Ah – Honey, Honey. You are my Candy Girl – and you’ve got me wanting you.

Addictive just like the girl in the Archies song, sugar can have a strong hold over many a sweet-tooth. It is a hot topic in the health world and even entering political legislature. We all know to avoid sugary foods for maintaining good health, but sometimes this task feels next to agonizingly impossible (you know, when that 4:30pm chocolate-chip cookie literally lured you out of the office). More and more studies are showing that difficulty curbing those cravings is not merely a reflection of will-power, but may be the result of a chemical dependency. Despite efforts to eliminate desserts, ice cream and other obvious culprits, find out where else sugar is hiding in foods you might not have guessed.

Health Risks

So what is the big deal with refined sugary treats?  They give us a boost of quick energy, taste delicious, soothe our emotions and add a little touch of sweetness to our lives. The processing of such sugar products makes them have almost no nutritional value (what nutritionists call “empty calories”), which means we digest them incredibly fast, causing hormonal fluctuations, blood sugar spikes, energy highs & lows and excessive hunger. This part feels not so great. The worst of it is that when our body becomes accustomed to refined sugary foods as a main staple the highs and lows may not be as noticeable, but our body is struggling at alarming rate – leaving us prone to obesity, aggravated PCOS and PMS symptoms, diabetes and heart disease.

Yes – heart disease! Why? Because when the body is fueled by refined carbohydrates (including white flour and sugar), it becomes inflamed, making it hard to circulate fluids, blood and nutrients around the body. As the blood vessels swell, we are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Cut the sugar, cut the inflammation and heal your circulatory system.

Sugar’s Not Illegal, But You’ll Have to Pay More For It

In an effort to reduce the consumption of sugary-beverages (and thus attempting to have an impact on declining Obesity statistics, New York City Governor, David Patterson, is implementing a Sugar Sweetened Beverage (SSB) Tax. Sugary sodas, bottled teas, coffees and energy drinks will be taxed higher for every ounce of the sugar-laden product while eliminating current taxes attached to bottled water and other low calorie bottled beverages. The goal being that if people can’t kick the sugary drinks for their own health, that by putting their pocketbooks in charge will make the decision easier for them. To read the full proposed SSB Tax Package, click here.

Perhaps there is some merit to this…but a part of me believes that if you want (ahem – or crave) the Coca-Cola, you’ll buy the Coca-Cola (even if a bottle of water a few cents cheaper). If the proposed tax law is what it takes to motivate an open discussion and investigation on the impact of sugar on individual health, then that is a step forward right there.

More Than  Question of Will

Like addictions of other sorts, sugar dependence depends on individual constitution- a predisposition of sorts. Some people can indulge and never think about it again, while others crave that sugary treat – constantly ruminating about when and where the next will come from and how delicious it will taste and make them feel. The latter response is a question of body chemistry. Sugar immediately feeds our brains with necessary neurotransmitters which then sends out a “feel good” response to the entire body. The problem is that this sensation wears off quite quickly, leaving us feeling worse than before we started.  This type of reaction can also ignite some withdrawal symptoms when sugar is omitted, encouraging us to go right back into the cookie jar.

Emotions do play a part too. Growing up in the midwest, there wasn’t a day that my mother (or grandmother) didn’t have some fresh baked treat coming out of the oven. The joys of helping build the batter, the smell that fills the house while it bakes and the time spent enjoying it together. These are deep memories, ingrained, and pleasant. What happy memory came out of brown rice cakes and peanut butter? While taking care of our physical health, we need to be kind to our emotional health. This article is not meant for you to stop baking devils-food cake with grandma, but to be more conscious of the big picture. Home-made goods tend to have a lot less sugar than store-bought ones, and you have the freedom to tweak the recipe if you want. An avid baker myself, I’ve found the past-time can become much healthier (and still very tasty!) by exchanging refined ingredients for more energizing ones – like in my banana-fig bread.

Your body needs carbohydrates. They have an important function on brain chemistry, hormonal balance and systemic health. These systems respond optimally when we feed ourselves complex carbohydrates like whole grains, fruits, potatoes, yams and other root vegetables.  Check out this great explanation of the difference between simple and complex carbs: click here.

The Sugar Behind The Salt

Avoiding dessert is not enough when it comes to eliminating the sugar-cycle, but all refined flours and corn syrups must also be taken into consideration. Although you can taste the difference between a chewy white bagel and a piece of chocolate cake, your body doesn’t know the difference as far as digestion is concerned. White flour and white sugar are essentially the same when it comes to nutritional value (none), expedited digestion (because there is no nutrition or fiber), and thus leading to the same inflammatory responses.  If you must have your morning bagel, try to upgrade to whole grain. Even better, add some peanut butter, a fried egg or cream cheese as protein slows the digestion of carbohydrates so you feel fuller longer and have more stabilized energy.

Get conscious as a consumer, and evaluate what you choose to put in your body. It is not about eliminating decadence from  your life, but moderating it – so you can feel your best and live a long healthy life. When reducing refined carbohydrates, limit the following to give your self the best possible scenario:

• White Flours (breads, pasta, white rice)
• White Sugars
• Brown Sugars
• Candy
• Alcohol (filled with sugary calories – especially flavored liquors, whiskeys, rum, brandy and wine)
• High Fructose Corn Syrup (careful…it’s in almost everything on your supermarket shelves)

Sweet Alternatives: A Sugar-Lovers Cheat Sheet

While most health practitioners out there agree that if you are going to kick the sweet-tooth for good, then that means cutting out anything naturally sweet (extremists will even include fresh fruit in this category). For some individuals, this period of extreme elimination is necessary to cut the cravings as even a healthier sweetness will set off the desire for more. But here are some tricks to try to eliminate the refined sugars from your life while still including a little sweetness:

• Fresh Fruit: full of natural sugars and carbohydrates that will hydrate the body, offer plenty of vitamins and other nutrients, and a low glycemic index (meaning less blood sugar spikes and pitfalls). Truly the perfect addition after a meal or to hot oatmeal in the morning.
• Agave Nectar: considered a ‘wonder plant’ this very sweet syrup is completely natural, derived from the Agave Cactus and actually offers health benefits – including anti-inflammatory and immune boosting properties (the complete antithesis of pure sugar). Agave contains substances like Inulin and Saponins, which actually improve digestion and may even promote weight loss. With a low-glycemic index, Agave Nectar won’t add to the afternoon slump or low spikes in blood sugar.
• Honey: Our friends the bees have created a perfect substance for providing a little sweetness to our lives, and our health. With naturally occurring digestive enzymes, anti-germicidal and anti-microbial properties, honey can help curb an upset stomach or IBS  by cleansing the digestive tract. It has also been shown to be helpful in reducing allergy symptoms.
• 100% Pure Maple Syrup: A naturally occurring sap from a variety of trees, this viscous amber liquid contains many minerals and vitamins, including zinc and maganese (both important for heart health). The darker the amber (available in Grade A Light, Medium, Dark and Grade B), the stronger the flavor. Be careful not to be mistaken by Pure Maple-Flavored Syrup, which is a simple-sugary substitute.
• Reduce Simple Carbohydrates: The body doesn’t know the difference between white flour and white sugar – it breaks it down the same. So, your sugar-free roll may be giving you the same spikes in blood sugar as a candy bar. Complex carbohydrates like whole grains will offer more fiber and protein to your diet, reducing the glycemic load.
• Pair a Protein: Nuts, seeds, eggs, beans, legumes and animal protein will help slow the digestion of carbohydrates – keeping you fuller longer and your energy stable. So if you are going to have a fluffy white bagel, pair it with some peanut butter or cream cheese to help your blood sugar out.

You Don’t Have to Do It Alone!

There is plenty of support out there to help you curb your sugar-habit so you can develop a healthier relationship with it. Acupuncture is a great way to stabilize the hormone and metabolic system, also helps curb cravings so avoiding is much easier. We have a great elimination diet protocol, filled with recipes and substitutes to make this challenge a lot easier and a lot more rewarding.

Reduce Cravings

Improve Energy

Alleviate Joint Pain

Reduce Muscle Fatigue

Regulate Blood Sugar Levels

Jump Start Your Metabolism

Regulate Hormone Function

Detoxify the System

Reduce Stress

It is that time of year again…for making those promises to ourselves that we have been putting off through the busy holidays. One of the most common New Years Resolutions is to lose weight, and it is also the least kept. Why? The culprit may be coming from a constitutional level. There are many factors that can cause excessive weight gain and an inability to lose weight such as undetected food allergies, stress, anxiety, depression, unstable glucose levels, or inflammatory responses such as arthritis, chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia. Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal medicine offer time-tested remedies to help strengthen your individual system at the root level so that you can lose weight efficiently, and keep it off for good. Reducing cravings, improving energy, alleviating joint pain and muscle fatigue, regulating metabolism and reducing stress are just some of the added benefits of incorporating acupuncture and herbal formulas into your weight loss resolution.

Reducing Cravings & Addressing Addictions

Food provides us with an enormous amount of nutritional benefits, but also emotional benefits. Over time, dietary habits can be hard to break (mostly due to emotional ties). For this reason, typical dieting tends to lead to a common feeling of insufficiency and can ignite cravings and addictions we didn’t even know were there in the first place. Taking away food that the body (and mind) is used to enjoying often engulfs a person in a cycle of binging and obsession. Acupuncture can help on a neurological level to reduce cravings and stop addictive behavior. In fact, acupuncture is so successful at resolving addictions, many rehabilitation clinics across the country train their staff in auricular acupuncture to alleviate a variety of addictions. Although on its surface weight gain may not seem like “addictive behavior,” it most certainly can be the result of a habitual diet that the system has now become accustomed to and even physically dependent on. Trying to change our diets can be difficult, frustrating and exhausting.  Acupuncture can work at the root level to make this process positive, easy and successful.

Detoxifying the System

Carrying excess weight is often a sign that your body is not processing things efficiently or correctly.  The cause for this could be from a number of reasons, but a good place to start is a simple detoxification to cleanse the body of unwanted toxins and debris. Such a regimen would include Acupuncture to detoxify the liver, herbs to facilitate digestion and reduce inflammation and a diet modification to stabilize blood sugars and eliminate potential allergens. Although this diet modification can initially feel too limiting to maintain, that is because it is!  Detoxification is meant to provide a deep clean so that equilibrium can then be achieved.  For this purpose, our recommendations include whole foods so you feel satiated and a time-frame that is manageable based on individual assessment.

Giving Your Metabolism a Re-Boot

After a simple detoxification, we will help you continue finding the appropriate support  so your digestion can continue working at its best. Our bodies were designed to appropriately digest, distribute and eliminitate the nutrition we take in. The “storage” process that happens is the result of an ineffecient system. Whatever the root cause, acupuncture and herbs will help your digestion and metabolism get back on track and stay there – eliminating the yo-yo effect. Treatments will also help reduce your stress, which is known to cause elevated hormones (like Cortisol) in the body that cause it to hold excess weight. Once your digestion is up and running at its best, frequent acupuncture and herbs will no longer be necessary – your system has been nourished from the root up, yielding lasting benefits.

Emotional Health

Trying to lose weight under any circumstance causes stress. People handle stress in all different ways, and Acupuncture can help release tension in the body, ease feelings of depression and regulate mood swings accompanied by -or preventing you from- losing weight. Exercise will also release important endorphins in the body to help it deal with stress. However, many of the same reasons mentioned in the first paragraph of this post also inhibit many people from working out. Acupuncture and herbs can help help increase energy, promote restful sleep, and alleviate chronic muscle and joint pains that may be preventing you from keeping up with consistent exercise so you can get back on track.

Erin Hessel L.Ac offers time-tested natural remedies to help you lose weight & provide lasting health benefits.  Private, tailored treatments take place in a serene environment for optimum rejuvenation and results.   Call our office today for our 2010 Weight Loss Packages and Specials.

This post is a proud participant in the Kathleen Show’s Prevention Not Prescriptions Blog - a great place for othe resources to start your New Year off right and keep it going.

Joints in and of themselves simply refer to the space where two bones come together, suspended by tendons and ligaments and with some sort of membranous fluid.  Their strength lies in the muscles surrounding them, and therefore when joints hurt there is often a lot more areas of the body involved. Releasing tight muscles and strengthening weak ones can have an enormous impact on relieving joint pain and preventing future problems. This concept may not seem intuitive - that movement will actually reduce pain- but when the pain is a result of weak muscles that are unable to appropriately hold the joint bones in place, strengthening them is vitally important.  The best advice is to start slow. Moderate or light – but consistent – exercise will give lasting effects without further trauma.

**(note that it is important to check with your doctor first, to be sure the cause is weak muscles and not degenerative joint disease).

Bone spurs are bony projections that can grow off of bones and cause pain by rubbing against nerve endings in the area. They often form as the result of osteoarthritis, but can also occur purely from aging. They most commonly form on the heel or knee, but can affect any joint in the body. If appropriately placed near a joint and/or a nerve, they can cause a significant amount of discomfort. NSAID’s (like ibuprofen) or surgery are about the only options Western medicine can offer for these tiny protrusions. 

Acupuncture can help alleviate some of the inflammation, but herbal plasters combined with acupuncture treatments have the most effect on actually reducing the size of the bone spur. The 701 plaster is most well-known for doing this. In fact, a teacher of mine once used them on a race-horse who was diagnosed with bone spurs in its leg, and it took care of it completely.  The plasters are safe, effective, and relatively inexpensive. Most Chinatown pharmacies or acupuncture clinics will have them available. In addition to applying herbal plasters, you can try any of the following suggestions to alleviate many types of inflammatory joint pain.

1)  Exercise

Regular and moderate exercise is the best way to strengthen the muscles surrounding joints.  This can greatly help reduce pain and prevent future problems.  In addition to the direct effect on the musculo-skeletal system, exercise also has numerous system benefits like improving circulation, reducing weight, promoting heart health and increasing calcium absorption. Although joint pain caused by certain types of arthritis and bone spurs can sometimes make it difficult to move around, it is still important to try and commit to performing moderate exercise with low impact.  In the long run, this will help to break out of the vicious cycle of pain and immobility.

2)  Diet

Specifically when trying to reduce an inflammatory response, diet can play a huge role.  Inflammatory foods include spicy, greasy, refined flours/sugars and dairy. Reducing these and eating high-antioxidant and phyto-nutrient rich foods like colorful fruits and vegetables can help the body to clear toxins and soothe inflamed areas. Depending on the chronicity of the problem, going on a special diet as instructed by your healthcare providor to cleanse inflammation from the body may be a wise idea as well. 

3)  Acupuncture

Acupuncture is great for joint pain, muscle pain and inflammation.  It works by improving circulation, removing obstruction and balancing the body’s energy. Not only does it work at the affected area, but also can improve systemic functioning and clear any toxic load that may be the result or cause of joint inflammation. Sometimes acupuncture can provide the relief necessary to allow for routine exercise to begin again, and then together can help recovery happen quicker and prevent future recurrence.

Joints in and of themselves simply refer to the space where two bones come together, suspended by tendons and ligaments and with some sort of membranous fluid.  Their strength lies in the muscles surrounding them, and therefore when joints hurt there is often a lot more areas of the body involved. Releasing tight muscles and strengthening weak ones can have an enormous impact on relieving joint pain and preventing future problems. This concept may not seem intuitive - that movement will actually reduce pain- but when the pain is a result of weak muscles that are unable to appropriately hold the joint bones in place, strengthening them is vitally important.  The best advice is to start slow. Moderate or light – but consistent – exercise will give lasting effects without further trauma.

**(note that it is important to check with your doctor first, to be sure the cause is weak muscles and not degenerative joint disease).

Bone spurs are bony projections that can grow off of bones and cause pain by rubbing against nerve endings in the area. They often form as the result of osteoarthritis, but can also occur purely from aging. They most commonly form on the heel or knee, but can affect any joint in the body. If appropriately placed near a joint and/or a nerve, they can cause a significant amount of discomfort. NSAID’s (like ibuprofen) or surgery are about the only options Western medicine can offer for these tiny protrusions. 

Acupuncture can help alleviate some of the inflammation, but herbal plasters combined with acupuncture treatments have the most effect on actually reducing the size of the bone spur. The 701 plaster is most well-known for doing this. In fact, a teacher of mine once used them on a race-horse who was diagnosed with bone spurs in its leg, and it took care of it completely.  The plasters are safe, effective, and relatively inexpensive. Most Chinatown pharmacies or acupuncture clinics will have them available. In addition to applying herbal plasters, you can try any of the following suggestions to alleviate many types of inflammatory joint pain.

1)  Exercise

Regular and moderate exercise is the best way to strengthen the muscles surrounding joints.  This can greatly help reduce pain and prevent future problems.  In addition to the direct effect on the musculo-skeletal system, exercise also has numerous system benefits like improving circulation, reducing weight, promoting heart health and increasing calcium absorption. Although joint pain caused by certain types of arthritis and bone spurs can sometimes make it difficult to move around, it is still important to try and commit to performing moderate exercise with low impact.  In the long run, this will help to break out of the vicious cycle of pain and immobility.

2)  Diet

Specifically when trying to reduce an inflammatory response, diet can play a huge role.  Inflammatory foods include spicy, greasy, refined flours/sugars and dairy. Reducing these and eating high-antioxidant and phyto-nutrient rich foods like colorful fruits and vegetables can help the body to clear toxins and soothe inflamed areas. Depending on the chronicity of the problem, going on a special diet as instructed by your healthcare providor to cleanse inflammation from the body may be a wise idea as well. 

3)  Acupuncture

Acupuncture is great for joint pain, muscle pain and inflammation.  It works by improving circulation, removing obstruction and balancing the body’s energy. Not only does it work at the affected area, but also can improve systemic functioning and clear any toxic load that may be the result or cause of joint inflammation. Sometimes acupuncture can provide the relief necessary to allow for routine exercise to begin again, and then together can help recovery happen quicker and prevent future recurrence.