Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and even Father’s Day have something in common. A troubling trend.

Refined Sugar!

Through marketing and social change, our modern patterns include sugary, toxic sweets as a token of love and a currency of connection.

In most cultures throughout the world and throughout time, there has been a focus on an emotionally sweet connection between sharing food and celebrating together. A connection that runs deep in our DNA.

We are social beings and we need to be together to be healthy and strong.

From 1979 onward, studies have been demonstrating that having strong social community connections prolongs life, often by a margin of 25%! Cancer patients with the strongest social communities demonstrate a 70% increase in survival rate.

Multiple studies demonstrate that being connected with a positive support community is healing. There is even a term for group healing with high-energy or love-based support. Psychosocial healing.

Physiologically, we have learned that love and social support produce powerful healing hormones such as dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. These boost our immune system by sending signals to decrease inflammation, increase blood and oxygen circulation and increase white blood cells, red blood cells, helper T cells and our favorite, Natural Killer cells. All of these elements function to improve immune status and create a feeling of well-being.

Being connected with loved ones is a gift that keeps on giving!

Sweets from the Sweet

As the shops fill with toxic treats to share with those we love – from Pal-entine’s celebrations to intensely romantic new love – it becomes a nightmare for the healthy eater!

Even the most dedicated health seeker can tumble off the proverbial food wagon when grandma shows up with a plate of homemade cookies, a bright red heart of chocolates accompanies a new date or the neighbor child pulls up with a bag of valentine Smarties. The struggle is strong when we physiologically need community, but our modern culture has created a sugar-based celebration tradition.

What is a loving, community-seeking human to do?

In the moment, when a friend, family member or romantic interest shares a ‘goodie’ that is laden with ‘baddie’ ingredients, put on a new perspective!

Like a pair of rose-colored glasses, imagine the gift as a simple token or representation of Love. Visualize the Love. Try to make it as real and tangible as possible, and take it in. Like inhaling the swirling scent of cookies baking, inhale the Love behind the gift. Hold it dear inside your body. Let it literally permeate your tissues. We are all energetic beings. It really does affect us to feel the high-frequency energy of Love!

Next, after the time with your community member is over, put the toxic food in the trash can!

Separate the Love from the token. And toss it!

It is not ‘wasting food’ if the item in question is not nourishing to the body. Refined sugar depletes the body of vital nutrients. It creates inflammation and hormone dysregulation. It is toxic to the brain!

Start a Movement in Your Community!

Break the mold of today’s toxic trends and start sharing your own healthy creations! It is a little scary (and time-consuming) to share something out-of-the-ordinary. Consider alternative tokens of your love for that person. A plant the continues to live for many Valentine’s Days to come, a special book tailored just for that person, or even an act of service – the possibilities are as endless and unique as the humanity around us.

If you do choose foods, be brave and remember that though your treat is a token of love, it may not be met with the visible excitement that super-sweet treats generate. There is a physiological reason for the subdued response.

Highly processed sweets are filled, not only with sugar but with food additives that generate a brain response similar to an opioid response. One health author stated that sugar is the most toxic drug ever made, not just legal, but socially required! It is addictive!

Change the Physiology

After a sugar exposure or a stress response, there is generally an increase in future sugar cravings. It takes about two weeks for these cravings to die down. What is one to do when walking through these difficult days of intense sugar craving?

First, see your practitioner to get nutritional support. Products such as Designs for Health Sensitol work to sensitize insulin receptors, allowing natural energy to get into the cells. Insulin receptor insensitivity is often a root cause of sugar cravings.

Addressing your specific nutritional deficiencies can also set the stage for success as you walk away from toxic, refined sugars.

Flip the Craving

When a craving does arrive – consider it a wonderful alarm clock to remind you that your body is needing something. Use this alarm clock to look inward. Observe the craving. What is your body really needing?

Dehydration is the leading reason for cravings. Begin with a big glass of lovely filtered water.

Then look at emotional needs that may not be met in the moment. It is an opportunity to get proactive!

During these lonely COVID-era times, remember that in research across the decades we have learned that having social connection is more impactful than diet, exercise, smoking and drinking for long-term health. Consider the power of simply making and strengthening social connections.

Take the time to pick up the phone to just let someone you love know that you are thinking about them. Write a card and make someone’s day bright. Lend a hand to your neighbor. Share a healthy treat with a heart full of love and community. Walk your dog and say ‘hello’ to fellow walkers. Get a dog or a cat, their community can also enhance the immune system!

You are in Control

Dr. Joanne Segel, pioneer in movement research says, “We can go as high as we go deep.” Movement can be any change or action we make to be in control of our own wellness. Consider diving deep into your love tokens in our modern day so that you can fly high with your own health in the long run!

We wish you a Valentine’s Day full of socially connecting activity and heart-warming thought.

At Thrive Alive Wellness, we are thinking of you!