Like heroin, cocaine and
caffeine, sugar is an addictive, destructive drug, yet we consume it daily in
everything from cigarettes to bread.
-William
Dufty, author of Sugar Blues.
Ahh,
sugar…the guilty pleasure for most. We try to savor it, and save it for only
bad days, special occasions, or an after dinner treat. Yet, it is in most
things we consume. We don’t think about sugar in terms of how much grams was in
the peanut butter and jelly sandwich we had for lunch, or how much was in the
juice we had just a few minutes ago. We typically think about sugar in terms of
what we see as indulgence such as cookies, biscuits, ice cream, chocolate, or
candy. As Americans we consume, on average 100 pounds of refined sugar a year.
The USDA recommends no more than 10 teaspoons, which means we are consuming
more than three times the recommended value!
For
a normal healthy person, too much sugar had led to weight gain, tooth decay,
gum disease, diabetes, elevated risk for cardiovascular disease and premature
aging.
The sugar story gets worse for pregnant women. During pregnancy,
sugar is rapidly absorbed into your blood and in order to regulate this sugar,
your body requires larger amounts of insulin, which is released by your
pancreas. If you are eating excessive or even moderate amounts of sugar, your
pancreas is going to have a difficult time keeping up. If your pancreas falls
short of its job, then your blood sugar levels stay elevated. This is a problem
even if you not develop full-blown gestational diabetes a.k.a insulin
intolerance.
According to the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), once a woman has had it, she
is at higher risk for getting it again during a future pregnancy and for
becoming diabetic later in life. Other problems that may occur include
preeclampsia, which is a serious medical condition affecting all organs of the
body. It may require that the baby be delivered early, and severe preeclampsia
can lead to seizures, kidney, or liver problems.
Another condition that can happen from too much refined sugar is
macrosomia; a condition where a baby grows excessively large due to a
constantly high level of maternal blood sugar. This condition can cause an
increased risk of birth complications such as shoulder dystocia. After the
delivery of the fetal head, the baby’s anterior shoulder gets stuck behind the
mother’s pubic bone, making delivery much harder. In addition, large babies of
mothers with elevated blood sugar levels also have a higher risk of childhood
obesity.
I understand as a pregnant woman, we want to be able to indulge after
all we are eating for too now. Women say pregnancy is the time to let their
hair down and really enjoy food. Enjoy if you will, but please be cautious
about the amount of sugar intake.
Sugar is addictive. It has the same effect of cocaine in our
body. Once sugar enters our body, it causes the release of a chemical called
dopamine, which controls our brain’s pleasure center. If you notice, even a
little piece makes you want more. Withdrawals from sugar can cause headaches,
mood swings, cravings, and fatigue. When sugar enters our body, our body
automatically depletes its own storage of minerals and enzymes to absorb the sucrose
(no nutritional value whatsoever). Sugar enters swiftly causing a peak in
energy, excitability, nervous tension, and hyperactivity. Then, just as swiftly
as it came, it exits in the same manner, leaving us fatigued, weary, exhausted,
and even in some cases depressed.
Lastly, sugar substitutes such as artificial sweeteners such as
saccharin (Sweet N’ Low), and aspartame
(Equal, NutraSweet), sucralose (Splenda) are not the best option. They all seem to be a good option, as it is just
as sweet, if not sweeter than sugar, contain no calories, and spike in insulin
BUT it is not better than ingesting the pesticide, DDT.
Just a short story on how Splenda is made to give you the big
picture. Splenda was a synthetic compound discovered in 1976 by British
scientists attempting to create a pesticide. It is made from a patented 5-step
process that subsidies three atoms of chlorine for three atoms of
hydrogen-oxygen, converting sugar into a fruto-galatose molecule. Which this
all means to say it that it is a chlorinated molecule, which is the basis for
DDT. Since this is not a natural molecule, our body doesn’t recognize it, and
doesn’t have the ability to process it, which is why it is zero calories. For
now it is to soon to tell the negative effects, but do you really want to be a
test subject while we wait?
So what is the solution? What can you do about cutting your sugar
habits? Without harming yourself and your baby? Here is the top 5 Tips.
Read your food labels, sugar can be disguised in canned
vegetables, peanut butter, bread, tomato sauce, cereals; and anything that ends
in rose, is bad.
Nourishing yourself with milder sweet foods such as corn,
carrots, onions, sweet potatoes in place of your craving of sugary processed
foods.
If you must use sugar, use a natural sweetener such as agave
nectar, brown rice syrup, honey, stevia, secant, molasses, vegetable glycerin,
date sugar, or maple sugar.
Eating a well-balanced diet and not eating to the point of
uncomfortably full, as this typically leads to wanting something “sweet” after.
Brushing your teeth religiously! Oral health is extremely
important during pregnancy and can prevent periodontal disease known to cause
premature delivery and birth defects.
If you are interested in delving deeper, the first 5 people to
contact me will get a complimentary health consultation, contact me at
fitnessbump.blogspot@gmail.com
Resources:
Rosenthal, Joshua, Integrative Nutrition.
http://pregnancy.amuchbetterway.com/sugar-and-pregnancy/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57407294/is-sugar-toxic/
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/eating-mindfully/201204/sugar-addiction
