Freedom

"Defend your beliefs with courtesy and with compassion, but defend them." --Jeffrey R. Holland

I experienced a long list of health benefits when I broke free of my sugar/refined flour addiction and started eating whole foods. So much so that I made it my crusade to see that my family also broke free of the addiction as well. When you stop the dopamine surge cravings for carbs you not only see how much it affected your body, but also how much it affects those around you. Needless to say people didn't like my crusade to improve their lives. Even my dear husband, who loves me so much and tried so hard to be supportive, was frustrated with me.  My kids and husband were at the mercy of my eating beliefs because it's my job to buy the food and prepare it. As the pantry started changing, and they didn't even have the option to make something else because it wasn't available, moods started to be tested.  Our food storage still had some carbs, after all fiberous, nutrient-dense foods don't store well so what is in store is the addictive refined foods, so my children turned to that. The once passed over granola was now a highly coveted treat, the canned peaches started disappearing. Even though I served three meals a day the kids were wandering around behind my back making food they wanted to eat, and if a meal didn't satisfy the carb cravings it was picked through and not finished.  I saw my kids choosing not to eat at all rather than eat an "unsatisfying" meal.  Since gaining freedom from food's grip I have different glasses on, and I can see that our culture and the food I used to serve my children and the food I ate in the womb created sugar addicts out of my children.
Its not just about our health, it's about freedom from addiction.
I like using the analogy that our body is a vehicle. There are different sizes, makes, models, and types of vehicles. But no matter what your vehicle looks like, there are commonalities among them all--we all have an engine, a battery, a steering device, a radio, and brakes. The engine is our digestive system and cardiovascular system, it is what ultimately allows us to keep going.  The battery is what motivates us to get moving, what inspires us, drives us to action, and keeps us "charged".  The steering device and brakes are our agency to go where we wish to go and need constant vigilance to keep us on the right track and stop us when danger may be ahead. The radio is our mind, emotional state, what we tell ourselves, allow ourselves to be influenced by, and our perception of this road trip (life). Bumps in the road, construction and road hazards, and tedious stretches of driving represent the challenges we will face in life, seat belts represent people and angels that protect us. Our spirits are the drivers of our vehicles, we are not our vehicles, we are just the drivers. In other words, we are infinitely more than our physical body, but we are part of it in this life and sometimes identify ourselves with our bodies and thoughts.
As you can imagine, it is very important to keep our vehicles maintained in order to negotiate the difficulties the road may present us. We need constant fuel, oil changes, and occasional tune ups on the engine.  If you were to put the wrong fuel in your car, your vehicle would not go very far without breaking down. If you don't change the oil the engine will seize.  If you don't charge your battery you will not be able to start at all (spiritual fuel).  And the radio--what are you telling yourself? Watch your thoughts, your words and your intentions, and change the station if you are on a negative channel, how well you overcome road blocks will have much to do with what is playing on your radio.  And lastly, we constantly protect our agency, freedom of choice, so we can get to where we want to go. People have given their lives in pursuit of freedom.
I know that my vehicle is a lemon. I will freely admit that I have a much more fragile system than the vehicles around me. I have to be very careful about the fuel I put in my tank, and careful about the station my radio is on, and careful to keep moving or I may stop and never get started again.  My fuel has to be completely sugar free and can't have too much of any one thing or it's going to clog my filters.  Not every vehicle has to be as conscientious about what they put in their tank, well-made engines can go 100 years on any gas as long as it has methane in it! But just because they can live with it, doesn't mean it's wise to take it in, and any gas that is addictive will cause problems.  Maybe not engine problems, but steering and braking problems.  The long lasting model vehicle may not have to care what quality oil and gas it is consuming, but they will be hurting when their addictive gas is no longer available.
Being in the mental health profession I have seen the signs of addiction and the outcomes of losing one's ability to choose. I think we all have had experience with ourselves or someone we love falling prey to addiction. If you have, you know that a person needs the complete ability to brake when they need to brake and steer where they need to steer, and addiction deprives one of this.  Craving certain foods and only wanting certain foods, not being able to stop eating certain foods, not being satisfied with other foods, not having pleasure in certain foods, having too much pleasure in certain foods, these are signs of addiction and whether they cause your engine to seize or not, they will compromise your brakes and steering.
These days we have a lot of food options and not very many people are aware of their addictive hazards. My doctor told me to drink Sprite when I had to go on an all liquid diet. I told him that wasn't going to happen, so he suggested Gatorade because that doesn't have the calories. I kindly asked him if I could just juice my own fruit and veggies, but inside I was screaming "It's not about calories!!!" He didn't want to hear what I had to say of course, so I couldn't explain that I'm a lemon and my vehicle will start to shut down on sugar water. Still, I couldn't believe that a health care professional would prescribe sugar carbonated liquid as a cure for anything, just because it provides some temporary relief. A concerned family member told me I should listen to him, that it would probably help me feel better. In fact I should probably have some caffeinated drinks to help me have more energy, she said. I love this person, and it's more important to me that she feel loved than that I be right, after all I am a lemon. So I compassionately and with as much courtesy as I could muster tried to tell her that anything that causes me to experience cravings I try to stay away from.  I know I'm not a model of health, but I also know with every fiber of my being that I have experienced freedom from food addictions by eliminating refined food and sugar and thereby helped my engine run more efficiently.  Neither doctors, family, pancreatitis, nor society at large will ever stop me from lovingly defending this belief!
Try going off white bread, pasta, and all forms of sugar for one week, read the books listed in my "resources", watch "Fed UP", and THEN tell me whether you belief in the sugar addiction epidemic, and then I might consider talking to you about whether or not I should use soda as a healing agent.