Selfish Sugar

I recently began a course through Vintage Remedies to feed the learner in me. It's a pretty stout course with over 20 units covering everything from nutrition to vaccines to essential oils. I'll also learn about 100 herbs and scientific methods for medicine making. (Up to this point I've used only folk methods which have worked out well, but I'm looking forward to being more exact with my creations so I can properly dose them.)

The most recent unit I completed is on the macronutrients: fat, protien and carbohydrate. In this unit I learned a little something about sugar that I didn't realize before–It's selfish! Sugar is an anti-nutrient. Meaning, not only does it provide zero to our bodies nutritionally, it also takes away nutrients when we consume it. In my effort to impress this upon Aveny (and myself) I decided we would call sugar for what it is: selfish! Sugar also lowers our immune system for up to six hours (makes sense, now that I know it takes nutrients to process). And thanks to the encouragement of a dear friend I have been sugar-free for nearly two weeks! I was badly addicted. One cookie was too much and a thousand was not enough...

Oh, and that lovely more expensive brown option known as Turbinado? Just as terrible! It's basically the same as refined white sugar, with a little of the molasses added back in for coloring to give it that raw look. I'm trying... really trying to rid our home of that nasty white stuff in all forms. One area that David has to have sugar is Cuban coffee. Fortunately, I was able to find Sucanat at our local grocery store and it's working out as a fine substitute. SUgar CAne NATural, or Sucanat is ground up sugar cane. Because it is not refined like its evil cousin, it still contains all of the naturally occurring vitamins and minerals such as: potassium, vitamins A, B1, B2 and B6, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, chromium and phosphorus. It's not perfect, Sucanat (also called Rapadura) can still spike blood sugar if eaten in excess, but it is considered a whole food. Because the molasses is not stripped it has a bold flavor that might take getting used to. I also found it at Vitacost.com at about $7 for a 2lb bag.

So to all three of you who encouraged me to write a blog, here we go. I'm going to try to chronicle the notable things I'm learning on my way to becoming a Family Herbalist.