I read this book, "Little Sugar Addicts" by Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons, over the weekend, and was amazed to see so much of my childhood in this book. It talks about how a lot of ADD children are really just sugar sensitive, and their diet causes their mood swings and inattention. I knew a lot of this from SBD, but I found the book very interesting. It emphasizes protein with every meal, saying that adults need 1/2 of their body weight in grams of protein each day, and children need 70-100% of their body weight in grams of protein each day.
One of the things the book says is that even the taste of "sweet" can have the same effects as sugar in the brain. Caffeine is the same thing. And that diet cola, specifically aspartame, when the body breaks it down it turns into formaldehyde. I may never drink diet cola again.... I've cut regular cola out of my life for almost a year now, even before I started SBD. I only had the diet cola every once in a while.
I can't cut down on the "sweet" flavors, though. I am in love with Agave Nectar, and I enjoy it with my decaf in the morning. I have a cup of caffeinated coffee here at work, but I've been working on cutting that out, and having more green tea.
I thought that this was really interesting, and thought I'd share. See if anyone else had noticed a correlation between mood and sugar, and if anyone else felt that their mood and energy level had improved since doing SBD. I know my blood sugar is much better, more stable now. I wonder about going extreme and cutting out all sweet add ons, like the agave nectar for my coffee, but don't think I have it in me.
Back to kids. I am continually amazed at the snacks that parents send to school with their 5 year olds. The kids (300 of them) have a snack break around 10 and sit outside on benches to eat them. Cookies,packaged cakes, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar. Then maybe one or 2 kids out of each class of 24 will have an apple or some grapes or something healthy. Gee, why is Johnny bouncing off the wall or falling asleep??
I know what you mean Cat. I am a teacher and the lunches that are packed are nuts! I have had kids bring in a large bag of candy- one Jelly Beans the other Skittles last week- and that is lunch. No veggies, not protein, no.... well anything but sugar!
well i'll not touch on the ADD is because of sugar issue...
but i will touch on how horribly most parents feed their kids.... i was vvery guilty of it until SBD so now Girl child gets string cheese and cheerioes for breakfast... i can't get her to eat oatmeal during the week...
Happy, that sounds like one of those poor kids whose parents don't even bother to get up in the morning to get them off to school, so the kid grabs candy. jeez. Had one a few years ago who brought nothing but a bag of potato chips to school every day for lunch.
I don't know why, but it just rememinded me of my youngest when he was little and going to school here (we are all kindergarten). His class had lunch right before mine did and when his class passed by mine in line, I asked him what he ate for lunch and he told me "Chicken and fruit cotton-tail" (fruit cocktail). Another time he told me "Cork and Beans" (pork and beans).
Last edited by femmecreole; 04-21-2008 at 01:03 PM.
I totally concur on sugar and kids. It's awful how addicted they get. The worst example I've ever seen was when I was a summer camp counselor. The camp where I worked had several kids that were raised in other countries and grew up on Nutella (a chocolate-hazelnut spread for those who don't know) spread on white bread, not too much different from our PB&J sandwiches. However, at that time, it was very hard to get Nutella in our area; you had to import it from another country and there wasn't much of an internet to help you. When the parents ran out, they'd send their kids to camp with a sandwich made from white bread (aka sugar) and chocolate frosting! It was awful!
I definitely feel like my energy and moods are much more stable since I gave up sugar, uscarchie. The couple of times I've gone off SBD for a planned OP time, I find myself feeling horrible physically--headaches, grouchiness, irritability, shaky, etc. It's awful.
In one chapter, the doctor mentioned 6 graders breakfasts in one poll: One kid ate brownies and coke for breakfast. Most ate cereal. Not a one had enough protein, but this was only a poll of one class of 6th graders.
Little Sugar Addicts
The worst example I've ever seen was when I was a summer camp counselor. The camp where I worked had several kids that were raised in other countries and grew up on Nutella (a chocolate-hazelnut spread for those who don't know) spread on white bread, not too much different from our PB&J sandwiches. However, at that time, it was very hard to get Nutella in our area; you had to import it from another country and there wasn't much of an internet to help you. When the parents ran out, they'd send their kids to camp with a sandwich made from white bread (aka sugar) and chocolate frosting! 
It was awful!