Sugar has the potential to reduce your body's defenses

The number one reason I gave up on sugar is that it has no nutritional value for your good health. Yes, it is calories, but they don't do you any good except to keep your brain running in an emergency when it is out of sugar. Why not eat all the food that is known to have benefits for the body's growth and good health? Might as well eat grass. Well, that is for cows, but then they can make their own protein and have several stomachs. After raising livestock for eating and for potential profit living on the farm, I understand the wisdom of eating what is best for my body. Except that I am not going off to market. My granddaughters ate well for athletics. Now they are adults and continue to eat well as a habit. One granddaughter had a cancerous growth called a Spitz tumor removed at age five. So she learned she needed to eat lots of fresh fruit for the antioxidants. It costs to feed her but she is worth it. I keep trying to remind her about eating fruits in season instead of so much imported. We decided to not worry about the expense in favor of good health. Dorisena

I have heard that the A1C is more important than fasting blood sugar results. Do others agree?

Yes, of course. Fasting blood sugar can be high because of stress or taking strong pain meds. In the nursing home they take your blood test early before you get up out of bed, even waking you up to do the vitals. Dorisena

I have no issue with reducing the excess of sugar consumption. It is the details in this specific article. It is what is being used to justify not eating A cookie when the start of a cold happens.

I remember the days of Dr. Pauling saying we needed lots of vitamin C to avoid colds. I had lots of sinus infections at the time so I drank lots of Tang, promoted by NASA and full of sugar. It did no good at all, and probably because of the sugar. I also remember that when I gave up carrot cake, ice cream and such my knees didn't have so much pain from inflammation, I think. That was before the knee replacements. This science of all this has not been available to us but in now coming to light as we examine the research and rely on facts rather than the craziness of the sixties and some of the Hippy ideas that didn't pan out at all. I know you are going to ask: what ideas? and I am thinking of the raw corn and unpasteurized honey goods. My friends put raw sweet corn in the freezer and wondered why it spoiled. Dorisena

I have cut any foods with added sugar from my diet and seen wonderful results. My inflammation increases greatly whenever I eat a cookie or a bit of cake. This may not only be because of the sugar per se; I have noticed that organic non-gmo sugar is less inflammatory making we wonder about pesticides and their adjuvants. Thanks for your wonderful question!

We need to be careful about our assumptions with scientific issues like GMO because we are not getting the complete story at times, and we are not eating all the products that are affected by it's use. I am educated in the agricultural world but new studies come to light all the time. Agricultural people are not crooks or cheats, and want the same safe food as everyone else. Food in American is getting safer and safer, as we learn to use less chemicals, but foreign food is not always as safe. I don't eat soy products because of a test I had with breast cancer that showed I should avoid it. So I am satisfied with growing GMO soybeans for industrial use. There is no such thing as a perfectly safe food, as there are toxic chemicals occurring naturally in some foods. We also have naturally occurring unsafe water in some areas. It is a long story and we need to study and learn. Farmers are not the bad guys, because it is expensive to use new products so they want to be as careful as all consumers. Even steak on the grill can become toxic. I keep studying. Dorisena

I am so glad to know someone else who thinks avoiding sugar decreases inflammation. Please don't mix the subject of pesticides and GMO's in one discussion, because they are two different issues. It bothers me that sugarcane is burned before being manufactured because of the possible toxic affects from burning. It gets very complicated to those of us who grow food and other products for non food use.
Today my blood sugar is down and I don't have pain. I''ll take it even though I don't understand it well. Dorisena

Growing up as a young girl, the first thing I was taught to bake was cookies and pies, followed by making homemade fudge. Even though I was in Home Ec. classes in high school, and learned nutrition in 4-H cooking projects, nothing was ever mentioned about the possible harmful effects of eating too much sugar, or the fact that it has no nutritional value but can provide some energy. I am thankful to be able to learn more about good nutrition and its effects on our bodies and how to manage so we can become healthier and active in old age. This sounds obvious, but I am still angry that I was kept ignorant about food and didn't have the opportunity to learn best practices at an early age. My mother knew if you ate too much, you got fat, and that was about it. She said they got rid of the milk cow in the back shed after babies were weaned at about three years. Doctors are not excellent educators and don't have the time. Thank God we are learning better eating habits and exercising more. We don't grow much cane sugar in America but do grow sugar beets. It is enough. Dorisena

Good insights coming from your agricultural education. Since you are writing about misconceptions, my pet peeve is those that say it's ok to put on your skin or eat simply because it is "natural". It's good for you because it is natural. This is so misleading. Rubber is natural, yet I am allergic to it, cinnamon is natural yet I react not only from the fragrance, but internally it raises my histamines and as a topical causes a rash. Like you I react to soy beans, yet they are a good food source for many. Rubber is useful for those not allergic just as cinnamon is a delicious spice or fragrance for those not allergic. Each of us has to work at putting together our own jigsaw puzzle of our unique needs and poisons. That is why blogging on this site is helpful because we can learn from others with similar issues.