Sugar: Is it a Drug?

Did you ever think about sugar? Besides when you’re craving a chocolate bar? Well there are reasons why you have those cravings. Did you know that sugar is in almost everything you eat?

Sugar is not good for you and you should not eat it, I know that I try and avoid it whenever I can. Unless it is from natural food I am eating I try not adding it to anything.

I was reading over at one of my favorite blogs, Paleo Hacks, and I found this article. I was blown away with this information and knew I had to share it with the world. You can click here to read there article, it is worth your time and effort, I promise.

Here is a teeny tiny piece of the sugar-less pie…

“As can be seen, there is a multitude of reasons why soda should be eliminated from the diet. Some studies have shown that intense sweetness is more rewarding than cocaine. Other studies have shown that food addiction is similar to drug addictions. This differs from behavioral addictions like gambling, since in food (and sugar) addiction, there are actually neurochemical changes. The more sugar that you eat, the more downregulated your dopamine receptors become. Besides this scary adaptation, there are other neuronal changes.

This includes: changes in opioid receptor binding, enkephalin mRNA expression and dopamine and acetylcholine release in the nucleus accumbens. Basically, the more sugar that you eat, the more ways your brain changes – for the worse.

Does this sound like a drug exerting its effects? It certainly does to me.

Of course, we must not forget the withdrawal effects of sugar, once the stimulus is taken away. I’m sure we’re all well aware of the “sugar cravings” that ensue, once you decided to go low carb, or after a bad night of sugary eating. The pronounced ‘hangover’-like effect largely comes from fluctuating insulin levels.”

Wow, crazy right! Click here to read the rest of the article.

I also wanted to add this little video, which I found on Paleo Hacks as well. I thought it would be a nice way to wrap up this post and make the final push to read there mind-blowing article.

 

What did you think? Do you think sugar is a drug?

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Let’s face it, you love to snack, well you know what...so do I!

We are programmed to snack.

Society tells you it’s ok in one breath and then in another breath tells you that you have to be skinny. You can’t go anywhere nowadays without being bombarded by food advertisements in addition to skinny models that are plastered all over the place. They tell you to eat something however afterwards they tell you should feel bad about it.

Really...? Is this what our world has come too? Sadly yes.

But you can beat the system and there ‘logic’ by making healthier snaking choices. Wouldn’t you love to snack whenever you want and not feel guilty about it?

Here is the perfect recipe that will fill that ‘snack’ need and also make you feel good about your choice.

Popcorn.

Who doesn’t like Popcorn?

Now wait a minute I am not talking about the greasy, need 5 napkins popcorn that you get at the movie theater. Popcorn is unexpectedly healthy when made at home, this whole grain snack (surprised? Yep its whole grain) can be different every time by adding different scrumptious toppings.

This whole grain might be a great addition to your daily snacks. By making it at home and adding just enough fat, it will in return, add tons of antioxidants to your body. Even adding butter or salt to your home made popcorn won’t bring the fat or sodium levels to register in the credits of the movie theater snack.

Popcorn also will keep you satisfied for longer plus give you an additional 22% of fiber than a person that doesn’t eat popcorn. It’s full of air and low in calories so your brain thinks its eating more than it actually is.

Without any further ado here is a recipe that didn’t even last 20 mins at my house. We even gave some to friends and they couldn’t get enough.

Chocolate-Covered Popcorn Cups

Makes 12 muffin cups

8 oz (1 cup) chopped dark chocolate, 60% or higher

3 cups (750 ML) popped organic popcorn

2/3 cup (160 ML) shelled unsalted pistachios

¼ tsp (1 ML) sea salt

1.      Melt the chocolate in double boiler (I just put a large bowl on top of a pot of simmering water), stirring until melted.

2.      Divide popcorn and pistachios evenly among 12 standard-sized paper-lined muffin cups

3.      Drizzle melted chocolate over popcorn. Make sure you cover with chocolate so that it can seep down into crevices and bind together

4.      Sprinkle tops with sea salt

5.      Place in the fridge to set for about 1 hour

6.      Enjoy!
 

This recipe was found in the lovely Sage Magazine. Natural Living for you and your family. It is full of amazing information and plenty more delightful recipes I look forward to trying and sharing.

I also want to share this link to remarkable website, Paleo Hacks, I visit on a regular basis. I found this post the other day and thought I would share it with you. So head over there and help yourself with beating the cravings!

 

As always, thank you so much for visiting and I hope you see you again soon.

Did you try the recipe? Tell me what you thought of it…

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Whats for dinner? -Taco Pie

On the menu tonight, Taco Pie

Don’t you ever get tired of hearing “what’s for dinner?” I know I do. So I have started meal planning and putting it on the fridge so I can avoid this question. When I started meal planning my go to site was/is Pintrest! Love it. I have so many boards of food, Chicken dishes, Pork, Beef, Seafood and even Vegetarian. A little bit of everything anything that I think we might like to eat. Eating Paleo is not restricting at all as some people say, if anything it gives us more ideas and there are millions of recipes out there. I found this little beauty on there and couldn’t wait to try it. Here is all the information you will need. Hope you like it as much as we did, and if you try it out, let us know how it went.

The first time we made this recipe we used crust #1 and it feel apart and made a good mix of flavors. Next time we are going to try crust #2 so I will tell you how that goes. (i'll add pictures once we try it)

I got the recipe from Paleo Newbie and the second pie crust from Coconut Mamma

We changed the recipe a little to fit us and to the fact that honey just cut up everything and put it in a bowl at once. I thought it was better this way however because it blended the flavors nicely. The taco seasoning recipe was a huge hit and honey just loved it, I ended up making a huge jar of it to keep in stock for all the time use!

Ingredients:

Taco Seasoning:

·         1tbs chili powder

·         1tsp sea salt

·         1 tsp ground black pepper

·         1 tsp oregano

·         1 tsp thyme

·         1 ½ tsp cumin

·         ½ tsp paprika

·         ¼ tsp garlic powder

·         ¼ onion powder

·         ¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional, we didn’t use because my honey doesn’t like it to hot)

Taco Pie Crust #1

·         2 cups of almond flour

·         2 eggs – whisked

·         1 tbs coconut oil

·         1-2 tbs of taco seasoning (see above)

Coconut Flour Pie Crust

Directions for Pie Crust #1

1.       In a medium bowl combine almond flour, whisked eggs and coconut oil into a dough (I used a wooden spoon, then my hands)

2.      This will make a 9-inch pie crust, or enough for about 4 ramekins

3.      Grease pie pan or ramekins

4.      Mix dough and form for which ever vessel you will be using for pie

5.      Press into pie pan or ramekins to form a crust

6.      Bake at 350-degrees F unfilled for about 8-10 min

 

Ingredients for Pie crust recipe #2

·         1/2 cup Grass Fed Butter, Melted

·         2 Eggs, Preferably Local Pastured

·         1/4 Teaspoon Sea Salt

·         3/4 Cup Coconut Flour

·         1-2 tbs of taco seasoning (see above)

Directions for Crust #2

1.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl beat butter, eggs, taco seasoning and salt together with a fork.

2.       Then add coconut flour. Stir until dough holds together.

3.       Gather the dough into a ball, and then pat into a 9″ greased pie pan.

4.       Prick the dough with a fork.

5.       Bake for 9 minutes.

Taco pie filling

·         1 pound of grass feed beef – browned

·         1 small onion

·         ½ red pepper diced

·         ½ green pepper diced

·         2 tbs taco seasoning (see above)

·         ½ cup of tomato sauce

·         1 can (14 oz) of diced tomatoes or diced tomatoes with green chilies – liquid drained

·         1 avocado- diced

·         1 Large mushroom

 

Instructions

1.       First combine ingredients for the taco seasoning in a small bowl - set aside

2.       Brown ground beef

3.       Drain fat from pan and rinse beef

4.       Add in the taco seasoning and the onions until completely cooked and onion renders down

5.       Time to make the crust... depends on what crust you choose follow instructions above

6.       While the crust is cooking add all other ingredients to the beef

7.       Mix and let cook together for 5 mins

8.       Remove crust  from oven and add the taco filling from the pan

9.       Return to oven and bake at 350-degrees F for another 20 mins

10.   Break up the crust from the bottom to combine with taco filling

11.   Enjoy!

 

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The 5 stages of Hunger

It was a typical Friday night for me and my man, sitting at home doing nothing. We decide to go in to town to see my mom and family, we get there and no one is home. So I call my little sister and they have all gone out for dinner. Well just great, we drove all the way here and now we just have to go home. It has been a few months that we have been on our real food journey, and I have been craving a burger. You know a big greasy burger with some salty fries and a pop. First off, I haven’t eaten Mc D’s in well over 4 months and I haven’t had any pop for much longer. So for me to have this craving, it wasn’t just a ‘well I could have one’ my stomach was like ‘WE ARE HAVING ONE.’ The kind of cravings that take over your whole body and you can’t think about anything else but what it is. So your thought process begins...

Stage 1: Bargaining

Well I haven’t had it in a long time, what will it hurt. I will just get one small burger, small fries and no pop. Yea no pop that will make it better. No I’ll just go home, I am not that hungry…But I really do want a burger…

Stage 2: Thinking facts

Then you remember about the article that told you that the pickles are made from 7 different ingredients. That the meat is pretty well made of nothing that is going to nourish your body, and that your know you’re going to be hungry in an hour. That last time you had one you had an upset stomach and you had to race to the bathroom as soon as you got home…

Stage 3: Tricking your mind

You try to convince yourself that you are starving and will die without it. You tell yourself, that no matter what you get it won’t satisfy you like that burger will. You think about the first bite and the salt on the fries, how can I not have it plus I don’t know how to make fries at home…

Stage 4: What else could we do

You think to yourself that you could just make a burger at home, yea that’s better. But wait, we don’t have hamburger, lettuce, mayo or anything else to go on a burger for that matter. Ok that’s fine we will buy it. So you rack your brain about the cost. Isn’t that what it all ways comes down to, money? So now your $1.49 cheese burger has now turned in to $20….

Stage 5: To do or not to do

So you convinced yourself that this is what you’re going to do. You’re pulling closer to it; you can see the big bright shining M like a beacon in the dark summoning you towards it. You look around at all the different restaurants and think, ‘I should not be down here’. You pull in to the drive threw…..

Now this is the deciding move, once you go into the drive threw there is no turning back. Skylar pulled up to the drive threw and pulled a little to the side. He looked at me and said “Now are you really sure you want to do this?” He looks at me, the gears in my head just going a mile a minute. Going through all these stages again in my head and a little out load, throwing a million different ideas at him. He calmly looks at me again and repeats “Are you really sure you want to do this?” I start to panic and the guilt sets in and I haven’t even done anything yet. I say… well it was more of a soft shout “NO! Get me out of here!” He pulls the car forward and we leave, with the golden arches in my rear view mirror, I feel better.

However my stomach is still growling, so to the super market we go. We travel down to the meat section, with our $10 budget in hand. Meat $7.00. Wait, that can’t be right I still need more things…

We spent the next hour wondering around looking at food, trying to figure out what we could possibly do to satisfy my craving. Pre-made burgers? Sandwich? Fish sticks? By this time, my stomach is so load I can barely think. We both just get to overwhelmed and we ended up, after over an hour or shopping around, leaving the store with sandwich meat.

We are going to have black forest ham sandwiches; we have all the ingredients at home. And I have been wanting to make mayo for a few days now, this is the perfect time to try. Well 11pm is not a very good time to try and use your food processor, especially when you live in a basement suit. Ok no mayo, and the bread if frozen….

Anyway, we ended up having these super awesome delicious sandwiches and we both felt very good about our decision to stay healthy.

We have both come a long way, I know it doesn’t sound like it but we have, but we have. When Skylar and I first started dating we used to eat at Mc D’s at least twice a week! We did that for years, and when we decided to make the change to real food, we cut it out cold turkey.

We cut out eating out at all! I decided that learning to cook and make food that not only nourished our bodies but made us feel good, was way more important. It has been hard; I am not going to say that it’s super easy when it’s not. But since we have switched we have both noticed huge differences in lots of aspects of our life. We feel more energized, we don’t really get headaches anymore and when we eat we just plain feel better. Skylar has been struggling for a while with his stomach, whenever he eats his stomach goes rock hard and it’s very painful. He had tried a few different things, like taking pills before he ate, taking gut and bloating meds but nothing worked. Ever since we went organic he has not had one issue. He likes eating again and he never has to deal with weighing eating over pain again. We are in transition now to go Paleo because of my dairy problems and it has done amazing things for my energy level that alone is worth it for me. I just have to remember that next time a get a craving.

Have you ever been tempted to go to the Golden Arches?

What was your outcome?

 

PS. Food for thought...

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The Temptations

You know what one of the hardest things about going on this real food journey…the temptations. The cute cookies, the chocolate cakes and bakery treats.

You see them everywhere and man do they ever smell so good. It takes so much will power to turn away and most days my 'will power' is already over there licking the icing. So you think to yourself ‘it won’t be so bad’ ‘I’ll just have a bite, I deserve a treat’ and every time as soon as it hits your stomach you regret it. Your stomach throws its fists up in anger and cries like a little baby ‘why do you keep doing this to me.’ Next thing you know you’re drinking 3 cups of organic peppermint tea to sooth the screaming beast that is your stomach.

So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do you endure the pain of a sugar overload for that tiny piece of cookie?

Sadly I don’t know, sadly I am still in this stage of my real food journey. The most important reason we went Paleo is because I am allergic to dairy. It makes my stomach to summer-salts in anger and I regret it from the moment it touches my lips. My body is having a real hard time detoxing; I have grown up eating sugar and grains, I love it, but it just doesn’t love me back. Everyone says that this is the worst part and totally is. If you don’t have a good support system it will be very easy to dismiss this way and just go back to the easy road. It may seem like the easy way now, but when your health gets bad and your living on pills and can go for a walk with your dog, it is the hard way.

I also keep trying to remind myself about the ‘down the road’ effects. All the positive effects this life style will lead me to be way better then that sugar cookie with a cute ghost on it. I would much rather spend an extra $3.00 for grass-feed natural no hormone beef then pay for a $50 months’ supply of pills from the doctor.

Tonight I was thinking though, can’t I make these treats so they won’t upset my tummy? Sure you can, I found tons of recipes on Pintrest and pinned them to my Food-Dessert board. So next time I see a yummy treat instead of thinking of all the reasons why I need it. I am going to think of a way that I can make it and eat it.

So that is my new goal, to learn to make treats that I can eat and enjoy. I am looking forward to this new journey, I hope that you will follow along and even share some recipes you have tired.

I was part of a Wellness Summit this past month and I learned so much amazing information, I can’t wait to share with you. One of the speakers Mary Shenouda from Paleo Chef had great advice about changing the mindset and making this life style work for you. One quote she made really stuck, she said,

“Stop Cheating & Start enjoying. Cheating puts a negative spin on it and follows with guilt. Make it a treat day. Make your favorite snack with chocolate or cookies. But still use Paleo ingredients so it’s still good for you but you are treating yourself. Don’t make them during the week; make them on the weekend to treat yourself.’

Check out her blog to help you change your mindset and get some tips and tricks. Thanks for stopping by, we would love to hear from you. Leave a comment and share your favorite recipe that helps you when you’re going through the cravings.

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Do not read on an empty stomach

Last night I went to a Chocolate Extravaganza!  My Church’s Women's Ministries held a fundraiser for women in Haiti. Most people baked things or bought stuff to sell at the auction, it was amazing to see how creative people can be when it comes to chocolate. They raised almost $300, isn’t that amazing!!! As soon as I found out that I was going to go, I grabbed my camera headed out the door. I walked in and saw the table and just started clicking away.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Sorry for making you hungry♥ 


This first picture are made out of Cake!!!! covered in Chocolate!

Don’t forget to smile!

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