The word “depression” requires a lot of unpacking and should be discussed with nuance and depth. Here at Sweet Freedom we believe that sugar plays a large role in our mental health and it is important to discuss and research its impacts so that we can help people heal on a large scale.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, Major Depressive Disorder is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. in people ages 15 to 44. This means that there are millions of people are affected by depression on a consistent basis.
It is not all bad news, however, if a mental disorder has a large prevalence in a population, this means that we can effectively reach a large amount of people who are struggling by educating them about a factor they may not realize is contributing to the disorder.
We know sugar, and we know the science of its impacts on the body, brain and mental disposition of those addicted to it.
At one point in her life our founder, Sherry Strong, would start the day off with chocolate ice cream and end it with an entire chocolate cake. You can bet that on the following mornings, she had no intention of getting out of bed.
Sherry had no desire to continue living because for her, sugar hazed living was her reality. It was as if her body was keeping her from experiencing anything close to joy.
Removing refined sugar from her life meant addressing the physical prison that sugar had kept her living in. The lows of sugar addiction are deep and when you struggle with depression, adding the biochemistry of sugar addiction to your disposition is only driving you lower.
This is not to say that refined sugar is the number one cause of depression and that if you just get off of sugar your depression will be cured. There are so many factors when it comes to mental health that it would be a disservice to simplify it so much.
What we can say, however is that if you are experiencing depression right now then get off of sugar. We are not saying that you should stop taking your medication and rely solely on getting off of sugar as a plan for healing but we ARE saying is that there is nothing that you are currently doing or experiencing that won’t be improved by the absence of refined sugar in your body.
Life is intense, stressful and overwhelming at times and it is so important to constantly take note of your mental health and recognize when it’s time for you to take a rest and nourish yourself.
Refined sugar biochemically exacerbates the symptoms of depression which means that the absence of refined sugar can do nothing but good for you.