I've lost weight and I feel better. Most of all I can drive on by Starbucks, and walk on by the bakery at QFC or the candy at the check-out counter and know I won't likely succumb. That "should I or shouldn't I?" internal struggle is quieter. (Not silent.) The chemical cascade of horror inside my body is, hopefully, finding its way back to normal equilibrium. That keeps me on track.
Too much sugar ingestion is toxic. It just is. It pollutes our bodies and causes all kinds of ill effects: Type 2 Diabetes is pandemic (5.5% of the world's population! - International Diabetes Foundation stat) mostly due the the enormous amount of sugar in our diets. Once I get a better handle on the biochemical data, I'll try to translate it, but apparently my Snickers addiction in high school has left my brain in a state of science-understanding atrophy, so be patient. Just know it's bad.
I've spent the past couple of days helping edit some writing my husband ("Hub") is doing for his various climate change activities. He's taken this cause on like a part-time job, bringing his expertise in the medical field to the discussion. He's focused on the health effects of climate change. He's gone to nine climate-related meetings in the past two weeks . Coming up this week are a series of public comment opportunities for which he's preparing his remarks. Those, along with a Guest Commentary column for the local newspaper, are what I've been editing. I'm learning a lot.
And I've begun to think of air pollution along the same lines of sugar pollution. Burning fossil fuels to heat our homes, drive our cars, take long trips on airplanes seems as normal and as American as, well, apple pie. But just like that apple pie, what goes on inside our 'home' (body and planet) reveals the deleterious effects being played out. Breathing particulate matter from burning gasoline and diesel (air pollution!) has caused a dramatic spike in diagnosed cases of asthma -- especially for those who live near freeways (generally lower socio-economic communities), as well as increasing likelihood of cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, allergy-related ailments, diabetes, immunosuppression, impaired reproductive success, even dementia.
Burning fossil fuels, like ingesting sugar, leads to a toxic brew of ill-effects, not the least of which is dependence. We think we can't live without it.
And we can't as long as we look through the lens of the way things have always been -- at least in our lifetimes. The rise of fossil fuel (coal, gas, oil) dependence came with the Industrial Age and has increased 1300 fold since 1800 (our world in data stat). The rise in sugar consumption grew dramatically with the introduction into our food sources of high fructose corn syrup in the 1970s along with the demand for quick, highly processed convenience foods. We became "hooked" on sugar and oil and can scarcely imagine life without them, regardless of the health impacts.
The more I learn about health and climate change, the more I see that there are multiple ways in which we've been snookered by industries, corporations and government to cling to the lie that these things are not harmful and are in fact 'good' for us. Not true. It's time to wean ourselves from these substances and create a new vision for our future -- one that removes us from living in toxic environments -- inside and out.
Here's to health, for ourselves and our planet...©
