Addiction: a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain; they change its structure and how it works.
Why Is It So Hard To Stop Eating Refined Carbs?
Feel like it's nearly impossible to stop consuming certain foods even though you know they're fucking with your vitality? Of course you do! For some reason, western society doesn't treat refined simple sugar like the addictive drug that it is? Don't think you're addicted? Try to quit eating foods made from refined sugars; the kind found in boxes and packages. Try just eating foods that were harvested from the ground that haven't yet been fucked with by Big Food. Nine out of ten will struggle with this, either failing completely or experiencing major unsavory physical side-effects.
I'm addicted to simple carbs. I can feel it. When I am able to quit for a period of time, I relapse and find myself consuming it again days, weeks or months later. Cookies, white bread, noodles, shitty cereals... I hate it! My brain has been hijacked. I compulsively seek out my drug (refined carbs) despite the negative consequences. And, this is a supposed health expert saying this! Unlike addicts of other vices, those of us addicted to simple carbs have to deal with our drug being readily available, constantly promoted, and consumed in front of us daily by family and friends.
Why Do I Not Want to Eat This Crap?
The GI (glycemic index) is a measure of how much a consumed carbohydrate elevates blood glucose on a scale of 1-100. Pure glucose (sugar) represents the standard or “100”, so all carbohydrates are compared to that. When you consume high GI refined carbohydrates, such as cookies, white bread, pasta, etc, that spike blood glucose and you don't immediately use that glucose via vigorous physical activity, that spike is accommodated by a spike in insulin which tells your body to store convert the excess energy to fat. As a general rule, plant foods in their whole form straight out of the ground don’t have high GIs. The copious amounts of refined carbohydrates, usually found in visually appealing boxes and packaging, being sold to us by Big Food are high GI and they are wreaking havoc on our health by making us obese, insulin resistant and diabetic. It’s becoming an epidemic and I don’t want to be another statistic.
Big Food is Exploiting Our Biology to Make Money!
Why do so many of us find ourselves in this boat? It's because our brains are hard-wired to consume sugary foods. When our hunter-gatherer ancestors came across a source of honey or a berry patch they sat there and gorged on the high-calorie source until it was gone. This was a matter of survival when calories came at a premium and living day to day life had a high caloric cost. On top of that, many days were spent in a caloric deficit. This reward system that has allowed us to survive as a species in tougher times has recently been exploited by Big Food. Our brain rewards us with a dopamine hit when we consume certain high-calorie foods. This is why donuts and ice cream are so goddamn tasty. They are rich in sugar and fat. Most "food" you come by in the grocery store is packed full of refined carbohydrates, which are cheap to produce and hyper-addictive and these foods are WAY too available to us. All you have to do now is peel your sorry ass off the couch, walk 15 steps to a kitchen cupboard and Bob’s yer uncle, you’ve got a box of cookies to match up with your five hour Netflix binge.
The problem we currently have is we've taken wholesome foods, we've genetically modified them, and we've refined them into an unnatural concentrate and made them more readily available and cheaper than natural food sources. They now only contain the addictive ingredients and none of the fiber and nutrients that slow the absorption of sugar into our bloodstream. You think it makes sense for Big Food to have the people buying their products addicted to them? From a business standpoint, hell yeah it does! Big Food is selling you products that are literally rewiring your brain to reinforce the want for refined carbohydrates!
The Coca Leaf/Cocaine Analogy
Let's look at the coca leaf and its refined counterpart, the creepy drug, cocaine. The coca leaf, which in its natural form is a mild stimulant comparable to coffee, has been used for thousands of years by millions of people without major health consequences. Traditional uses include use as a suppressant for hunger, fatigue, pain, and thirst. It has been used to combat altitude sickness, treat wounds and arthritis. Research shows repercussions associated with the leaf don't rear their ugly head until the leaf is refined into cocaine (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/emi/2016/4048764/).
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| Coca leaves have been consumed for years without major health consequences. Cocaine on the other hand... |
If you were to look at fruit and ancient grains, you'd find that there is a similar situation going on. You are going to have a hard time finding studies that link disease and other negative consequences to humans who consume fruit and ancient whole grains regularly. They are packed full of micronutrients and non-soluble fermentable fiber which bolster human health. It takes about four apples to make one small glass of apple juice, which contains no fiber. How often do you sit down and crush 4 apples in one sitting? You don't! But, when we extract the simple sugars out of foods and toss out all fiber and micronutrients that is where we start fucking up human bodies! We are not eating food; we are eating some creepy addictive shit that hits the same reward centers in the brain that cocaine hits, causing us to want more and more. We’re all vulnerable, including well-read health experts who are hella aware of what is going on. Big Food is using our biology against us and if there is one thing that is hard to fight, it's our hundreds of thousands of years of biology.
Our Most Valuable Weapon: Human Beings Have the Ability to Choose
Are we going to choose to do something at government levels? It's inevitable; it’s just a matter of when. I believe we will see major regulatory changes in our lifetime in regards to sugar. It's making people rich, which is why changes may not be coming soon, but it is also making entire nations sick. It may simply become a matter of national security for some countries as their populations may become too sick to be productive and foster a healthy economy. Type 2 diabetes and obesity trends can be seen as starting a drastic upward trend since the introduction of refined carbohydrates into the western diet.
For now, what do we do? We make choices at a personal and community level. We educate ourselves, we listen to health podcasts, we read books, we find reliable online sources that aren't funded by Big Food, we surround ourselves with others who want to change, we embrace longevity, we embrace function, we teach others, we create grassroots movements, and we stay active. For myself, my approach is to embrace a well-rounded approach to fighting this addiction.
For those of us looking to lose weight, avoid type 2 diabetes, and live healthily it can often feel like we're set up to lose and we're failing. The reality is, right now in North America, we are! Don't give up! We have the ability to override anything with our ability to choose our actions. We can choose to alter our environments, choose to moderate the information we base our decisions on, we can choose to set up our lives to make it easier to not stuff our faces with shitty simple sugars. Keep playing the long game and winning more days than you lose. Know that the strong signals that your brain sends for you to consume refined carbs can go away after a week or two of eliminating refined foods. Limit your caloric intake and monitor it easily with an app like UnderArmor's MyFitnessPal. When you cap your caloric intake, you will make healthier choices in order to make sure you're getting the micronutrients you need. You will also naturally look for foods that taste great but don't blow your caloric wad. Nobody wants to only be able to eat just one high-calorie meal and feel starving the rest of the day. Be reasonable and be patient with yourself. Don’t go to the grocery store hungry and always make sure there are plenty of good foods to eat in your refrigerator and pantry. There are many of us woke to the creepy shit Big Food is doing, so get out there and find those people in your community! We are in this thing together.
That's my rant for the day.
RG
