We had only 20 members present for the July 23 meeting! The lowest total in a long time and the third time in the past five weeks we have had fewer than 25 members in attendance. Please remember that an important part of Rotary is showing up at our regular luncheons. Visitors at our meeting included the District Assistant Governor, Mary Bak, from the Glenview Sunrise Club and Mike Noonan, from Costco Marketing.
Happy Buck$ came from Kristen Leahy who reported her gratitude for the members of the club who supported the WYO’s service trip to work for Habitat for Humanity in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Tom Nash aptly handled dig n Grin.
The speaker for the day was Paula Jablonski, a holistic health care coach and former nurse who has spent her entire adult life in the health care field. Now she wants to spend her time helping people prevent disease. Her presentation was entitled “Sugar Blues.” Paula spent time explaining how the sugar sucrose, a very common ingredient in our food supply, is composed of two molecules, glucose and fructose. Glucose supplies much of the energy for the body, as 80% of sugar is normally converted to energy and 20% is turned into fat. It is the fructose in our food that is the real culprit. Fructose is metabolized by the liver and is converted into fat. She said that when food processors began removing the fat from their products the bland taste led to adding sweeteners, most often in the form of high fructose corn syrup, which is extremely cheap. The consumption of too much fructose leads us to feel hungry when we our appetite should be suppressed. It can frequently lead to hypertension, elevated triglycerides, decreased HDL (the good cholesterol), an increased waist circumference and high blood sugar.
Paula said that the sugar requirements for men are 9 teaspoons of sugar, and 6 teaspoons for women. Since more food packages express that sugar contents in grams she said that 4 grams of equals one teaspoon of sugar. She encouraged her audience to make sure they are getting protein and fiber in their diets at every meal as these will assist in weight loss. Fiber helps slow down the rate absorption of sugar.
All of these problems are reversible, so be sweet but don’t eat sweets!
