HomeSpunHealers

We are pleased to have Ellen Besso, author of Midlife Maze, as our guest blogger today.  With Ellen’s permission, we have posted her article “Midlife Women-Beyond Body Image.”  You can read other articles on Midlife Maze by going to: http://ellenbesso.com/midlifemaze/

MidLife Women - Beyond Body Image

Saturday, July 26, 2008 by Ellen Besso

I have a friend in California who sends me articles about health issues occasionally.  About 5 years ago, she sent me one that I will never forget , which warned about the ill effects of eating processed sugar.  I particularly remember it because one of the key points that stuck in my mind was sugar makes you look older.  I investigated that because I don’t like looking any older than the 50 plus years that I am (I’ll be 54 in July), and I’m a little bit obsessive about face wrinkles.  What I found out was that processed sugar r causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function; the more sugar you eat, the more elasticity and function you lose, which is why skin is more likely to sag and wrinkle.  That information, just by itself was enough to make me give up sugar.   There are so many healthier alternatives to using processed sugar in recipes, and the natural sweetness of fruits and some vegetables offer lots of reasons not to eat any sugar at all.  So, what’s my problem then?  Why did I eat donuts at work the other day or Milk Duds at the movie?  To be honest, everyone else was having fresh, hot Krispy Kremes, and my husband was having Milk Duds.  So, I deserve what everyone else is having, don’t I?  No one brought fruit to work as an alternative to the donuts.  The movie theater doesn’t offer sugar free chocolate or fruit as an alternative purchase either.  So, I gave in to my desires, and I ate the sugar.  And for me, once I start eating it, I have a hard time stopping.  I crave it.  Let’s face it:  I’m a sugarholic!  And I’m also a Type 2 diabetic.  The two don’t mix very well.  So, it’s time to remind myself of all the reasons it’s unhealthy to eat processed sugar besides making me look older than I have to look.

Going back to my childhood, I remember the dentist warning that sugar causes tooth decay.  I found that out when I went to the dentist for the very first time when I was 6 years old, and my mouth was full of cavities.  Even now, with my adult set of chompers, most of my molars are more dental filling than actual natural tooth.  Every once in a while, I have to have the fillings replaced because what is left of my tooth will break away from the filling.  Still, I have managed, in spite of all the sugar over the years, to keep all my natural teeth, unnatural though they be now !  And for the last several years, I have had no cavities at all!  I see a definite relationship between the years I was eating a lot of sugar and the more recent years when I have periodically eaten none or at least eaten little. 

Another negative effect of being addicted to sugar as I am is that processed foods, which contain vast amounts of sugar, are expensive!  Buying cookies, candy, cakes, donuts, ice cream, and all those things laced with sugar make a big hit on the consumer’s pocketbook.  Yes, fresh fruit is also expensive, but an apple is much more filling and satisfying than a whole bag of cookies, and compared to a whole bag of cookies, a fresh apple costs much less.  I’m speaking only for myself here, but if I buy a bag of cookies, I want to eat the whole bag, and before the day is over, I will.  But, I’m a sugarholic.  And so are a lot of Americans!  I read somewhere that the average American used to consume about 20 pounds of sugar in a year back in the 1920’s.  That seems like an awful lot, but then consider what the average American consumes today:  we consume our weight in sugar (so the heavier we are, the more we consume) plus another 20 pounds of corn syrup!  All that sugary food is running our grocery bills up much higher than they have to be.

And what does eating all that sugar do to our bodies (besides make us lose skin elasticity and look older and more wrinkled than we need be)?  Sugar has no nutrient value, no vitamins, no minerals, no fiber, no proteins, no enzymes, just empty calories.  And when our bodies are exposed to a lot of this, they have to take these needed nutrients from our organs to be able to process the sugar.  I read about several studies showing that refined sugar consumption can lead to osteoporosis because our bodies need calcium to process the sugar, and so much calcium can be leached from our bones that we end up with the brittle, breakable, porous bones of osteoporosis. 

That’s only one more ill effect of too much sugar consumption on our bodies.  Another thing that goes wrong in our bodies while it tries to process this incomplete food is an overacidic condition called carbonic poisoning.  I don’t really know the scientific details, but basically our bodies are not able to cleanse our cells of waste products, causing cells to die more rapidly, and the waste products build up in our brains and nervous systems because we aren’t able to get rid of them.  That can’t be good!

Other scientific studies show that eating excess refined sugar can lead to arthritis, thick, sticky blood that can not sufficiently supply our capillaries, gallstones, diabetes, hypoglycemia, and even mental illness.  It’s very similar to a drug, one that is harmful to our bodies.  Sugar is processed from a plant, sugar cane, until nothing is left but the pure crystals of the substance, much like processed cocaine.  And sugar even acts in our bodies much like cocaine does.  So, no wonder I’m addicted to it!

In all my reading about sugar and its effects on the human body, not once did I read that it did anything good for us.  It tastes good.  But so does a juicy bite of apple or watermelon or peach.  And we get plenty of vitamins and minerals and enzymes that our bodies need to be healthy from those natural sweets.  So, to get healthier and to look younger and to save a lot of money, I’m on the wagon again.  No more sugar for me although it does hide in products that I might not otherwise suspect are full of sugar.  But I can recognize the ones that are full of sugar, the ones that blatantly try to seduce me.  Get thee behind me, Satanic donuts!  I want to be healthy, young, and richer!

Generally, when one thinks of gardening only thoughts of having lots of fresh vegetables, or beautiful flowers, at little expense come to mind.  However, there’s much more to gardening than meets the eye.  Gardening is beneficial in the following ways:

Body: Gardening requires a certain amount of physical stamina. You might want to consider trading in your boring tread mill routine once in a while for some fresh air and gardening.  You will get quite a work out with all the bending, stretching, chopping, digging, kneeling, and squatting that gardening requires. Will you burn calories? You bet’cha!  Not only that, all of your hard work will not only pay off in terms of weight loss, but depending on the type of gardening that you do, you will have lots of fresh vegetables, and/or flowers.

Mind:  Gardening is great therapy for those of us with too much on our minds. It’s as good as meditation for me. I leave my “to do” lists in the house, all of my worries on the back porch, and I am fully engaged in the moment.  Fully present in only the here and now of gardening.   Sweet peace!

Spirit:  There’s a certain pride you feel in successfully growing your own flowers and vegetables.  A lot of work goes into working a garden, but a lot of love goes into it too. There’s also the added bonus of being able to share the fruits of your labor with others. The single act of giving is great for self esteem, and also sends a powerful message to the Universe which will respond in kind to you.

In essence….Gardening not only “does a body good”, but it’s great for the mind and spirit as well. :) 

I hope you’ll enjoy the photos from my own gardening efforts.

Abundantly Yours,

HomeSpun Granny

I don’t have a yard that is designed to grow a lot of things that require full sun, but I have a very sunny side porch that is suitable for pots of flowers and vegetables. Since I only have a little room there, I have chosen to grow two pots of tomatoes. Nothing tastes any better than a fresh tomato, still warm from the sun. I already have six little green tomatoes growing and soaking up that sun, and pretty soon, I should be able to sink my teeth into them. Not only are they delicious, though; they are very nutritionally healthy for us. I heard Dr. Oz on the Oprah show call tomato paste a miracle substance!

What I’ve read about tomatoes is that they are very high in vitamin C and E and in a substance called lycopene. From what I understand, it’s the lycopene that is the “miracle” substance in tomatoes. What lycopene does, besides giving the bright red color to tomatoes, it’s an antioxidant that may help prevent prostate cancer and some other forms of cancer, heart disease, and other serious diseases. In the body, lycopene is deposited in the liver, lungs, prostate gland, colon and skin. Its concentration in body tissues tends to be higher than all other carotenoids. This is why it’s so valuable to us.

Dr. Oz says that while eating fresh tomatoes is good for us, eating the processed tomato juice, tomato sauce, and tomato paste is even better for us because the lycopene is concentrated. And if you add healthy olive oil to the mix, the body absorbs the lycopene even better and we have the beginnings of a miracle working in our bodies.

There are so many things that can be made from tomato sauce and tomato paste. Who doesn’t love a delicious bowl of chili or a fresh, steaming bowl of vegetable soup? How about a succulent tomato sauce over pasta? I even remember my mother making a spice cake when I was a little girl that had a can of tomato soup in it! You can probably think of hundreds of recipes that include tomatoes.

So, this summer, while I enjoy my fresh tomatoes, I’ll enjoy other vitamin rich vegetables and fruits. A diet full of vegetables and fruits is a diet that will improve our bodies and make us healthier than ever. And it’s so scrumptious, too!

It’s not the first time I’ve heard someone speak about the negative aspects of diet soda. In fact, not just the diet soda but the sweetener used in the production of said soda and other products. Fake sugar. Saves us calories, so how could it be bad?

On the one hand… there are numerous reports that studies are finding it harmful. Poisoning from the sweetener can mimic MS and other illnesses, causing misdiagnoses. One report notes that it suppresses serotonin which makes us crave carbohydrates. Other reports state that it messes up our metabolism, causes Metabolic syndrome, and breaks down into some pretty nasty toxins.

Metabolic syndrome includes risk factors for the increase of heart disease and diabetes. Such factors include abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high blood glucose levels.

To be fair, I flipped over to the people who support the alternative sweetener. They claim that it is perfectly safe and FDA approved. Of course, noting that these praises are coming from such places as The American Beverage Association and The Calorie Control Council, one has to wonder what they benefit from taking that stand.

They are quick to note studies that have deemed the sweetener safe. However, these studies are outdated, in my humble opinion. Current studies are just that… current. The studies they point to are in the late 1980’s to 2002- and I believe one in 2004. Even taking into account a study from 2004, that was 4 years ago. Research is ongoing and new things are learned all the time. What was safe in 2002 may no longer be as safe due to the knowledge we have gained through research.

I can’t help but think of a certain diet drug that was once tossed around like candy. It, too, was FDA approved. I don’t think anyone will forget the devastation it left behind. People got sick. People died. People are scarred for life. It was once a “safe” thing to put into our body.

One of the most recent studies was done by Purdue University. Their report was published in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience in Febraury of 2008. Their study showed that artificial sweeteners caused weight gain in the lab tests done. I don’t think we can turn a blind eye to such a recent study done by respectable researchers.

I drink diet soda all the time. In fact, I eat many things that are sweetened with artificial sweeteners. After doing the research and listening to what other people have experienced, I am going to pay closer attention to the products I purchase.

I won’t lie. Giving up diet soda makes me sad. Inside, I am rebelling like you would not believe. I don’t want to give up my soda. If I could paint a picture of how this makes me feel it would include a toddler throwing a tantrum. However, I was just doing the research myself, and I can not deny the things I’ve learned. I would no more eat a poison laced muffin if someone told me it was poisoned. Eating that muffin would be crazy. Continuing to ingest diet soda and other artificially sweetened products would be equally as crazy.

Farewell diet soda… I will mourn you, but I would rather hang out on the safe side and improve my chances at a healthy life.