Its 8:30 am on a Monday, both kids are home, the wife is home and of course the two masters of the house, Rocky and Oso are home. The kids are still asleep and I am not fast at the wheel of my car commuting to work (better yet, I should have been there almost 1 ½ hours ago)… it must be a holiday…it is Labor Day weekend.
As a kid I remember that labor day weekend meant school was just about to start (not so anymore, most of the kids start towards the end of August), So where do we go meandering today and I saw go for health.
Last week someone I know, the mother of an autistic child, posted an article that was published in the NY Times about a possible root cause of Autism….that perhaps it is an immune disorder. The article goes on to discuss that perhaps one third and maybe even more of autism is part of a subset that looks like inflammatory disease. If the mother has rheumatoid arthritis then the child has an elevated risk of autism of over 80%, celiac disease raises the risk by 350%. And why as a rule are autoimmune diseases, in general, on the rise in the developed nations (not third world countries where there is not as much processed food) And as simple as controlling the immune system in pregnant moms may be I still believe there is something else to the increase of immune disease.
According to Dr. Robert Lustig, the man behind ‘Sugar: The Bitter Truth’ one of the most common causes of an over reactive immune system is sugar. And we are eating way too much sugar these days. At the turn of the 1700’s a human consumed, on average, about 7 ½ pounds of sugar a year. Today the average is over 150 pounds a day a whopping 20 times more in about 300 years. You would have to be blind to not see that the increase of sugar in our diet (thanks to the food manufactures who want you to believe that there is nothing wrong with sugar) has led to a host of medical issues, including issues of obesity, diabetes and increased issues with heart disease. Given the host of evils that sugar has brought upon our health system it is not a stretch to include the increase in autoimmune type disease to the over consumption of sugar as well. I happen to follow what Dr. Lustig says very carefully and give you these possible 8 actions to cut down the amount of sugar you eat (courtesy of Judy Molland and Care 2)
1. Check the labels
2. Try not to let yourself get hungry
3. Avoid processed foods
4. Make smart choices when eating out
5. Be ready to deal with cravings
6. Challenge yourself to go completely sugar-free for 2 weeks
7. Get a friend to give up sugar with you
8. Go have fun
For more details go to http://www.care2.com/causes/8-tips-for-going-the-sugar-free.html#ixzz24NvdDC5Q