Guest Author - Carolyn Chambers Clark, RN, EdD

How sugar can set off an allergic response

Sugar (or carbohydrates with a high glycemic value) produces an inflammatory response identical to your immune response. This places major demands on your digestive system, and interferes with absorption of crucial vitamins and minerals. Sugar also suppresses your immune system. This makes it more difficult for you to fight off viruses and bacterial infections. Sugar wreaks havoc on your metabolism making it difficult for you to absorb the healthy foods you're eating. Sugar also depletes valuable neurotransmitters that help you think clearly. The energy rush and insulin spike that you get from sugar creates an imbalance in your body chemistry. This can lead to weight gain, insulin resistance, and loss of appetite control. Confusion, forgetfulness, ADHD, and depression are symptoms that can occur as much as 2 days after eating sugar. Muscle cramping, PMS, joint pain, and fatigue are other common symptoms of a sugar sensitivity.

What to do about sugar

Remove sugar from your diet. Sugar is an addiction. The more you eat, the more you want. Don't go cold turkey, start by weaning yourself off it. Avoid using Splenda, fructose, or any other artificial sugar substitute. They just add to the toxic load your body has to deal with and some of them are correlated with cancers.

What to use instead?

Once you stop eating sugar, which has dulled your sensitivity to natural sugars, fruit will taste wonderful again. There is nothing more satisfying and delightful and full of vitamins, minerals and anti-cancer and anti-infection properties than a banana, or an apple, or a handful of grapes, or a fresh peach.

If you must use a sweetener, use stevia or blackstrap molasses. Both have healing qualities and are far superior to sugar or artificial sugars. You can buy liquid stevia at a health food store or for crystals in packets, click on stevia