Sugar..... Oh Honey Honey!

Greetings ~

Today is day 2 of the Salt/C protocol. I actually woke up feeling pretty cruddy this morning... headachey... very sore in my limbs. I suppose it could be mild herxing, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I ingested a wee bit of sugar last night, which is enough to set me off. My women's group had a little gathering where we all brought munchies, and I nibbled on a couple of things that I knew would probably cause me some grief. Thankfully, it cleared up pretty quickly, and now I feel much better.

I've noticed lately that my pain episodes don't last as long as they used to. That says to me that my immune system is starting to recover. YESS!

For many years I've been sensitive, maybe even allergic to, refined sugar. Whenever I eat anything sweet my skin itches, I get bloated, my heart pounds, and my eyesight gets more blurry (lyme bacteria LOVE sugar!). While sometimes these can be symptoms of diabetes, I tested negative for it three times over the years. It was no surprise to me when cane sugar came up in the high zone on my food sensitivities test.... I'd figured that one out a long time ago.

We all know how hard it is to avoid sugar. I've learned to do it, and my cravings have gone way down, although I still get them occasionally, which is when I turn to the fruit bowl and eat the sweetest, ripest fruit I can find (watermelon, cherries, grapes) to get me through that craving (it's still a sugar rush for the body, but not quite as bad as the refined-sugar-rush). I know, it's not quite the same as chocolate cake with white frosting (my personal favorite), or a good chocolate chip cookie (my second favorite), but you know what.... ever since the lyme ramped up last year, it has become increasingly easier for me to "just say no" to sugar. For if I DO eat it nowadays, I end up in major pain, usually for hours. It's not worth trading about 60 seconds of pleasure for 10 hours of agony. So now it's fruit... and maybe twice a month I have a spoonful of honey on/in something to appease the craving gods....

Refined sugar is well known to trigger muscle tightness and spasms. It is also known to suppress the immune system. Have you ever noticed that colds and flus seem to be so much more prevalent in the fall and winter months? Think about it.... most people start eating candy on Halloween, and continue to indulge in sugary desserts and snacks throughout the holidays, probably through Valentine's Day. When you ingest sugar, your immune system flatlines for a few hours. Our culture is wild about sugar, but not everyone realizes how much it is hidden in practically every type of food and drink on the planet. If you read the labels of essentially ANYTHING in the grocery store that has a label, you will find some form of sugar there, whether it's dextrose, fructose, sucrose, brown rice syrup, maltodextrin, the infamous high fructose corn syrup, and my personal favorite "evaporated cane juice." It sounds so harmless, doesn't it? All those "little bits of sugar" in things add up to a whole lot of sugar in everybody's systems, all the time. Do your own research if you don't believe me....

And let's face it, artificial sweeteners are equally as bad, maybe even worse for humans. I am so grateful that I gave up soda drinking many many moons ago. I've even had to give up most juices, at least for the time being, as the sugar concentration is so high in them. I react to them, big-time.

One of the books I appreciate the most is Insights Into Lyme Disease Treatment: 13 Lyme-Literate Health Care Practitioners Share Their Healing Strategies (it may get the prize for world's longest book title). All of the MDs, naturopaths, chiropractors and others in the book are very clear on one thing. If you have lyme disease, you must absolutely steer clear of sugar, as it feeds the bacteria. And we DO NOT want to do that! As you also may have heard, that same warning applies to those with cancer. Cancer cells thrive on sugar.

One thing that has gotten me through the past few years has been to increasingly eat more as nature intended. Veggies and fruits were put here for a reason. Ice cream and macaroni and cheese were not. Don't get me wrong, I do LOVE them. But I've learned they are not my friends. The longer I stick with a veggie-based diet, the better I feel, and the easier it is to just say NO to stuff that will promote disease and mess around with my life force. I do realize that some people live well into their 90's and beyond while eating and drinking all sorts of garbage, but honestly, have you really looked at them? They generally don't feel very well and look like heck. I personally choose to feel well, in all ways possible. It takes some effort, but it does get easier...

I'm actually thankful in many ways for this little lyme adventure, for it has been a wake-up call in certain areas of my life, especially eating. I have been a vegetarian for many years now, but I was still eating too many processed foods and sweets. Now my food is "clean" - I buy everything organic that I possibly can. Yes, it's a bit more expensive, but I think of it as preventive maintenance and money I won't have to spend down the road getting well again. The more of us who get into clean eating, the more the costs on quality food will come down. I greatly appreciate living here on Whidbey Island - we have several places to get organic food, and folks around here feel pretty strongly about it.

I so appreciate my doctor..... I just have to say it here.... right now!!! Thank you Jennifer Rabinovich, ND! It is very gratifying to have a healthcare professional truly in your corner, who will help educate you and knows ways to get you better, while at the same time respecting your own instincts and wisdom. I'm always emailing her articles to read and discuss. Some doctors would not appreciate that, but I think she's glad that I take that kind of interest in my own healing. I hope if any of you out there incur any type of major illness or disease, that you find practitioners who are open-minded and willing to see the big picture. I have found that holistic health practitioners tend to be more open-minded, generally, than traditionally trained western MDs, although I think many western doctors are realizing that they have a lot to learn and are opening up to that. People are starting to demand it. My mother's generation seemed to believe that doctors were gods not to be questioned.... my generation is a bit more demanding and we baby boomers really don't like being told what to do, which is probably why the range of alternative healing arts continues to expand all the time. We love having options!From my experience, it takes a blend of healing modalities to help one reap the benefits of optimal health. As a Reiki Master, I feel that energy work/vibrational healing is critical to health, and so are acupuncture, yoga, massage, flower essences, homeopathy, chiropractic, and other healing modalities. I always encourage people to follow their own intuition about what they need in any given moment to experience wellness and wholeness.

OK, time to pop some more Himalayan salt (in capsules) and Vitamin C. Gotta keep the little bacterials on the run.... more soon. Blessings to all,

Sukie