Note: This post was written by Dr. Scott Olson, a naturopath extraordinaire, whose book, Sugarettes, is packed with eye-opening information about the dangers of sugar. I’m hoping to be able to give you more guests post form Dr. Olson and other experts. ~Kathleen

Sugar can be sneaky. You might think that you know when you are eating sugar; after all, sugar tastes sweet. But the moment you start reading labels, you begin to realize how many foods you eat have sugar in them. Food manufactures also have a bad habit of changing the name of sugar in order to confuse you into not knowing that you are eating sugar.

Sugar has well-known addictive qualities; this is the reason why it is added to crackers, coffee, peanut butter, salad dressing, sauces, salsa and just about every other food you eat.

Labels Can Be Confusing

If you take a peek at a label, it may not be that clear to you that the food you are buying contains sugar. One of the best ways figure out if there is a sugar in the food is to look out for the “ose” ending. Many sugars have an “ose” ending, such as: glucose, fructose, maltose and others. It is not a guarantee that you are looking at a sugar when you see the “ose” ending, but most likely so.

The Many Names of Sugar

Sugar is sugar no matter what the name and here are some of the other names for common sugar additives:
• Beet sugar
• Brown sugar
• Cane sugar
• Concentrated grape juice
• Confectioner’s sugar
• Corn sweeteners
• Corn syrup
• Crystallized cane juice
• Dextrin
• Dextrose
• Evaporated cane juice
• Fructose
• Fruit juice concentrate
• Galactose
• Glucose
• High-fructose corn syrup
• HFCS
• Honey
• Invert sugar
• Lactose
• Malt
• Maltodextrin
• Maltose
• Mannitol
• Maple syrup
• Molasses
• Powdered sugar
• Raw sugar
• Sorbitol
• Sorghum
• Sucrose
• Table sugar
• Turbinado sugar
• White sugar
• Xylitol

Other Hidden Sugars

If you are trying to find the sneakiest sugars of them all, you have to look beyond the list above. The sneakiest sugars are the foods that act like sugar. These foods, such as breads, cracker, chips, bagels and even potatoes, act just like sugar in your body. If you are looking to make the plunge into a sugar-free diet because you understand how bad sugars are for your health, then you should also remember to include the foods that act like sugar.

Any step that you might take to remove sugars from your diet is a step towards better health. This guide to the sneaky sugars should help you along your way.

–Dr. Scott Olson

by Dr. Robert Thompson, co-author, with Kathleen Barnes,

The Calcium Lie: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You (InTruth Press, 2008)

Are you overweight? Is someone you love overweight?

No doubt your doctor has told you to eat less and exercise more while discreetly adjusting a lab coat to cover a personal paunch. Take a good look. Is your doctor an example of good health? If not, maybe your doctor doesn’t have the answer.

You’ve struggled. You faithfully get up at 5 a.m. every day for a morning jog. You’ve tried Atkins, South Beach, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers. You gulp down chromium picolinate, 5-HTP, garcinia cambogia, hoodia, Alli and every fad supplement. You’ve probably had some success, but for almost all of us, the success is temporary. The weight begins to creep back on until you’ve regained all you lost and then some.

Why is that? Are we all weak-willed, unable to resist the temptation of the dinner plate? Is our willpower so lacking that we can’t even do the basic exercise of pushing away from the dinner table?

No! We are turning into a fat nation (Generation XL) because we are quite literally starving.
That’s right: In a time of unparalleled food wealth, we cannot get the nutrients our bodies need to function. Specifically, mineral deficiencies and imbalances, especially excess calcium intake, are leading us to metabolic failures of unprecedented proportions.

Starving for minerals

What are we starving for? Minerals. What are we stuffed with? Calcium.

Our society is obsessed with one of the most deadly medical myths ever perpetrated: That we need calcium in order to have strong bones. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Our bones are made of a dozen or more minerals, and calcium is just one of them. We need all of these minerals in the proper proportions

Most of us get way too much calcium and nowhere near enough of the others minerals we need, not only for strong bones, but for our overall health.

Calcium hardens concrete

Did you know that construction workers actually use calcium to harden concrete? That explains a lot about the harmful effects of excess calcium in your body.
It’s a vicious circle: We are starving for the minerals we need, and so we are driven through cravings to eat more and more food in an effort to get those minerals into our cells where they are essential for literally trillions of metabolic functions.

But our foods are low in minerals because of our mineral-poor soil and because few are vine ripened. So we eat more and more.

Our metabolism is slowed because of calcium excess, adrenal suppression and thyroid hormone resistance (Type 2 hypothyroidism).

Digestion is impaired; stomach acid is deficient or improperly released.

Protein is not fully digested and essential amino acids are not absorbed.

Amino acids can’t make it into our cells due to sodium pump failure. More cravings are stimulated by amino acid deficiencies and resulting neurotransmitter deficiencies.

Downward spiral

It’s a terrible, uncontrollable, downward spiral. Since we all know the well-documented risks of being overweight, it all seems so sad to think that we are killing ourselves in a desperate struggle to get the nutrients we need to survive and all the while we are admonished to get our calcium, diet and exercise.

Here’s the answer in short: Get all the minerals you need with the liberal use of unrefined sea salt.

I’m here to tell you that if you exercise like a hamster on the wheel and eat nothing but lettuce for the rest of your life, it will cause no permanent changes unless you treat your underlying metabolic imbalances by balancing and raising your mineral levels.

All meaningful weight loss must involve treating the underlying metabolic problem. Only proper mineral balance in the body can do this.

You’ll find a more detailed explanation of the effects of excess calcium on your weight and a host of other health problems in The Calcium Lie: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You, my book written with health writer Kathleen Barnes. You’ll also find loads of material on our website, www.calciumlie.com.

–Dr. Robert Thompson is a physician practicing in Anchorage and Soldotna, Alaska.