There has been lately, a craze for health juices such as Pomegranate, Acai, Noni, Goji, etc., because they are powerhouses of nutrition, and as many people, I was sucked in to the arena. I bought up on Pomegranate, Acai, and Monavie, and started drinking them every day, with meals, sometimes substituting them for the regular tea that I drink which I usually make or ask for at a restaurant as half and half (half sweet and half unsweet). I thought I was getting healthier. I know of and trust of their nutritive and medicinal properties and I really love to drink them, but let me tell you what happened to me. It was too much sugar for my system. It is a good thing that I recently had to have some bloodwork done for a regular checkup that I had, because it revealed some startling news.....all of my bad numbers had gone up dramatically, and even my sugar was up to 103, and my blood pressure was a skyrocketing 180/82. It was turning me into a diabetic. My body could not handle the sugar in all those juices. Lucky for me, type 2 diabetes can be turned around because it is not a disease, but a metabolic disorder. Now I am having to monitor my sugars to get back to normal.

So, you see, in spite of the beneficial properties that those wonder juices might have, the sugar in them was killing me, even if there was no added sugar in them. Pomegranate juice is supposed to have sugar-leveling properties. But in my case, it was just the opposite. It was probably spiking my blood sugar way too high and my pancreas just couldn't keep up. It is much better to eat the fruit (as nature intended) than to drink a glass of juice (if you at all have the opportunity to eat the fruit). The fruit has fiber and makes the body work harder at digesting it, slowing the digestion down a bit, to allow for the balancing out of the sugars in a better fashion, as opposed to just drinking the juice; that would be more juice than would come out of a regular piece of fruit, and by doing so, creating a high sugar spike in the blood. Apparently our bodies were not made to be given so much sugar all at once, even if it is fructose. If you are "insulin-resistant," like me, meaning it is very hard for you to lose weight, and when you do it comes right back on again, then you must not drink fruit juices, and if you do, you must drink them in very small quantities. This is just a warning to those out there who are like me, trying to get healthy by drinking the health fruit juices.....take them in moderation. I mean, small dosages......as small as, maybe a shot-glass in the morning and a shot-glass at night, like the Monavie people recommend. But like I said, it is better to eat the fruit.

I've been reading up on this sugar problem, and I have learned of chia seeds, which are something that is very helpful to level out your blood sugar, especially before ingesting pasta or some other carbohydrate. If you eat some chia seeds before having that carb, it will slow down your digestion and level out the sugars better than if you hadn't had them.

Well, I have to say that after this "sugar ordeal" I think I am back to a better balance now. I have found a lot of information on the internet as well as at the bookstore. Basically, from now on I will have to eat differently now, and I will be following the GL diet information, which is about the Glycemic Load that food makes upon your pancreas. I'll be able to eat nuts for a snack, which are mostly all a 0 glycemic load, and for meals I'll just have to stick to lots of veggies (and fruit) mostly, but I am also allowed protein the size of my palm (stay away from red meat), and a carb the size of my palm as well. When I eat carbs I have to balance them out with a similar size of protein.....it just makes it more digestible and less of a sugar load to the pancreas. Fats from vegetable sources are allowed, for example, avocados. coconut, olive, and canola oils, etc. I really need to stay away from animal fats. By doing this and staying away from refined sugars, and those artificial sugars, I should do OK.

Stevia is a good natural sweetener that is from a leaf. It does not have the horrible side effects of Saccharine, Aspartame or Splenda/Sucralose. Stevia is what I'll be using in my tea.