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(NewsTarget) Sugar Shock! How Sweets and Simple
Carbs Can Derail Your Life, written by journalist Connie Bennett with
Stephen Sinatra MD, is not just another low-carb diet book. In the book,
Ms. Bennett explains the addictive nature of sugar and discusses the
profound effects this can have on your health. She uses sometimes
humorous, sometimes scary anecdotes of how sugar affected her own life
to get the point across, but follows these up with scientific
explanations that most lay people can understand and quotes from
numerous scientists, doctors and other experts. To a person hearing
about the evils of sugar for the first time, Sugar Shock! can be
frightening but is a real eye-opener. It should make anyone think twice
before grabbing that cup of fancy coffee loaded with sugar or the
early-afternoon candy bar and soda for a so-called "pick me up".
A self described "sugar-shrew", Ms. Bennett tells you what her life was
like with sugar and about the revelations which led her to kick the
sugar habit. A journalist by trade, Connie Bennett began investigating
sugar after being diagnosed with "reactive hypoglycemia," or low blood
sugar, a condition in which the blood sugar rises rapidly after
ingestion of simple sugars, then plummets just as rapidly a short time
later. In the first chapter, Ms Bennett is able to tie a huge number of
seemingly unrelated symptoms to what she has termed "Sugar Shock". She
lists 44 debilitating emotional and physical effects of sugar ranging
from mood swings and temper tantrums to thoughts of suicide. She also
includes such physical symptoms as heart palpitations, fatigue, loss of
coordination and fainting. I think the list is something everyone should
read and remember. Ms. Bennett describes herself as a "crabby,
cantankerous shrew" who had spent years alienating herself from family
and friends. She was able to "cure" all 44 symptoms simply by
eliminating sugars and refined carbohydrates from her diet.
Sugar Shock! successfully ties in the increase in obesity and Type 2
diabetes to the increased intake of refined carbohydrates. She talks
about all refined sugars, not just sucrose and makes a good case against
high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which may be the most harmful of all
sugars. Sugar Shock! even explores the effect of sugar and refined
carbohydrates on aging. One interesting connection made in this book is
that farm subsidies have kept the price of a few commodities, especially
corn and soybeans, artificially low while prices for high quality fruits
and vegetables have steadily increased. This has led to a surge in
products that are extremely cheap to produce, most notably, foods and
drinks sweetened with HFCS. These products contribute nothing but
harmful elements to our diet yet provide manufacturers with their
greatest profits.
Are all carbohydrates evil? Sugar Shock! can be alarming to a person
coming across this information for the first time. Although the hazards
of refined carbohydrates are very well stated and explored, I don't
think enough emphasis is put on healthy carbohydrates and their function
in the diet. Yes, she mentions whole grains etc, but the overall tone of
the book is that carbohydrates are evil. Ms. Bennett's points about
"good" carbs, which are essential to good health, tend to get lost in
the midst of the sugar blasting. I don't want you to think that Ms.
Bennett advocates cutting out all carbs, because she most certainly does
not and she does give appropriate information about which carbohydrates
you should switch to. I'm just afraid, that to a first time reader,
these points may be lost. Possibly an entire chapter dedicated to only
healthy carbs would be helpful. I also found the book a little
disjointed. Ms. Bennett would start to talk about something, then say
"more on this in Chapter...". Again, for the first time reader and
especially for somebody being exposed to this information for the first
time, it can be a little disconcerting. I would also like to have seen a
recipe section included. Maybe Ms. Bennett will follow up with a
cookbook incorporating the principles in Sugar Shock!.
Ms. Bennett concludes the book with a section for parents, a question
and answer section on how to get off sugar, her own success strategies
and an afterword with stories showing "signs of promise". In a world in
which we are constantly bombarded with sugar-filled foods and drinks,
this book serves as a great reminder that these foods should NOT form
the basis of our diet. Next time you have a craving for a soda or candy
bar, read Sugar Shock! and pass it on to your friends and family. If you
are new to this information, after reading it the first time, go back
and read it again. The book contains lots of wonderful information not
just on sugar, but on trans-fats, artificial sweeteners and other
harmful elements of most peoples' diets. Some of this information may
get overlooked during the first reading but is information you should
really know. Bottom line, I would say that Sugar Shock! is a must read
for consumers of the Standard American Diet (SAD).
About the author
Patty is a recent convert to health through "whole foods" nutrition and
alternative medicine. In April 2007, she was told to go back on
morphine, get in a wheelchair and "learn to live with it". Since that
time, she has spent countless hours researching nutrtion and alternative
health. She comes to News Target with a unique perspective in this area
after working in pharmacy and teaching pharmacology for 15 years,
followed by 15 years as an RN. In less than 6 months of following this
lifestyle, she has lost 50lbs, stopped over 20 prescription drugs and no
longer has several "diseases".
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