Because of my addiction to sugar I have had first-hand experience of how eating refined sugar impacts us both physically and mentally – reinforced very recently through my daughter’s experience with refined sugars. I have also done some research on the subject.
What I have learned is mind-blowing and makes me wonder how this substance can be sold so widely to the masses!
My daughter is 6 years old and the last time we gave her sugar was when she was about 12-14 months old. However, she recently found a friend at school who was bringing lollies to the school so she decided to have some.
The first day she came home we noticed there was something different about her and her behaviour. She was more jumpy, faster in her actions, loud, hyper, over-sensitive, aggressive when things did not go her way, unreasonable, physically invincible (apparently!?), restless and unable to sit still (at all!).
While some of these behaviours could be classed as ‘normal’ for a 6 year old, they were not normal for my daughter. Don’t get me wrong, she is no saint. She has her tantrums and dummy spits like all other children, but what was different this day was the intensity with which these behaviours were coming out and her inability to listen or be reasoned with.
It was only a few days before she spilled the beans and shared what she was doing at school. This was great as it confirmed the suspicions I was having about the cause of her behavioural changes.
We worked with the school to stop the sugar supply, and in the beginning when the supply was no longer accessible we had a very outraged child (addiction behaviour? Ahh yes!) Once she stopped eating the sugar, she was herself again. She settled completely and we have since talked to her about how she feels different when eating sugar, as opposed to when she doesn’t eat sugar. Now that this has been brought to her attention, and we have spoken to her about it so openly, she has been able to feel this difference in her body and her manner.
How can a behaviour-altering substance such as sugar be sold to the masses like it is nothing special??
And sugar is everywhere; sugar is in almost everything we eat. It is in our breakfast cereal, our snacks, our drinks (even flavoured water!), tomato sauce, tinned tomatoes, a jar of olives, even sundried tomatoes! Have you read the ingredients on the canned vegetables in the supermarket? Sugar is added to creamed corn and kidney beans, for heaven’s sake!
There are not a whole lot of snack options in the supermarket for people who have chosen to cut refined sugars out of their diets, especially sweet snacks. It is almost impossible to find a refined sugar-free sweet that is also gluten and dairy-free in a supermarket, and very rare to find one in a café (here in Australia).
So in order to support myself and my family to be refined sugar-free, I got busy in the kitchen, baking.
It turns out I have a natural ability to make yummy tasting sweets that are refined sugar free, as well as gluten and dairy-free!
These yummy delights really supported me in my commitment to not eat refined sugar ever again. They provided me with an option to be much kinder to myself and to my body as I healed the destructive energy that was allowing me to keep myself dosed-up to the eyeballs with refined sugar and disconnected from myself (and my body).
However, I have since felt that even these can have an effect on my body so I rarely have them anymore… but there is still a place for them in my home.
These yummy delights are very supportive for my daughter as she finds her way in a world filled with foods that contain refined sugars. She wants to ‘fit in’ at school and have sweet food like her friends, so these are a great option for her as they are much gentler and kinder to her little sensitive body.
I have also taken these yummy delights out to local cafes as I felt there was a place for them in the wider community. There are many people struggling with sugar addiction and also many more choosing to make more healthy lifestyle choices for themselves, especially those dealing with illnesses. So they are a brilliant option – plus they taste amazing, even better than the sweets fully loaded with sugar!!
The feedback I have been receiving from clients and the café owners has been very encouraging. People are really enjoying the lightness and flavoursome delights being offered.
It is beautiful to be able to offer the wealth of experience that I have in this area so it can potentially benefit others too. I feel it is an incredible healing for me to be able to give people an option that allows them to take better care of themselves (as I have learned to do for myself over the years). And even if they aren’t consciously choosing this and just eat the yummy delights anyway, they will be blessed by all the love I have made them with… and that is pretty cool I think!
With deep thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for showing me that there is another way to live… One that includes great care and love for myself and my body – for what I feed it determines the quality I live my life in every moment of every day.
By Robyn Jones, 38, B.Sc. (Psych), Counsellor, Mother & Baker Extraordinaire, Goonellabah, Australia
Read Part One: Addicted to Sugar… My Drug Addiction
Read Part Two: Exhaustion and the Effects of Sugar Addiction
Further Reading:
Serge Benhayon on Food and Diet
Choices: Weight Loss, Diet, Food & Health
572 Comments
The effects of sugar on our body are massive and the constant intake masks this and behaviours become accepted. Seeing the effect on your child is a clear marker of the effects and a support for mothers and manufactures to change what is offered and a new perspective is needed and the responsibility for our health and for future generations very important
It is so great Robyn how you are educating your daughter to understand, by feeling in her body for herself the effects of eating sugar, and your sensitivity to her relationship with other children at school by providing her with healthy choices. I was quite rigid with my children, sugar was not allowed in the house, I learnt sometime later that they were buying lollies from the shop up the road.
Once you stop having sugar regularly then something sweet can actually almost feel like a punch to the body as the sugar effect can be that strong in my experience.
There is often the notion that food which is nourishing to the body lacks taste and is boring, but this could not be further from the truth as Robyn so clearly demonstrates and reveals through the popularity of her yummy delights.
It is truly shocking the impact of having sugar on your daughter after so long without any and clearly illustrates the toxic way it impacts everyone it is just that most are more desensitised and the link is not so clear. This needs to be explored more widely as with ever increasing behaviour issues in schools and in our wider society we desperately need to start finding answers that can enable us to live more harmoniously with each other.
‘How can a behaviour-altering substance like sugar be sold to the masses like it’s nothing special?’ – and how/why do we just accept that such a behaviour-altering substance is in the majority of our food? We are prepared to turn a blind eye while huge industries feed us what they want – and all because we demand it. Things won’t change unless and until we want to look at why we feel we need sugar, and what we’re using it for – what are we not prepared to see, feel or handle, and why do we need something to pick us up (that later drops us)?
After reading this article one can clearly state that if you want to have a loving relationship with yourself, and that includes your body, sugar cannot be part of a diet. If you honestly observe what the effects are of sugar.
While we seek to dull our awareness and ourselves, no matter how much research goes into this area, it will not change while the demand is still so strong for this. It requires an inward movement to create an outer movement.
Yes, we need to deal with our need for sugar and that will remove the demand.
It is inspiring to read Robyn, how you are sharing healthy refined sugar free options within your wider community, as there are now many who are aware of the harming effects of sugar, but sadly very often there is a lack of healthier options for them to choose.
Absolutely as how can we initiate change if there are no alternatives on offer to support people who want to explore a different way?
What a great example of being the change you would like to see in the world, Robyn. I love how you did not just help your own family with getting off of refined sugar, but took your supportive treats out into the community to share them. This is living in true brotherhood.
Sugar is a legalized drug that keeps us contracted and addicted, once we develop a sugar addiction (which is not hard) we are more likely to grow up with a propensity for addiction and this then as we know can continue in many forms.
Having eliminated processed sugar some (35) thirty-five years ago I now find any thing, which is sweet sends me racy and I end up loosing my connection to my divine essence.
Robyn this is a beautiful example of true parenting, in how you have supported your daughter to feel and understand for herself her relationship with her body, and how it reflects the effects of sugar and food in general. Very empowering, and fostering this relationship that is innate in us all is precisely the education that all children deserve to receive in order to support them to live with greater connection, health and well-being.
The amount of sugar in our everyday food is astounding and the effects go unnoticed in reality and accepted as normal when in fact they are causing us to not live and be ourselves with chronic illness and disease let alone unreasonable behaviour. A great sharing for us all to note and see there is another way to eat and live .
“How can a behaviour-altering substance such as sugar be sold to the masses like it is nothing special??” Excellent question Robyn and one that can be asked of too of caffeine and alcohol.
I am reminded of the time I went cold turkey for 3 months having absolutely no sugar and nothing sweet. I then was given this big chocolate cake with a thick layer of fondant that I could not resist (one has to be polite when given a gift!) and of course I had a big piece of it, never even considering this might have an affect. Not long after I felt as if I had taken drugs, my mind was very unclear, my heart was racing, I was erratic and I felt sick to my stomach. I was shocked as I had not expected this but at the same time the harming affect of sugar has been from then on for ever without questioning.
There is plenty of experiential and scientific evidence about what sugar does to us so the fact that is still so widely available can only be because we want those effects, we are asking for it by what we buy and consume.
Super blog, Robyn. It wasn’t until I came across Universal Medicine that I began to understand the effects that sugar can have on my body. Serge Benhayon’s clear and simple presentations on bringing the focus to truly feeling what is going on in the body when sugar is consumed allowed me to feel for myself the effect consuming sugar was having, and the very addictive nature of this substance – to the point where I would cut sugar out for long periods of time and so feel the joy in my body for going sugar-less only to cave in to the craving when going through a difficult and challenging patch.Despite this joy-full feeling in my body calling me back, there were (and sometimes still are!) times when the level of love in my body would drop and I would attempt to fill that drop in the sweetness of love with sugar. It doesn’t work, it never will and so I lovingly bring myself back to the basics of self care and self love and the balance rights itself once again.
Sometimes it takes a period of not eating or ingesting something to realise how much it was affecting our behaviour! Sugar is often presented as being this innocuous thing but it can make a real difference how we behave and relate with others and ourself…
Thank you Robyn, should be front page news. You only talk about refined sugar too. What about the fructose sugar in fruits? That needs to be widely understood too.
We are not listening to our bodies where all of this is known. It was not until I had a marker in my body (thanks to Universal Medicine) what it was to actually feel great in my body that I was easily able to say no to sugar forever.
It is fascinating how such a common commodity like refined sugar is accessible to anyone at any time of the day yet it has been compared to as if you are on crack. Either way what is clearly expressed in this blog is that it totally alters our body and our state of being. I know when I have been on sugar then stopped it the impact that it has had on my body and mood is painful. Today I wouldn’t even consider having such a drug.
I find it interesting, the effect that sugar has on children, and yet it is so common place in their diet. But the effects are clear and plain to see. So as a parent, letting go of sugar must also be a process of developing a willingness with oneself to see what is actually and truly going on.
A great place to start freeing ourselves from the sugar addiction, is with our children. When we stop eating sugary foods the difference is huge in us all, as well as the ability to detect too much in almost all foods as you mention. Thank you Robyn.
Considering the impact of sugar on our bodies and the fact that children consume such high qualities of it, could this be a large contributing factor to many children struggling to focus and maintain harmonious relationships at school? Simply observing my classes after a shared birthday cake the behaviour of the children heighten, they become louder, more excited, more hyperactive and less able to remain calm and less able to listen with a steadiness.
It sounds crazy when we liken sugar to illicit drugs, but the effects are not so different – in that it alters our natural state and of course, effects everyone differently…so different bodies react differently in the same way people respond differently to certain drugs. But either way, it has a noticeable impact on the body, and it’s easier to observe in a child who has yet to master the art of control, but take the sugar away from an adult…and look out. No different to quitting smoking or drinking. It’s so interesting.
Having sugar-free foods/desserts is a great way to support people to free themselves from a sugar addiction and for children to fit in with their peers is without a doubt a huge support – certainly helped me and know many others for whom this has also been true.
Robyn, reading this article about the effects of sugar makes me wonder if a lot of behaviour issues that we see with children could be down to sugar and that often we don’t necessarily make this link like you have.
The corrupted way that sugar is being sneaked into the diets of our everyday lives when exposed can feel deeply overwhelming. And the only true way is to start living what we know is true in our bodies, step by step.
Not only are they allowed to sell what is a poison in the body, worse they add it surreptitiously to almost every processed food. Trying to buy cooked chicken or any cooked meats or bacon for example and you will be hard pressed in the UK at any rate to find any without added sugar and salt. With 95% of the population ill, you would think that we might start to question things like this. Before obesity was so common, was sugar added to all foods? No of course not, mostly people bought raw ingredients and cooked their own meals instead of buying processed foods. Could there be a connection here with obesity?
With our rates of obesity as high as it is (and seemingly escalating every year) it surely must have a lot to do with the fact that so much of our pre-prepared manufactured food that is eaten in copious amounts at our dinner tables today has such a high sugar content.
Why is it possible to have products that are laced with sugar made for children. There is not a parent in the world that does not see the change sugar brings over a child. I often hear parents say that their child cannot have sugary drinks because they go hyper or they can have the sugary product in the morning , but not later as they will not sleep at night.
But its just not sugar products, we have a name for it “junk food” we make junk food and we feed it to ourselves and our children. Its wonderful Robyn that you are bringing non-junk food to the people and your child.