Re: I tried to send this earlier

[Guest guest]

Atma - & other newbies too - all new members posts are moderated at first. This

helps us to keep this site free of spam, advertising and people who want to diet

instead of 'non-dieting'. Please understand that your posts may not appear right

away - it really depends on how soon we moderators get to the Pending Messages

to read them. That said, I too have noticed that Yahoo has it 'moments' and I

too have seen a few posts go missing. This is the 'price' of using a free site

;-)

Regarding sweets, it occurred to me that real sweets are actually rare in nature

- honey and maple sugar are probably the only sources of straight

sucrose/glucose a la natural? Fruit provides frutose but that's usually a short

seasonal availability - until man learned to refine and ways to store these

'sweets' for being available year round. It also seems logical that our human

bodies where geared towards strongly wanting these 'treats' to use as storage

for times when food would be less available. But with these being available ALL

the time now, this drive gets over used? Plus add in the seduction created by

ourselves trying to consciously restrict excesses, I can see how the ying-yang

tug-o-war that empowers the downward spiral that dieting is.

Sooooo, instead of using the 'shoulds' for a directions, returning to what this

body of mine has to 'tell' me is what I am focusing on in this endeavor - to

sweet or not to sweet :)

BEST to you, Katcha

IEing since March 2007

>

> I'm new and I'm not sure who I was posting this too, but it was someone who

talked about sugar and it was mentioned that breastmilk is sweet too. Anyway,

the reason I didn't send it right away when I was done writing it was because my

computer wouldn't let me. Now I can't find the post. Oh well here it is:

>

> I loved your post and it made think about the sugary sweet world we've

surrounded ourselves in. I guess it's supposed to help us through the

bitterness of life? Or more likely companies have figured it out that it's our

weak spot. I have some denial using sugar to get through the bitterness of

life...but I know I do it and some people might call that emotional eating.

>

> My friends from India eat an amazing amount of sugar and it doesn't seem to

have the same affect on their weight like it does in our culture. When they eat

meals, they eat the balance of tastes: Bitter, sour, hot, pungent, salty, savory

with a huge variety of vegetables and a variety of hi-protein legumes, flat

breads and raita or yogurt salad w/ even more veggies. Perhaps getting that

variety of foods helps to balance their sugar intake. They also talk to each

other and have fun socializing. It's a big part of their culture to relax and

have tea after a meal and chat. Unless you ask for unsweetened tea you can

expect it to be extremely sweet bursting your taste buds with cardamom and

sugar.

>

> When it comes to sweeteners, agave syrup has become a more pratical sweetener

for me and I lovvve maple syrup, but it is expensive and not always available.

Especially in pre-sweetened foods.

>

> Since you mentioned breast milk is a sweet thing, I thought of other natural

things that are sweet, cow's milk, although processed sugar is from a plant,

fruits, nuts even have a sweetness to them. Couldn't we then call sweet stuff a

good thing? The reasons I would put sweet stuff down or beat myself up about it

is because I've over indulged in it myself and am having some sort of negative

reaction....it could be weight gain when it's a period of time that I've been

indulging like the holidays or other times or I feel hyper or I just know my

body is reacting negatively. It's easier for me to be defensive about how bad

it is rather than be responsible for being unresponsive or downright numb about

what my intuition says to me about it. Hopefully I will listen to my intuition

and my own body wisdom when I've had too much or to refrain from eating the

sweets.

>

> Now I'm starting to think about how will-power to not eat sweets and the

intuition could work as friends to avoid sweets. Anyone have any ideas?

Perhaps it's just that tiny taste of chocolate that satisfies (that's what I

read a movie star did) and then she moved on to some other activity training the

mind to do something else and eat to live rather than live to eat or eating

watermelon to get the sweetness and filling up at the same time....What do you

think? This is my first post and happy to be here. Wow it got long. Atma

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Atma and welcome to the group.

I think you will find alot of support here. I have only been posting here a few

months and find the folks here extremely helpful!

Thanks for telling us a little about the culture in India. I think anything in

moderation is fine and it sounds like your friends have a nice balance.

Deb

>

> I'm new and I'm not sure who I was posting this too, but it was someone who

talked about sugar and it was mentioned that breastmilk is sweet too. Anyway,

the reason I didn't send it right away when I was done writing it was because my

computer wouldn't let me. Now I can't find the post. Oh well here it is:

>

> I loved your post and it made think about the sugary sweet world we've

surrounded ourselves in. I guess it's supposed to help us through the

bitterness of life? Or more likely companies have figured it out that it's our

weak spot. I have some denial using sugar to get through the bitterness of

life...but I know I do it and some people might call that emotional eating.

>

> My friends from India eat an amazing amount of sugar and it doesn't seem to

have the same affect on their weight like it does in our culture. When they eat

meals, they eat the balance of tastes: Bitter, sour, hot, pungent, salty, savory

with a huge variety of vegetables and a variety of hi-protein legumes, flat

breads and raita or yogurt salad w/ even more veggies. Perhaps getting that

variety of foods helps to balance their sugar intake. They also talk to each

other and have fun socializing. It's a big part of their culture to relax and

have tea after a meal and chat. Unless you ask for unsweetened tea you can

expect it to be extremely sweet bursting your taste buds with cardamom and

sugar.

>

> When it comes to sweeteners, agave syrup has become a more pratical sweetener

for me and I lovvve maple syrup, but it is expensive and not always available.

Especially in pre-sweetened foods.

>

> Since you mentioned breast milk is a sweet thing, I thought of other natural

things that are sweet, cow's milk, although processed sugar is from a plant,

fruits, nuts even have a sweetness to them. Couldn't we then call sweet stuff a

good thing? The reasons I would put sweet stuff down or beat myself up about it

is because I've over indulged in it myself and am having some sort of negative

reaction....it could be weight gain when it's a period of time that I've been

indulging like the holidays or other times or I feel hyper or I just know my

body is reacting negatively. It's easier for me to be defensive about how bad

it is rather than be responsible for being unresponsive or downright numb about

what my intuition says to me about it. Hopefully I will listen to my intuition

and my own body wisdom when I've had too much or to refrain from eating the

sweets.

>

> Now I'm starting to think about how will-power to not eat sweets and the

intuition could work as friends to avoid sweets. Anyone have any ideas?

Perhaps it's just that tiny taste of chocolate that satisfies (that's what I

read a movie star did) and then she moved on to some other activity training the

mind to do something else and eat to live rather than live to eat or eating

watermelon to get the sweetness and filling up at the same time....What do you

think? This is my first post and happy to be here. Wow it got long. Atma

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Atma,

I really appreciate your story about your friends from India. It reminds me of

something I read recently about a research study. (I love reading about science

and research for some reason.) Anyway, they studied mice and their addiction to

a drug (I can't remember what the drug was, maybe morphine or cocaine?

Something along those lines.) Anyway, half the mice were in a boring

environment, and half were in an enriched environment, with lots of activities,

wheels, toys, etc. There was a huge difference in the addiction rates

(something like 60%) between the two groups. Those in a enriched envinment were

much, much less prone to addicton.

Makes sense that having unhealthy, addiction-like relationships with food would

certainly also be contributed to by being in unhealthy environments: dieting,

bad reltionships, lack of strong family/friend structure and support. Addictive

behavior can be a filler for a life that has gaping holes in it. That's why I

think it's so important to look at the whole of my ife, like my attitude towards

all food, and towards myself, in my path to intuitive eating, and more

importantly in my path to self-love.

Sara

> >

> > I'm new and I'm not sure who I was posting this too, but it was someone who

talked about sugar and it was mentioned that breastmilk is sweet too. Anyway,

the reason I didn't send it right away when I was done writing it was because my

computer wouldn't let me. Now I can't find the post. Oh well here it is:

> >

> > I loved your post and it made think about the sugary sweet world we've

surrounded ourselves in. I guess it's supposed to help us through the

bitterness of life? Or more likely companies have figured it out that it's our

weak spot. I have some denial using sugar to get through the bitterness of

life...but I know I do it and some people might call that emotional eating.

> >

> > My friends from India eat an amazing amount of sugar and it doesn't seem to

have the same affect on their weight like it does in our culture. When they eat

meals, they eat the balance of tastes: Bitter, sour, hot, pungent, salty, savory

with a huge variety of vegetables and a variety of hi-protein legumes, flat

breads and raita or yogurt salad w/ even more veggies. Perhaps getting that

variety of foods helps to balance their sugar intake. They also talk to each

other and have fun socializing. It's a big part of their culture to relax and

have tea after a meal and chat. Unless you ask for unsweetened tea you can

expect it to be extremely sweet bursting your taste buds with cardamom and

sugar.

> >

> > When it comes to sweeteners, agave syrup has become a more pratical

sweetener for me and I lovvve maple syrup, but it is expensive and not always

available. Especially in pre-sweetened foods.

> >

> > Since you mentioned breast milk is a sweet thing, I thought of other natural

things that are sweet, cow's milk, although processed sugar is from a plant,

fruits, nuts even have a sweetness to them. Couldn't we then call sweet stuff a

good thing? The reasons I would put sweet stuff down or beat myself up about it

is because I've over indulged in it myself and am having some sort of negative

reaction....it could be weight gain when it's a period of time that I've been

indulging like the holidays or other times or I feel hyper or I just know my

body is reacting negatively. It's easier for me to be defensive about how bad

it is rather than be responsible for being unresponsive or downright numb about

what my intuition says to me about it. Hopefully I will listen to my intuition

and my own body wisdom when I've had too much or to refrain from eating the

sweets.

> >

> > Now I'm starting to think about how will-power to not eat sweets and the

intuition could work as friends to avoid sweets. Anyone have any ideas?

Perhaps it's just that tiny taste of chocolate that satisfies (that's what I

read a movie star did) and then she moved on to some other activity training the

mind to do something else and eat to live rather than live to eat or eating

watermelon to get the sweetness and filling up at the same time....What do you

think? This is my first post and happy to be here. Wow it got long. Atma

> >

>