Whether you’ve come across this story before – or not – it’s a great one to be reminded of from time to time. So, here goes. 

 

Let’s face it. Painful personal trauma and tragedy – like illness or injury, death of a loved one, loss of a job or an unexpected breakup of a relationship – are all part of life’s rich tapestry. 

 

The question is: Will these private calamities erode our capacity to be happy or cause us to become stronger and better able to live a meaningful and fulfilling life? 

A couple of weeks ago we looked at why we love sugar so much – and, “yes” human history does play a large part in this (!) – as well as some of the many ways sugar is “hidden” in our favourite foods. 

 

This week we’re going to look at why a high sugar diet is so damaging and how it’s associated with so many health problems. While some of these may be obvious – such as tooth decay and soaring rates of obesity – many others are less so. 

 

To do this we first need to remind ourselves of a few basic facts about sugar and how our bodies are designed to deal with it. 

Having posed this question to several clients over the last week or so – and then hearing from a friend who has waited years for the “right time” to launch her business – we’ve taken the hint and put pen to paper. Or, more accurately, fingers to keyboard (!). 

 

What stuck us is how many people seem to get stuck in “waiting mode”, often without realising it. While there may give a whole plethora of reasons as to why they’re waiting – and, like our friend, the one you’re most likely to hear is that it’s not the “right time” – there does seem to be a common underlying cause. Fear. Perhaps it’s fear of failure. Or of what other people may say – or think. 

Sugar – particularly the sugar “hidden” within so many foods we never give a second thought to – is a subject which has received much press coverage in recent years. It’s one we discuss regularly with clients and have mentioned many times before in this blog. And yet, despite it being linked to many long term health problems, the message still doesn’t seem to be getting through. 

 

So why is this? The simple answer is that sugar fuels one of our most basic instincts. Sweetness equating to food being good – and safe – to eat. It’s been used by humans as a basic survival tool for thousands of years. Just think of the sweetness of any fruit, telling us when it’s ripe and ready to eat. And how unpalatable the same fruit is, if picked too early. 

 

Unfortunately this association has now become our undoing, with our diets having changed out of all recognition in the past few decades. Let alone centuries. 

We recently came across this story which we thought was a great one to share. It’s also a gentle reminder that it only takes one person to start building a bridge – and they don’t even need to be the one to have created the rift in the first place. 

 

Sitting comfortably? Then here we go.