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Originally Posted by ericwordelman  I'm aware consuming caffeine/sugar lowers awareness closer to an instinctive mammal, but does that include sugar that is naturally occuring in fruit as well? Because, if it does than I do not want to do that to myself anymore. I do have a tendency to eat a lot of fruit and I just want to know if it's okay or not. I don't eat any candy or anything artificially added with sugar only fruit, but I have a feeling that even the sugar in fruit is just as bad as candy or something. Should I avoid sugar at all costs even naturally occurring in fruits? |
Hi Eric. I saw you pose this same question in response to the Joy of Sadness blogpost, where Steve wrote about an urge to ingest sugar related to avoiding/suppressing emotions. I believe he meant refined sugar (/artificially added sugar). It is this kind of sugar that is unhealthy.
Sugar isn't an all-around bad thing - the human body
Needs at least some sugar. It is possible to get too much sugar from fruit, but I believe it is much more difficult. It is commonly known that it is healthy to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, and fruit is half of that sentence. As has been mentioned, there are also people who eat only fruit, and believe this is healthiest. I believe we also need vegetables and nuts and such. I read on some fruitarian sites that it was common to be more "emotionally sensitive" on that diet, which when I read the details seemed to be not the kind of emotional awareness we're looking for, but a kind of instability and possibly partial depression that can be attributed to lack of some nutrients. However, fruitarianism might work well for some, depending on which kinds of fruit they eat.
Some people are concerned that modern hybrid fruit contains higher amounts of sugar than wild fruit. You might want to google that.
Everything in moderation, however, fruit is basically healthy, that is a well-known fact that I've never heard anyone contest. You might just want to avoid the 'extra sweet pineapple', and there are apples that are pleasantly tart and some grapes are less sweet than others.
That data I have on this that I trust the most is my own experience. When I'm feeling well, neither frustrated nor sad or apathetic, I feel naturally inclined to eat fruit on an even level with vegetables and nuts and other good things. When I'm feeling down I want to eat fat cheese and sweet jam - and excessive amounts of fat nuts and seeds - though that is a healthy kind of fat, it can also be used wrongly. I've tried satiating the urge to eat something sweet with fruit in such a situation, and found that eating sweet fruit didn't help suppress my emotions the way jam, cake, candy or fat does. Only the actual act of eating was distracting, like idle entertainment. So I trust fruit. I haven't tried to really gorge myself on fruit though, eating well beyond what it takes to feel full. More in the order of half of a large, very sweet watermelon or one or two mangos, eaten slowly. A lot of fat -and mindless, purposeless internet reading- works much better.
Basically, I'd suggest you simply notice what you're drawn to eat when you're feeling down or apathetic, and if you're in doubt, test and see what suppresses your emotions. Then avoid that, and face your fears.