Now that I've been vegan for around a year now I am more particular about what I eat than ever before. It is more apparent to me that a grocery / supermarket contains more bad than good because it sells processed foods. In other words they take good food, change it and then sell it back to you devitalized and the living part of the food taken out of it.
What is more interesting is they add unnecessary things to it like SUGAR. It is hard to find ANY product in the grocery / supermarket that does not contain sugar. Even things that you would think does not have sugar in it like a vinaigrette dressing does have sugar included. What is devastating about this is the fact that they add sugar to the product multiple times in different forms: fructose, cane sugar, corn syrup, etc. Now here is something you may have never thought about sugar: in excess it is taken to your liver and midriff and turned into fat! Basically, you can get a heart attack from too much sugar consumption it does not have to be related to just fat consumption.
Now you may think that fat is distributed all over your body but when a sugar molecule is broken into two parts: glucose and fructose - it is the bad part (Fructose) that needs to be eliminated by the liver. Thus the system is taxed as more insulin needs to be released and fat created to store the waste the body cannot handle at the very instant you consume it, Everyone concerned about their health should view this:
Sugar in the form we eat it today is so unnatural. Manufactures have added sugar to everything so we can't appreciate the natural flavors of food anymore. In a way that makes all of us sugar addicts.
I had a month last year completely without sugar. I should have continued, but it was very hard. I am lactose free too, so it deemed a little impossible at the time. However, I have cut down quite substantially. The other thing I've noticed, is that my son goes completely nuts after a few sugar days. He is three. For the last six months, he's been trying a lot more things. However, as I make everything (Mostly) from scratch, I can gage how much sugar goes into things. After Will has had "Processed" Food with who knows how much sugar in it, he is a bit nutty. So he's only have sugar sparingly, like the rest of us. My dad had diabetes and he has a terrible sweet tooth, however, over the years of this diagnosis, he's lost a lot of weight and looks fantastic. And my sister and I are both aware that we could be candidates for it too. Sugar is evil but its in practically everything.
Congratulations to you Jchampers on making yourself aware and taking steps to help yourself and your family especially as you have the genes for diabetes. Most all processed foods have sugar. You will have to get used to looking at the labels of everything to know what does not have sugar in it and you'll find the choices are few. I eat no processed foods save for bread which they put sugar in as one of the ingredients. At some point I will be looking to make my own bread to avoid the hydrogenated oil and sugar from there. That will make my diet totally free from artificial and sugary killers.
If sugar is so bad why is it in everything? Are food sellers unaware of the damaging affects of sugar or is it they know but do not care about the health of those they sell their food to?