Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Sugar = Poison?

The past couple of days I've consumed an entire piece of The Cheescake Factory's Black-out Cake. If you've ever seen one of these slices, you'll understand why I'm disgusted with myself. They're bigger than a dinner plate and richer than Ghirardelli chocolate. Yesterday I seriously could not move out of my chair. I was so weak and sick it terrified me. I started wondering if it was the sugar overdose. I did some research online and found everything from cautions to too much sugar during pregnancy because of gestational diabetes to an article that basically equated the effect of sugar on a fetus to be as awful as alcohol, cigarettes, or caffeine.

Oh, the guilt!

The hard thing is there isn't a lot of solid research out there, but I guess I understand that. None of us would want to be the guinea pig to see what hurt our baby or not.

So I've decided to be careful about excess sugar for the next few weeks and see if I feel better. I'm not giving up jam on my toast but I did hide the rest of the Black-out Cake in the outside freezer!

Any advice? Have any of you noticed an adverse effect from sugar on you or your children? I definitely feel gross if I eat too much and I think my children get whinier, but I've really never equated sugar with poison as some of the articles I read suggested.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,
Cami

9 comments:

  1. I think we feel SICK if we OVERCONSUME on any ONE THING. Preggo or not... Cheesecake, choc covered strawberries, pizza, icecream, fried chicken, wine, pototo chips...you name it... even apples.
    Truely the human body is not meant to overdose on ANYTHING. THINK MODERATION.... enjoy a "little" of those foods...and cherish the taste versus subcoming to the guilt and SICKLY physical feeling!

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  2. Fabulous point, my friend. It's definitely a self-control issue for me. But I think you're right that you can enjoy all good things in moderation.
    Thanks for stopping by,
    Cami

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  3. I agree with Roxy. It was always a battle because I am 200% a chocoholic. Thoughts that I'd feel guilty and have a sickly feeling afterward would hide in a dark corner of my mind and wouldn't come out if I was looking at a chunk of chocolate....oh, and pizza.

    I discovered that if I give myself one day a week to splurge and eat anything I've been craving, I can make it through the other 6 days without caving in. So far, it's working.

    I have an award for you HERE

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  4. Good to hear from you, Vicki and thanks for the award! I keep repeating, "it's for the baby," sometimes that helps.

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  5. I know I should have been cringing, and learning from your mistakes, as I read this post. But instead my mouth was watering and I was fighting feelings of jealousy. :)

    I love sugar. But I also know it makes me feel yucky. For some reason, that's not a good enough reason to get me to stop.

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  6. Hey Cami,

    I found your blog in the comments on Kim Coates blog. As my blog is also about health, I decided to check your out.

    I found your topic interesting. I don't know if sugar is poison, but this is what I've noticed.

    If I eat too much of it, my immune system seems to go down and I invariably end up with a cold.

    If I'm already sick, sugar makes me worse.

    I never believe that sugar could affect kids until my oldest boy was born. If he eats it, there is little chance on peace in our home. He's either too hyper or too cranky (or sometimes a combo of both).

    I also know that since I now eat very little, I feel much healthier.

    - Samantha
    http://weaknessbecomingstrength.blogspot.com

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  7. Kim - You are so right. Since I've said no sugar I think I've been sneaking more! I feel like I have no self-control!

    Thanks, Samantha. You're motivating me and that's exactly what I need. I think sugar effects my youngest the most. Last weekend he tanked up on parade candy and you should've seen the fits. Fun stuff.

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  8. Congratulations on being pregnant! That's always a very precious thing to be! On the sugar subject, I'm not a huge sugar person, salt is my craving. But interstingly enough, I finally got a surprising diagnosis after being tested for various things like MS, diabetes, auto-immune diseases etc. I was chronically dehydrated!! SHOCKER! I'm reading a book called "You're not sick, you're thirsty" and it talks about symptoms of dehydration and how to fix it. Google symptoms of dehydration, you may be as surprised as I still am!! Many times you'll feel tired, nauseaus, headachy, like you're carrying around a wet blanket and it's your body telling you it needs water! Of course you need nutritional fluids as well, but for the most part we should be drinking a lot more water than we do. After 1 month of rehydrating I am almost symptom free and back to running. YAY!

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  9. Good for you, Kim. That's amazing! I am usually a huge water lover, but being pregnant I've found it harder to get enough (and then I realize I'll be in the bathroom all day!). I'll have to watch that more closely.
    Thanks for stopping by and the congrats,
    Cami

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