My Brain Deserves Sugar

Sometimes I'll stop mid stride and stare into space.

I'm not having a stroke or a seizure, I didn't fall asleep or lose my mind - I just started thinking.

My brain has a tendency to work overtime.  I can be drying off after a shower, looking at apples in the grocery store, walking in the park or sitting here writing, and my motor skills come to a halt while my brain scans, files, accesses, and organizes information.  It's a real problem when I'm driving.  I have to stay in the moment while on the road or my foot relaxes from the accelerator and my car will slow down to a crawl before I notice that other drivers are getting irritated with me.

The mornings are the worst.  I get to thinking about my day, which turns into reevaluating the day before, and leads into thinking about new possibilities, then I wander down life is beautiful lane.  Before I know it I find myself standing naked in the bathroom holding my towel and staring at my bathtub and 10 minutes have disappeared.  Usually I'll wake up in the morning, look at the clock, decide to get up, turn over to stretch, start thinking about my next step - and when I blink a half an hour goes by.   Because this happens regularly, I have to give myself lots of extra prep time in the mornings so that I can get to work on time.

I'm a sugar addict.  I admit it.  I love my sugar.  I don't necessarily like sweet things - in fact if something is too sweet or is sugary without flavor, I won't want to eat or drink it; but I'm definitely a cookie, cake, and chocolate covered nut monster.  Because of my weight battle I try not to eat too much of it, but I have to sweeten my tea and cereal in the mornings and have a cookie for lunch if I want to stay in a good mood all day.

When I had my Access Bars run, I learned that this may not be a bad thing.  Apparently people who think a lot need sugar to keep the brain running smoothly.  Apparently when you crave sugar or salt you're supposed to listen to your body and go for it.  Sugar feeds the brain.  Salt helps your electromagnetic energy flow smoothly.

At least this is what they told me.

Even though I was glad to hear being a sugar addict wasn't all bad, I wondered about it for a while and decided to look into it.  It turns out that moderation and fiber is the key.  A high fructose diet (soda, pre-packaged baked goods, candy) is really bad for you in many ways, but a little fructose (fruit, vegetables) balanced with the right amount of fiber is good for you. 

Your brain, however, needs glucose, a sugar formed from eating carbohydrates.  You can still eat too much glucose, but the right food with the good carbs and fiber is what your brain needs most.  I can do a whole article about this, but think fruit, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. 

Mental activity requires a lot of fuel, and glucose travels through your bloodstream to fuel our brain power.  The key is to eat the right foods that have glucose and try not to eat too much, because too much can hinder your brain activity.

Sugar, the kind we make sweets from and sprinkle in our coffee, is sucrose and is made from sugar beets or sugar cane.  Sucrose, a carbohydrate, is also found in fruit, and is okay in moderation if eaten with a balanced diet.  You might think that because we use beets and sugarcane, nature's bounty, table sugar is good for you, but by the time we process the sugar crystals from nature's bounty we've completely stripped any food value from the sweetener.

You could use turbinado sugar, a less refined sugar from sugar cane.  Some say it's healthier than white sugar, but I like it because it adds a nice flavor to my tea and coffee.  It would be better to just eat beets and chew on the sugar cane.

So the tidbit I got about eating sugar for my brain was partially true - I just have to get it from a diet rich in fruit and vegetables.

The tidbit about salt - well here's what I found out:  Your body relies on electrolytes, which comes from sodium, potassium and chloride, and table salt is sodium chloride.  A Journal of the American Medical Association study showed people with the highest levels of sodium in their bodies lived longer than people with the lowest levels.  Too little sodium and your body and brain function suffers.  The planet is covered with salt - there is salt in everything, and the way we mine the salt from underground mines and sea water keeps it in it's natural state.  We don't have to process all of it's benefits out like we do with sugar.

When I thought about it, I realized that I've spent a lot of my life trying to keep my salt intake low - maybe that's my problem.  Maybe I'm  eating the wrong junk food.  I need to stay away from the brownies and eat my potato chips - and learn to like chewing on sugar cane. 

So even though my brain deserves sugar, I'm better off with salt.

I still have to have my cookie for lunch.