My friend and colleague Cheryl A. Major wrote a post I want to share. It's about her inspiring journey from depression to healthy living and the role of nutrition in healing. I know you will like it.~~~~~~~~
Where to begin… I had no idea all the decades I struggled with depression (many
decades) that sugar was a huge factor in my struggles. Not simply a factor but a
huge factor.
The old adage “you are what you eat” is brilliant and so true. Sugar
and mood are so connected!
I ate a lot of sugar at my house growing up. We had dessert every night, and my
mom was a terrific baker! Cakes, pies, cookies, bars, puddings… You name it; we
had it. There are no cake mixes, either. Everything was baked from scratch!
I also had lots of cavities. It made sense that I ate desserts and candy and had
cavities, but the fact that I ate sugar and became depressed at the age of 12 was
something that I didn’t realize until many, many years later.
Finally, I connected the dots, and the discovery happened very much by accident too.
In 2012, I radically changed how I eat to help my husband normalize his sugar to
back off prediabetes and normalize his cholesterol. We had to get him off the
massive doses of statins he had been prescribed seven years earlier, as it turned
out he was the poster child for side effects, and the drug was not so slowly killing
him.
As a side note, every drug has side effects, and it’s really important to read the
fine print before you sign on to take anything that comes in a prescription bottle.
My philosophy, these days is to try to trace back the symptoms and figure out
what’s causing the symptoms rather than just taking a pill to get rid of the
symptoms or mask them.
The reasoning behind that is you’re not solving the problem if you’re just suppressing the symptoms. I challenge you to find any prescription drug that does not have one or more side effects.
Back to sugar and mood, do you know that in laboratory tests, when researchers
presented a choice of a pile of sugar or a pile of cocaine to rats, the rats chose the
sugar every time? It may be hard to believe, but it’s true.
Sugar lights up the pleasure center in your brain, so after you eat it, you get a rush
of feel good, which is followed a short while later by a drop in that feel good and
you’re back to where you started or even lower with your mood craving another
“sugar fix”.
What I discovered was that eating whole fresh food, and avoiding sugar-laden
processed food leveled me off mood-wise. By the way, I also lost 20 pounds when
I changed how I eat and wasn’t even trying to lose weight. I like to say I
“disappeared” my depression.
In fact, the transformation was so dramatic that I wrote my first book, “Eat Your Blues Away” about the miracle that dumping sugar and processed foods brought into my life.
When you eat nutrient-dense food, your body doesn’t cue you as often to eat
because it’s getting the nourishment it needs. It’s a whole big complicated thing,
but to make it very simple, if you eat food that doesn’t come with an ingredient
label, you will be and feel healthier, both mentally and physically.
I know it sounds simple, and in our processed food-laden world, it’s not
that easy to accomplish. Many times I skip going out to eat in a restaurant
because it means I relinquish control over what I’m eating.
I’m not saying you have to give it up completely. What I am saying is you have to be aware that
you’re giving up control over what you’re eating, how it’s been prepared, how it’s
been sourced and raised, and frankly, how much sugar has been added to dishes
that really don’t need it as an ingredient!
Eating out is something you may want to think about and incorporate into your lifestyle as an occasional treat. I’m certainly no Saint, but the difference in the life I’ve created for myself by
changing how I eat is something I would never trade for anything that comes
in a box or a bag that I just stick in a microwave or the oven.
I promise you can fall in love with good food. There’s a richness, a satisfaction to
having to chew something and not just have to go to mush in your mouth.
Learning to eat this way is a process, and the road to healthy eating is not always
a straight line. In fact, it’s seldom a straight line.
We all get ourselves off track and have to right the ship, but you can do it, and you can feel better. I haven’t been on antidepressants in more than 10 years. My antidepressants are now fruits, vegetables, fish, whole-grain bread, and the occasional ice cream cone!
If controlling your sugar intake is a challenge, welcome to the club! It’s a big one. I
have a suggestion for you. Pick up my popular course: “Crack Your Sugar Habit.”
There’s so much information there to help you understand your sugar cravings
and to help you get them under control. It’s a great way to start moving
yourself in the right direction and learning more about sugar and mood!
Special code NANCYD brings the price down by a lot, so check it out!
~~~~~
I’m Cheryl A Major. I’m a Certified Nutrition and Wellness Consultant, and I would
love to have you join my tribe, my community of people who are eating to
transform their health, both mental and physical. Please visit my website
https://ThinStrongHealthy.com and help yourself to all the free information and
recipes that are waiting for you there!
If you grab the 60+ names of sugar, you’ll get the emails I share with lots of great info, articles, recipes, and more to help you be and feel your healthiest, both mentally and physically!
Sugar And Mood
