The healthiest breakfast should only contain sugars from complex carbohydrates and fruit. If your breakfast tastes like a dessert table at the buffet, you might be doing something wrong. America has a sweet tooth. Added sugar has become the new GMO movement- people are rapidly discovering that there is sugar, disguised by many names, being added into most processed and packaged foods. Cereal is named after dessert. Yogurt flavors are pie flavors. Even our favorite dietary supplements and health products are made to make everything taste like cake. Protein bars have brownie flavors. Shake powders taste like creamy vanilla or rich chocolate to make everything taste like a milkshake. Go to grab a coffee in the morning and you’re met with glass cases full of dessert-like pastries. Health and fitness blogs are loaded with tips, tricks, and techniques for making dessert without making dessert.
We have an obsession with sweets and treats that is causing us a plethora of health problems. Not only does sugar negatively impact our bodies, it has an influence on our minds. Strikingly similar to cocaine, sugar has the same effects. Pay attention to a young child who eats cake, cookies, ice cream, candy, or other sweet treats. You’ll see the same cycle of stimulant intoxication you see in adults. Their energy levels go soaring, they become manically hyper, then they come crashing down, crying and begging for more. Sugar is a stimulant that messes with our emotional state. When we eat a plethora of sugar first thing in the morning, we are setting our body, our metabolism, and our emotions up for some significant challenges.
“Eating dessert for for breakfast sets you up for constant cravings as your insulin levels spike early,” writes Big Think contributor Derek Beres. “More hunger means more calories and, as your willpower wanes throughout the day, more carbohydrate-heavy comfort foods, which keeps your liver working overtime.” Sugar is not productively usable by the brain and is not conducive to the entire day. You become indebted to the nutritional deficit caused by sugar when you’re supposed to be living in the freedom from addiction.
Part of recovery is learning what to feed your body in order to respect it as the evolutionary machine that it is. Freedom from addiction means taking care of your body to create sustainable energy for a sustainable life. Learning about the right nutrition for your body is part of the mind, body, spirit approach to treatment. At Tree House Recovery, men learn about the body as part of their recovery, connecting to their physical self through adventure, exercise training, endurance races, triathlons, and nutrition. Call us today for information on our residential programs for men in Portland, Oregon: (503) 850-2474