Sweet Poison

I am quitting sugar.

(Stay with me people...this might not be pretty)

Not only am I quitting sugar (Lord, help me), 

but I am doing it during the holidays.

If there was any question before,

we can now be certain I am crazy :)

Last year i was diagnosed with an auto immune thyroid disease

called Hashimoto's Disease.

My immune system thinks my thyroid hormones are 

enemies and is out to destroy them.

After a diagnosis with Acute Thyroiditis 11 years ago

I enjoyed 10 years of eating whatever I wanted and not gaining an ounce. I actually lost weight.

Not gonna lie...it was awesome.

(except for the occasional racing heart or sleepless night)

But all good things come to an end.

Acquiring Hashimoto's is not uncommon once you have

had an overactive thyroid.

After a lot of research on diet, and trying synthetic thyroid medication 

( which did NOT agree with me),

I became gluten-free last January.

(yes, me, who loved my carbs, gave up bread, cakes, and anything that contained wheat, barley, rye or spelt...a LOT of things).

The gluten molecule so closely resembles the thyroid moleule 

that it sends the anti-bodies into overdrive and kills thethyroid sooner.

But back to sugar...

Since going gluten-free, I have compensated for my loss 

of all things flour, with cheese,

and sugar.

Only to do more research and discover that sugar is equally as

detrimental to auto-immune sufferers as gluten.

Why?

Sugar causes inflammation (something that auto-immune sufferers have to fight all the time)

Not only that,

"Sugar, table sugar, is 50:50 glucose and fructose, and it's the fructose that's the major worry (although glucose isn't entirely guilt free). Specifically, it's the unique way our body processes fructose. Unlike glucose, fructose is not released into our bloodstream to be used up by our cells for energy. It heads straight to our liver, the ONLY organ in our body that can process it. Here it undergoes a complex metabolism that, in short, ends in the release of triglycerides (fatty acids) into our liver. Bluntly, it's converted into fat. Very quickly. Fatty liver is what induces insulin resistance (IR), the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes and heart disease." 

Maria Hannaford econest.blogspot.com

There is a lot more research and I won't bore you with it, but it was enough to convince me to give sugar the boot.

I will keep you posted on the progress.

Yesterday was day one, and judging from the monumental headache I had all day,

I am pretty addicted.

(Great.)

The only good news...sugar makes you fat, because it signals the liver to produce cholesterol and fat.  Guess what DOESN'T make you fat when you give up sugar...

Fat! As in butter, cream, meats, etc.

That stuff keeps your cells supple and healthy

(Given you don't make it the only thing in your diet and you eat lots of veggies, too).

Stay tuned!