My new blog on Saratoga. com discusses the connection between sugar and cancer. However, it also discusses the importance of moderation and how family dinners can help.

Here’s an excerpt:

Now, I just want to say something before I continue on. A healthy, strong, body should be able to handle anything in moderation. Furthermore, as the body becomes healthier, it actually craves sugar and other harmful foods less and less. The problem today, is that food is big business. Companies know just how to add the right amount of additives and ratios of fat, sugar, and tasty chemicals to trick a brain into wanting more and more. This leads to excessive consumption, cravings, and very evident health ramifications as our obesity epidemic soars.

According to Dr. Hyman:

We are consuming HFCS and sugar in pharmacologic quantities never before experienced in human history — 140 pounds a year vs. 20 teaspoons a year 10,000 years ago. High fructose corn syrup is always found in very poor quality foods that are nutritionally vacuous and filled with all sorts of other disease promoting compounds, fats, salt, chemicals and even mercury.

So, what’s the solution? Never to eat sugar again? Maybe. But, some can’t or won’t do this.

Maybe the solution lies in moderation. In our fast paced society, the issue may resolve if we allowed time to slow down and spend time together. This means real meals and real food. Family dinners used to be important. Today, they’ve been replaced by our overloaded schedules, and the food that used to nourish us is replaced with fast foods and dinner on the run. This is affecting our health in more than one way.

According to study done in Child Development:

Family mealtimes have the potential to promote healthy child development. This observational study of 200 family mealtimes examined the relation between child health in a group of children (ages 5 to 12) with persistent asthma and 3 dimensions of mealtime interaction: Action, Behavior Control, and Communication. Percent time spent in Action and Positive Communication varied by asthma severity, child quality of life, and sociodemographic variables. Positive communication during mealtimes predicted child quality of life. Significant interactions between demographic variables and behavior control suggested that higher levels of behavior control affected child quality of life in the context of lower maternal education. Guidance is offered for practitioners and policy makers toward promoting healthy family mealtimes as a public health priority.

Recently, Dr. Northrup interviewed Sandi Richard on how to make family dinners fun, fast, and doable for busy moms. Sandi practices moderation over perfection, making family dinners easier and less overwhelming. The take home point is that not that sugar will kill you, but that it can, if you let it. The point is to get your body healthy so you can make healthy choices so it won’t.