Chocolate, IVs and soft drinks

I used to love soft drink. Only for visitors or for odd occasions (like a school holiday treat - started that when I became a teacher and needed a treat after a hard term!) but still. It's really just sugar and chemicals, alas. It's essentially water, sweetener and chemicals. Nothing good there! You're better off with just the water on its own.

You may say, "Ah, but chocolate is good for you!". I quote from 'Suicide by Sugar' about chocolate:

"Chocolate has antioxidants in it, and therefore, it is a healthy food in its raw, unprocessed form. Unfortunately, when the chocolate has been processed it loses some of its nutrients. Then, when sugar is added, the body cannot use the healthy antioxidants present in raw chocolate."

That was interesting to me as I would keep seeing, in magazines etc, how good chocolate was for you. I think they know we are all addicted to it so they try and cheer us up about it. However, the truth is different! We've been lied to...

Even without the sugar, chocolate has its drawbacks. Caffeine is a substance that causes the pancreas to release insulin. So too much will cause our insulin to come out of homeostasis and we can develop insulin problems by releasing too much of it etc We don't want to overwork our poor old pancreas, do we?! Caffeine is a diuretic (meaning we wee a lot), which can lead to dehydration. Other effects of caffeine are:

• sleep loss
• miscarriages
• headaches
• jittery nerves
• fatigue

We really should have only minimal levels of it. Each square of chocolate may not have too much caffeine but we all eat more of it than we should so it adds up and different amounts of caffeine affect certain people differently.

Chocolate has significant levels of anandamide, which mimics marijuana. An effect of this can be the munchies, where you just have to eat sugary, greasy and salty foods. This is linked to bulimia. Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine, a chemical our bodies release when we're in love. Now we see why it's addictive and associated with love, being a good mood elevator. It can cause pulse rate increases and migraines when you try to quit chocolate!

Chocolate is highly allergenic. We eat so much of it, with so much sugar in it, that we've made ourselves allergic to it. 'Suicide by Sugar' has this to say:
"...Sugar upsets the body's chemistry and any food that is in the digestive tract at the time of sugar consumption will not digest well, resulting in partially digested foods. The partially digested foods then slip in to the bloodstream and can cause an allergic reaction." p. 69

Not sure whether it's the chocolate or just the caffeine in it, or both, but babies have been found to cry excessively and become irritable, jittery and loud if the mum eats a lot of it during pregnancy and while nursing. (I am breastfeeding my two youngest!) Also, the more chocolate or cocoa a woman consumes, the lower her bone densities, even though some have tried to claim that the flavanols in chocolate help improve calcium absorption into bones. Flavanols are also in onions, red wine, tea, apples and raspberries so we don't just have to look to the sugary chocolate for it.

I've been doing this Sweet Poison journey since Feb 14th and don't crave chocolate all the time or anything. However, I do occasionally feel a pang of longing for it when I remember my favorite types of chocolate. So, it's good for me to read this about chocolate as my b'day is coming close - August 9th - and I'm allowed a fructose-y treat then so I need to try and make it not be chocolate!!!

When we have an IV in hospital, this is what happens:

"When a person's digestive system is not ready to resume its work after an operation or illness, he or she is put on an IV - usually for a day or two, but sometimes for a week or more. This meal substitute is a mixture of sugar water, amino acids, vitamins other supplements and sometimes fatty acids and pharmaceutical drugs. It is the only means of nourishment until thhe patient's digestive system is ready to work again.
The reason sugar is added to the IVs is for calories, but most people can go a few days without calories. A diabetic gets an IV without the sugar, so why can't everybody else?
When we are sick, we have upset body chemistry. Our body needs all the help it can get to heal from an operation or sickness. It does not need sugar suppressing the immune system. The immune system needs to work for us - not against us."
p. 50, 'Suicide by Sugar'

How awful is that! What nuff nuff in the medical system decided to do that to us???!!!