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FastCompany.com/3050319/how-giving- up-refined-sugar-changed-my-brain .
While sugar negatively affects our bodies overall, it can have a much more severe impact on our brains. Have you ever noticed that shortly after eating or drinking something high in sugar, you get a rush of good feelings? Sugar triggers the release of dopamine in your brain, and this reward of feel-good chemicals is a major symptom of addiction. Some researchers have compared sugar to illicit drugs, such as heroin and cocaine. Scientists at Princeton University put this theory to the test by performing experiments on rats. They increased the rats’ sugar intakes over time as they became more accustomed to it. Then, the scientists reduced or removed sugar from the rats’ diets. Shortly after, the rats began exhibiting withdrawal symptoms. This exact phenomenon has been observed in humans. When you cut sugar out of your diet, it’s not uncommon to experience headaches, low energy, and cravings. One author put sugar addiction to the test and chronicled the experience, which you can read here:
people, this can sound challenging, but all it takes is a small, dedicated change in routine.
In short, he calls the process of cutting sugar from his diet a “roller-coaster ride” of emotion and concentration. Eventually, the author shifted from craving sugar to feeling better than ever. It wasn’t easy, but in the end, making the effort to cut down on sugar was worth it. It’s something you can do too! Reducing sugar in your diet can do wonders for your health, mentally and physically. The hardest part is getting started and taking that first, all-important step. One of the best ways to lower your sugar intake is to make meals and snacks from scratch. A bulk of the sugar we consume daily is in pre-made foods — including just about anything you buy from the grocery store. Making your own meals and snacks gives you 100 percent control over the ingredients you put in your food and your body. For busy
For example, plan a day to meal prep. Among the meal-prep community — which is prospering online with many subgroups dedicated to slow cookers and pressure cookers — Sunday is the most popular day. You gather your ingredients, do the necessary cooking, and assemble your meals for the week, organizing everything in neat containers. You can prep for just the week and refrigerate your food or plan for multiple weeks and freeze meals so they don’t go bad as time goes on. You’ll save time on preparation and cooking, and you’re left with healthy meals and snacks when you’re done. There is no doubt that cutting down or eliminating sugar from your diet is hard. It takes time and effort, but the end result is more energy and greater mental clarity. Get out from under the shadow of sugar!
LAWSUITS FROM BEYOND Let’s Hope There’s a Courtroom in the Afterlife
We pride ourselves on being a country where everyone receives a fair trial. And while that’s not always the case, even the craziest claims still have to be heard in some capacity by a court of law. As you can imagine, this can result in plenty of spooky high jinks in the courtroom. Let’s take a look at some of the more baffling court cases in recent memory.
occasions after his lawyer missed certain deadlines to turn in proper documents. Thankfully, the issue was resolved, but not before he had his credit cards and Medicaid revoked after appearing to be dead.
SOLEMNLY SPOOKED
DEAD MAN TALKING
An unnamed New York resident — just what on earth is going on in New York? — claimed that the house they’d recently purchased was horribly and cripplingly haunted by unseen forces. The poltergeist was said to disrupt their daily activity, and the plaintiff was suing on the grounds that the home was notorious in the area for being haunted and had a reputation as such. Therefore, the owner felt it should have been disclosed to them before closing on the home. They won. That’s right; the court ruled that the seller misled the plaintiff and should have disclosed the nature of this potentially harmful house. Shockingly enough, this type of thing is required to be disclosed when selling a house in New York. Well, at least a buyer will have peace of mind knowing that they got a sweet new pad and a ghoul for pennies on the dollar.
In something straight out of a Coen brothers movie, a New York man had to sue The New York Times on three separate occasions to get them to stop reporting that he was dead. In all fairness, it seemed like an honest mistake prolonged by the ineptitude of his public counsel and a whole lot of terrible coincidences all rolled into one. Juan Antonio Arias just so happened to share the same first and last name as one “Juan Arias”who had met his untimely demise. After it was reported in a Times article, the living Arias accidentally had his own date of birth and Social Security number added to the death certificate of his now deceased namesake in a terrible mix-up from the coroner. As a result, he sued on three
2 • StanoLaw.com
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