Manic Depression And The Dangers Of Hidden Sugar
Sugar may be sabotaging your attempt to manage your manic depression. According to research, those countries whose residents consume large amounts of sugar have higher rates of depression than countries whose sugar consumption is less.
If you suffer from manic depression and consume sugar, you not only put yourself at risk for experiencing more depressive episodes, but you are also opening yourself up to increasing the intensity of your mood symptoms as well, according to Karen Fink, a nutritionist at Timberlawn Mental Health System in Dallas, Texas.
Before you say that you avoid sugar at all costs, because as a person with manic depression, you're well aware of its dangers, consider all the various ways that sugar hides in foods.
Let's look at something as simple as sugar-free pudding. You choose it precisely because you know excess sugar can play havoc with your symptoms of manic depression. It contains 90 calories compared to the regular variety which contains 150. But is it really sugar free? Look closer at the label. The pudding still contains something called lactose - a carbohydrate found in milk products that is a form of sugar.
Even when choose a granola bar over a candy bar, thinking you're doing your body a favor in trying to manage your manic depression, you're still exposing yourself to a minimum of three different types of sugar.
The average granola bar label reads something like this: Sugar, rolled oats, dextrose, wheat flakes, rice, dried lemon, soybeans, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated peanut and soybean oil, non-fat milk, almonds, malt, sorbitol and flavoring.
Here are the various forms of sugar found in that so-called healthy granola bar: Sugar, fructose, dextrose, corn syrup and sorbitol. Do you still think that bar will help you effectively manage your manic depression through nutrition?
Let's face it, food manufacturers are getting cleverer because as consumers we're growing ever savvier in reading labels. We know by law, a manufacturer must list the ingredients by weight. That means the closer to the top of the list an ingredient is, the greater the amount of the ingredient in that product.
This means that the American consumer - whether or not he suffers with manic depression - has to be extremely careful in choosing healthy foods.
Still not convinced of the hidden dangers of sugar to the individual with manic depression? Consider this fact: the average American today consumes two to three pounds of sugar a week. In the last two decades, the consumption of refined sugar has increased some 26 pounds to 135 pounds per year.
Now compare this to the late nineteenth century - the years from 1887 to 1890 - when sugar consumption averaged only approximately five pounds a year.
Now you can see how crucial it is that as a person who suffers with manic depression that you monitor your intake of sugar carefully. It's a vital tool - one which few medical professionals mention - in the successful management of your symptoms of manic depression.
