Purely Nourished

Sugar is a sim­ple car­bo­hy­drate occur­ring nat­u­rally in foods such as grains, beans, veg­eta­bles, and fruit. When con­sumed in this pure, unprocessed form it pro­vides numer­ous vit­a­mins, min­er­als, enzymes and proteins.

A processed form was cre­ated in the 17^th cen­tury, with the con­struc­tion of the first sugar refin­ery.  The refin­ing processed removed valu­able vit­a­mins, min­er­als and fiber, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for the body to digest. To prop­erly digest refined sugar, the body must tap into its stor­age forms of enzymes and min­er­als cre­at­ing a defi­ciency in the body. In addi­tion, once the sugar reaches the blood­stream it gen­er­ates an extreme rise and then dip in blood sugar. The effect of this change in blood sugar lev­els leaves the indi­vid­ual with numer­ous unfa­vor­able symp­toms, fatigue and irri­tabil­ity to name a few. Clearly, refined sugar does noth­ing but wreak havoc on your fab­u­lous body. By cut­ting your sugar intake in half, you will notice a dif­fer­ence in your energy, crav­ings, and mood swings. Choose nat­ural forms of sugar such as honey and maple syrup to curb your addic­tion. Your body will thank you!

Nat­ural Alternatives

• Raw Honey — One of the most pop­u­lar sweet­en­ers; It con­tains small amounts of enzymes, min­er­als, and vitamins.
• Maple Syrup — Made from boiled down sap of the Maple tree; This syrup is filled with minerals.
• Brown Rice Syrup — Prod­uct of brown rice; It is mod­er­ately sweet with a but­ter­scotch flavor.
• Molasses — Derived from clar­i­fied and blended sugar beet juices. It is a great source of iron, cal­cium, mag­ne­sium, and potassium.
• Rapadura (whole cane sugar) — Cre­ated from the extracted juice of the sugar cane plant. It is rich in vit­a­mins and minerals.
• Ste­via — Extracted from the Ste­via herb; Ste­via is known for hav­ing no effect on blood sugar lev­els. (Note: Green and brown liq­uids are the unprocessed form of Ste­via so stay away from the white and clear forms.)

To Sum­ma­rize

Best forms of sugar (least processed): Honey, Maple Sugar, Molasses, Rapadura, Stevia

Try to avoid: High fruc­tose corn syrup, evap­o­rated cane juice, sucanat, and turinado.

Note On Agave

Whats with agave? Two years ago the agave kick was huge. Now peo­ple are not so sure.

Agave — Liq­uid sweet­ener made from the agave cactus.

How its made– In order for agave to be trans­formed into a nec­tar form it must undergo pro­cess­ing sim­i­lar to High Fruc­tose Corn Syrup. In other words it becomes highly refined fructose.

Highly refined = loss in vit­a­mins, min­er­als, & pro­tein = Unrec­og­niz­able to the body = Harder for the body to digest.

Yes agave has a low glycemic index but that is only because it is not processed as a glu­cose mol­e­cule (glu­cose is what causes blood sugar lev­els to rise and fall). Rather the body digests the refined fruc­tose (agave) in the liver by turn­ing it into triglyc­erides and stor­ing them as fat.

Steps To Put You On The Right Track

1. Keep sugar OUT of the house; if its not acces­si­ble you will be less likely to eat it.
2. Drink water when you feel a crav­ing com­ing on; many times that sugar crav­ing is a dis­guise for dehydration.
3. Con­sume a greater vari­ety of sweet fruits and veg­eta­bles to substitute.
4. Con­sciously make it a point to avoid sugar; after a few days it will be out of your sys­tem thus decreas­ing your desire.