer) and increases our chance of dying from it.
4-It’s heavily linked to type 2 diabetes.
5-Sugar causes systemic inflammation - the tell tale sign your body doesn’t want it.
6- Sugar is being linked to cancer in scientific research.
7- Eating sugar increases you’re risk for depression.
8- It makes us look older by aging our skin.
9- It keeps you on a energy roller coaster. The highs and lows are draining.
10- It actually makes all the cells in our bodies age faster!
11- It damages your liver.
12-It increases your risk for kidney disease.
13- We haven’t even mentioned teeth yet.
14- Refined sugar intake is being linked to cognitive decline and dementia. No freakin’ thank you.
15- Eating refined sugar slows down your immune system, and limits your ability to fight disease.
This list is far from complete, but you get the point.
There are few things in this world that improve the quality of your health, and how you feel, more than quitting sugar.
You may have a rough week or two. But as you live the positive benefits, you’ll start to see eating refined sugar just like smoking - very irresponsible.
Here’s an easy guide; if the sugar is naturally occurring in a whole food, it’s fine. If the sugar has been touched in any way before it gets to you, it’s not.
Eventually you won’t miss it at all. Your taste buds will get sensitive to naturally sweet things. The strawberry I ate the other day tasted like a Jolly Rancher.
The fastest way to live more - is to stop slowly killing ourselves.
Quitting refined sugar is a major first step.
But if you choose to stay on the death march of eating refined sugar, that’s fine.
Who are we to judge? Ahem.
Get strong as hell,
Coach Ken