Wisdom Wednesdays!!

Wednesdays are now dedicated to Wisdom. Knowledge is Power. The more you know the healthier you can become. I am not saying I am all knowing, but with my health issues I have researched and found some things to help me and my family become more healthy. And I would like to share them with you. I will also address any questions you might have, so feel free to ask away. I'm not saying I'll know the answer but I will do as much research as I can to help you with your question. Happy Learning!

Today I will address the subject people talk to me about all of the time, refined sugar. What is so bad about refined sugar and what are the substitutions for it? I will have to take up two Wednesdays to really address these questions on refined sugar. So before I really dive into this post 'A' on refined sugar, I want to say that 'moderation in all things' is the most important. No matter what kind of sweetener you use you shouldn't consume large portions of it, or even have it every day. You shouldn't let your children eat it constantly. Even with the Panda licorice I posted about last Friday, I only let my children have it every once in a while. It is not an everyday treat by any means.

Okay now that that is out of the way, and before we really get into the many reasons that refined sugar is bad for you, let's talk about how sugar is made. There are two types of plants that sugar comes from, cane and beet. Once these two plants are refined to the point of white refined sugar we see in the store, there is no difference in taste or texture. 70% of the worlds sugar come from the cane plant. There are many stages and processes that the cane plant goes through to get to refined sugar. It is important that you understand how many steps in the process there are to see and really understand why refined sugar is bad for you.

Brazil exports 7 million tons of sugar each year. The first set of steps only takes 24 hours from the time the cane is harvested.

So here we go, step one. The cane is cut it is taken to the factory where extraction of the cane juice is the first step is the process. A series of roller mills crush the cane and the juice comes out. The juice gets dirty because dirt and other parts of the plant fall with the juice. Slaked lime is used to get the dirt out. It helps the dirt settle so it can be picked up and then it's sent back out to the field. Once that is done it is on to step two, evaporation. The juice is thickened into syrup by boiling so the water will evaporate out. Then on to step three, boiling. The syrup is then taken to big pans where there is more boiling to get more water out so crystallization can occur. After that the crystals are washed and dried. That is all that Brazil and other countries will do to the now "raw" sugar. Then it is shipped to refining plants around the world where more steps are made to make refined sugar.

The first stage, which is really step four, of the raw sugar is Affination. The raw sugar is softened and then they remove the layer of 'mother liquor' that surrounds the crystals. Then on to their step one, really step five, carbonation. It happens by adding milk of lime (calcium hydroxide) to the liquor and bubbling carbon dioxide though the mixture. The gas reacts with the lime to form fine crystalline particles of calcium carbonate which separates the solids. After that the liquor is filtered through leaf filters. The liquor is pumped from the outside of the leaf to the middle where the clear liquor is collected. Now it is ready for step six, Decolourisation. This is where they take all the color out of the liquor. They pump the liquor though columns of medium. There are two different mediums they use. Either activated carbon or an ion exchange resin. Both remove any color so the liquor is now crystal clear and ready for step seven, boiling. They boil any access water off so that crystals can form, and they have refined sugar. But that is not all! Sometimes there is liquor left after crystals are formed and they take that liquor and put it through the process all over again to make more refined sugar. But that's really refined refined sugar isn't it?! www.sucrose.com

So you see there really isn't anything left after seven steps. You just have sweetness. In fact, because they have taken pretty much everything out it is harder for your body to break down the refined sugar. It actually leaches out vitamins and minerals from your body just so it can be digested!

To put it simply, refined Sugar is not good for you. One of the more important things it does is attack your immune system. It weakens your body so it will not be able to fight off diseases. It aides in cancer growth. It cuts off oxygen to your brain. It causes hyperactivity in children. It causes learning disabilities. And so on and so on. Here is a simple list of other things sugar does to your body. Go check it out.

Something I don't think people know about sugar is the affect that it has on your brain. It causes a chemical reaction. When you eat sweets it tigers an increase in release of the hormone serotonin and endorphins. Serotonin is a mood elevating hormone. When you have lots of refined sugar your brain and your body get used to this. Your body will start to have more and more cravings for it. Cravings in a healthy person are the body's way of saying it needs or is lacking something. But not in the case of someone who eats a lot of refined sugar. There is no way you can tell the difference between a 'good craving'- something your body is needing, or a 'bad craving'- your body wanting higher serotonin levels. If you give in to your bad cravings you keep depleting your body of vitamins and minerals. Endorphins, are the Brain's natural narcotics helping you to relax when you're stressed. There are other ways of getting or releasing endorphins without causing harm to your body. Exercise is one of those ways. So that is a much better thing to do instead of grabbing a candy bar when you're not feeling the best.

There are many more things I could go into about refined sugar and it's dangers. I hope this opened your eyes a little bit about some of those dangers. Next week I'll talk about the more healthy substitutions for refined sugar and other unhealthy sugars that are out there. In the mean time look in your kitchen and see what you can start to cut out of your diet that has a lot of refined sugar in it.