  I love candy.
More specifically I love those little cookie- bottomed Reese's miniature peanut butter
cups;
can't get enough of them.I had a habit of
stashing a bag of these goodies in my dining room hutch, safe from the other "sugar-
cravers" in my family. I thought of them during the day, in the drawer just
waiting for me.
I tried not to eat my whole supply in one go, but every night I would slide on by the
hutch and grab a small handful or two; a couple of times a night.
Boy, they tasted
so good.
 I might pocket a small handful of M&Ms here and there. On
other nights after dinner I might have some ice-cream or some other sugary dessert,
instead of the candy. Not a lot; just once a day.
Last month, with bathing suit weather coming,
I took a serious look at what I was eating. I was also in the midst of
having major heart palpitations and hot flashes during the night. I couldn't figure
out why this was happening. I thought I was doing everything "right" but
couldn't cool down enough to get a good night's sleep.
Well, after looking at what I've been eating, I thought not bad, there's not too much left
to cut out.
The
only thing left
was the candy - the sugar.
I figured I'll run an experiment
on myself and stop sneaking those candies and desserts and see what happens.
At first it was tough, very tough.
I had dreams about little Reese's peanut butter cups dancing in my brain along
with M&Ms square- dancing in dreamland. I toughed it out, eating oranges instead
and staying out of the kitchen and away from that darn hutch. I felt like an addict.
I also wasn't winning any prizes for Miss Congeniality. I was grumpy.
But an amazing thing happened
on my way to becoming sugar-free. Somewhere around day 6 of my sugar
detoxification program; I WAS sleeping better. No more flashes, no more heart
palpitations. Could it be the sugar or just luck?
I hadn't changed anything aside from dropping the sugar. Could it be?
I went to one of my favorite health books
Menopause Without Medicine by Linda Ojeda
and looked up sugar. There it was, on page 37, the reason I was sleeping so well- it WAS
the sugar causing me all the troubles. Linda wrote a bit about how sugar and middle
age do not go well together and they especially don't mix when it comes to perimenopause
and menopause. It's like when worlds collide.
Here's a small excerpt from Linda's book Menopause
Without Medicine about sugar:
"Reducing
minimally nutritive foods is crucial for menopausal women.
  After-dinner sweets, specialty
coffees, and dinner wines, as comforting as they are do not serve menopausal women
well. If you are already well into menopause, you may have noticed your favorite
treats are not as well tolerated as they were a few years ago. The same coffee, and
chocolate at night that delighted you before may now keep you up until dawn with
nightmares, a racing heart, and hot flashes. Pay attention to foods that are no
longer worth the momentary pleasure.
Reprinted with permission of the author, Linda Ojeda
copyright 1999 All rights reserved
"The icing
on the cake"
Well, this was, excuse the expression, the
icing on the cake . Between my little sugar experiment and what Linda Ojeda had
written I was converted. I can't deny it. I was an ex-sugar addict.
I
do feel better
and do sleep MUCH better.
Enough said.
Does this mean I will never enjoy my little goodies again? Probably
not. It means that I will have them well before bedtime, in much smaller amounts, and
occasionally, not every day.
Candy, for me, along with all those other sugary delights, will have to go from a major
food group to the treat that it was originally suppose to be.
It's worth a good night's sleep.
How sweet it is.
Carbohydrate Sensitivity
from the "The
Menopause Diet"
  Falling estrogen levels alter the ability of our stomachs to
empty as soon as they should, tacking on an extra hour. This makes women extremely
efficient at sucking out the carbohydrates in food and storing them as fat.
Living with Hypoglycemia
(Low Blood Sugar)
by Sue Spataro, RN, BSN
Find out the signs and symptoms of
hypoglycemia and what you can do about it. |
more dieting
books
