USING SUGAR IN ROTATION DIET

 

Don't use any drinks that contain "straight sugar," that is, soft drinks. Sugar must be blended as a minor ingredient in the overall recipe for any food.

While white table sugar (sucrose) is found naturally in many foods, it has only been freely available in its processed form for about a hundred years.

Considering that about two million years have been involved in the evolution of the human capacity to deal with foods as they are found in our natural environments, it is safe to say that your body is not designed to deal with sugar "straight," which, after all, is a relatively new product. In some persons, processed foods that are high in sucrose set off reactions that are not only terrible for controlling your weight but lead to what is called "insulin overshoot." Too much insulin will deplete your blood of circulating sugar (glycogen), leading to temporary symptoms of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Although the disease hypoglycemia is rare, the temporary symptoms of low blood sugar in normal persons may lead to an increase in appetite. You should avoid using sugar straight, just as you should avoid using an artificial sweetener except as a minor ingredient in a recipe containing other ingredients.

Should you make an effort to give up completely using sugar or eating candy, cakes, and pies? I don't think so.

An effort to be completely abstinent may build up such a tremendous hidden hunger drive that the slightest deviation can end up in a monstrous binge. There is a happy medium in eating the foods you like best. You must build them into your diet intentionally. Planning to enjoy them, without the driven quality that often accompanies your eating of foods that you feel guilty about enjoying, may actually protect you against a binge.

Some successful people who have been through the Vanderbilt Program build one to two servings of a rich dessert or candy into their daily maintenance diets. They are now active enough to prevent regaining any weight. I prefer to eat more nutritious foods. I have found my happy medium by including a rich dessert, or possibly some candy, just once a week, or sometimes twice. In this way, I never feel that I am denying myself. However, by not eating such foods every day, I no longer have any yearning for them as a regular part of my diet.

I also make sure that the temptation to eat candy and desserts is not triggered by keeping such foods in the house on a regular basis. Instead, we have bowls of fruit on display and can eat whenever we feel inclined without worrying about the effects on our weight.