A friend recently asked, “Have you come across any findings in health about sugar? I watched Fed Up and it was a little scary to see. Wondering if you’ve looked into it/already know a lot about it. I’m starting to feel negative things after avoiding it.”
First of all, three cheers for being willing to learn truth and then act on it! The road is not always easy. I experienced this journey myself when I eliminated processed and refined sugars about seven years ago. Every year, I become more convicted that the “sacrifice” (if it can be called that) was more than worth it!
Is processed sugar dangerous?
Ty Bollinger, from The Truth About Cancer, has an excellent article on sugar and why it is called the “white death”.
How Sugar Makes You Fat & Sick (and can even lead to Cancer) – Dr. David Jockers
Dr. Axe Article: “Is Sugar Bad for You?”
Withdrawal after cutting sugar
When you first give up sugar, most men and women will experience withdrawal symptoms. Why? Well, your body is addicted to this substance and it will take a little time to break your dependency on this “drug”. It takes determination, wisdom and strength from the Lord to break the cycle, but it is possible! Not only is it possible, but I can tell you, it is more than worth it!
These are 5 pieces of advice that were helpful for me:
- Fresh fruits and vegetables – Our environment and traditional way of eating is toxic. Your system is literally starved of nutrition so flood it with life! Fill your meals with the foods that God “ordained for the constitution, nature and use of man.” Eat variety! Eat the rainbow! (https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/rainbow-diet-cancer/)
- Plenty of fresh water
- Prayer – Get down on your knees and ask God for wisdom. He will inspire you with ideas. I promise you that the Lord does hear and answer prayers!
- Exercise, fresh air & sunshine
- Healthy desserts – Don’t create a void without filling it. When you cut out the bad, you need to replace it with good.
Epigenetics
If you are trying to consider whether or not you should give up processed sugar and switch to a diet more in line with the Word of Wisdom (D&C 89), let me share with something that changed my life and gave me the motivation to follow true principles of health, whatever the cost.
Epigenetics.
The study of epigenetics is a relatively new scientific discovery that is revolutionizing our understanding of genes and health. New research is revealing that everything you eat, everything you do, everything you think and so forth affects your children and grandchildren.
“One of the most exciting and rapidly expanding research fields in the study of the genome is the area of epigenetics. The term epigenetics is derived from the Greek prefix epi which means “on top of.” In other words, this is an additional type of genomic language that overlays the DNA code which helps to control how genes are switched on or off. Epigenetics is one explanation for how our environment and behavioral traits, such as diet or smoking, can affect our genome and how many of these changes can even be heritable—affecting traits literally passed along to our children and grandchildren.” (Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D., Epigenetic Code More Complicated Than Previously Thought, http://www.icr.org/article/epigenetic-code-more-complicated-than/)
Over a century ago, President Brigham Young prophesied that:
If every woman in this Church will now cease drinking tea, coffee, liquor, and all other powerful stimulants, and live upon vegetables, etc not many generations will pass away before the days of man will again return. But it will take generations to eradicate entirely the influences of deleterious substances. This must be done before we can attain our paradisiacal state, for the Lord will bring again Zion to its paradisiacal state. (Journal of Discourses 8:63-64.)
Infants, children, youth, young men, and young women, thousands and tens of thousands of them, go to an untimely grave through the diseases engendered in their systems by their progenitors. (Journal of Discourses 13:276.)
Did the Lord reveal epigenetic science to President Brigham Young? I don’t know but I am forever grateful for his words. I am confident that if we follow his counsel, our posterity will inherit a better future.
If you struggle to make the right choice for yourself, do it for your children.
Healthy Alternatives?
If you have made the decision to cut out sugar, you may be thinking to yourself, “My life . . . is over.” don’t worry!
The truth is, that everything Satan does is merely a counterfeit of God. In the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord warned us of “evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days,”. D&C 89 is our “answer”, our tool to protect ourselves and our family against the plagues and diseases of the Latter-days.
The Lord’s solution is simple:
And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—
Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.
When we look into nature, when we study the “wholesome herbs God” has ordained for our use, we discover an over-abundance of sweet fruits and vegetables that bring a flood of life into our body! Instead of creating an addiction, fresh fruits given to us by a merciful Father will enable us to realize the promises of D&C 89. His counsel will enable us to usher in a Millennium of health, strength and vitality for our posterity.
