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Oct 4, 20249 min read

Since the beginning of time


Me, some years ago in Thailand, after yoga, in nature. This is how I feel living life animal-based & sans sugar: life in technicolor, from the inside and out.

The fourth of October is the Cinnamon Bun Day in Sweden, a thing that has become so popular and appreciated by many that it's more celebrated than the national bank holiday.


The food industry's stores along with bakeries and coffee shops here in Stockholm are filling up their shelves and displays to the maximum with seductively scenting, freshly baked buns. Some stacked in massive piles even. Because on this day, they sell out fast, like hotcakes. Or as we say here in Sweden, "as fast as butter melt in sunshine".


"Everyone" should celebrate, and big bags of buns are picked up on the way to the office in

the morning, to prepare for "fika" to eat in the coffee break. And it's commonly encouraged to indulge in the fika snack, especially today.


I judge nobody, buns taste good. And I do support things that bring people together. Because we are pack animals. Us humans need each other and it does us good to socialise. It creates connection, which is essential for our health and well-being. Since the beginning of time, we have gathered to connect. Back then we did it around the fire, where we would spend time, share our stories, have a heart-warming laugh or three, or just enjoy each others company in silence. A restful, joyful and indeed meditative way of simply being, with each other (and in the presence of nature, which to me is divine).


Community and connection is nowadays an unfulfilled need for many, at least in the Western parts of the world. In the somewhat horrendous digital era we're living in, many spend most of their days in front of a laptop screen and on their addictive & dopamine-hitting smartphones, instead of socialising in person; eye to eye, in each others energy, experiencing the subtle vibrations and various sounds of each others voices. Feeling, hearing, reading and understanding the nuances of facial expressions and spoken words and conversations.


The last time I checked, the statistics showed that Sweden has the highest amount of single households in the world. There is a growing need for building community and creating possibilities for people to meet and tell their stories, share their joy or worries, laughter, and to simply connect. To be seen, felt and heard. Through conversation, or by spending time being present around something that brings us together.


But I can not support the type of social togetherness that the annual cinnamon bun day brings, with its health-degrading indulgence. Because I know what it can do to people's health, from the inside and out. And sugar doesn't do anybody any good. 


I myself have eaten an impressive amount of cinnamon buns in my life (this gluten bomb in particular happens to be a childhood favourite, which of course followed me into adult years, because that's how us humans function – we repeat our childhood patterns and our brains like to go back to what feels familiar or safe (the conditioning factor).


I get it, the temptation to indulge. I also know that most people in modern time are going through their days with high and low blood sugar levels, hijacked in energy-depleting roller coaster rides, because of buns and snacks with similar content. I understand that it can feel like a relief to reach for something sweet in the afternoon, in the coffee break at work or in the afternoon when concentration is plummeting, or to cope with handling the stressors of rush hour, to make it through picking up the kids and going grocery shopping before arriving home to cook dinner. Or perhaps to make it through the morning even, after a really poor night's sleep.

Because modern foods will create cravings and keep you stuck in that vicious cycle.


...Just as artificial lights and lots of screen-or-phone-scrolling creates negative impact, too. In various ways, these things will alter and mess with your innate circadian rhythm and thereby disturb your sleep patterns, put gas on the fire being inflammation and higher anxiety levels, as well as bring other negative, physical consequences through your central nervous system; it'll hijack your ability to breathe, inhibit you from digesting and functioning properly, all by causing you to actually live and function in survival mode – the "fight-and-flight" branch of the ANS.


Your ancestral brain interprets the modern stressors as some kind of life-threatening danger, and your body wants to protect you and prepare you to attack and to protect yourself, even though there's no real threat there; A real threat would have been a sabre-toothed tiger trying to munch on you and your loved ones, which at times was reality in the savannah, many, many, years ago.


Everyone doesn't get as sick or biochemically and mentally imbalanced, depressed or aggressive (yes, sugar creates extreme mood disorders in some) as many (I would say most) people do. Normie people can eat buns without suffering any consequences. However, I would highly recommend everyone, regardless of biochemical predisposition (you are born with one of 3), to skip gluten. It's not exaggeration, fake news or about any kind of invitation to jump on another "trendy diet". In fact, I don't fancy using the word diet in my vocabulary, at all. I believe in real food. And what we put in our mouths are either poison, or nourishing food.


Freedom from gluten is beneficial for anyone. As is choosing to eat wholesome foods that aren't alien to your ancestral body and brain. Such as eggs, unprocessed beef, animal fats and unrefined salt.* We have eaten these foods since the beginning of time, and they are necessary for proper heart health, brain health, physical and metabolic health, and for proper aging, meaning lowering e.g. the risk of contracting modern inflammatory diseases such as dementia or cancer, maintaining proper bone density (inhibiting skeleton breakdown) and crucial for your well-being and being able to live in homeostasis. Hormonally, mentally, physically, metabolically, spiritually... It's all connected.

*If you for some reason still don't trust me on this one, do read the doctor of pharmacy and cardiovascular research scientist James DiNicolantonio's eminent book, The Salt Fix. 


Gluten causes gut imbalances that lasts for months even after you quit the fluffy-making, gluey substance, and it's a huge factor causing...


  • Concentration difficulties

  • Brain fog

  • Fatigue

  • Joint- and back pain (this goes for high oxalate foods to, exempli gratia almond flour)

  • Lack of life spark and glow

  • Depression, or low mood.


    ...So if you want wellness, good health and normal energy levels (and by that I mean thriving amounts) or perhaps greater physical endurance or improved fitness results, going gluten free is the way.


Reaching flow state with proper fuel

Everyone, regardless of genetic predisposition, are guaranteed to feel (and perform) their best from real food with its positive impact of balancing the blood sugar levels and keeping the insulin levels low and healthy. This is the key to good health, holistically (and the way to a healthy fat burning capacity too).


Real food is essential if you want an end to those recurring energy dips, mood swings and the cravings for fatty or sugary carb cravings that are so common in these modern times. It's how you reach a state of ongoing energy and mental sharpness lasting throughout the day. And gives greater access to connecting with your own flow and creativity, giving you better focus and capacity to create and work on whatever it is that you love and want to do. Or as I like to call it, living a life in technicolor. 

Real food makes our brains content for many hours ahead, and makes us emotionally stable, happier, as well as increases our resilience towards stress. What's not to like about a sugar free lifestyle?


Even small amounts of sweet stuff and gluten makes a difference to some

It may sound odd, but even little particles of sweeteners (so called "healthy" or "natural" sorts)

can have a negative impact on the brain health and well-being. As can crumbles from bread or pastries. So if you know (or just suspect) that you have this congenital sensitivity, then it is best not to share cutting board or butter jar with somebody who cuts bread or spread butter on their toasts. Small changes like these can make a huge difference for your well-being. Performance is affected as well, since small particles can cause brain fog and tiredness both in the mind and the body.


All humans don't risk experiencing a loss of life quality from cinnamon buns, nor their negative impact of getting brain-related cravings, like myself, who chooses to abstain from them because my ancestral sugar-sensitive brain belongs in the category which was perfectly able to munch a whole tree of berries in the Savannah 12 000 years ago (which back then contributed to securing the preservation of the species because food was only intermittently present, but which is a challenge to live with and handle in the modern age).


I choose to abstain from gluten and sugar because I want to be mentally present, and live in tune with the rhythms of nature, and with the innate rhythm which is my true self and compass. And to be able to be present, to feel everything. In the little things, in the experiences, in the people that are real, authentic, and which matters most to me. That's what sobriety is to me. Living in tune, feeling, and living well.


Everyone doesn't experience a firework in their brain's prefrontal cortex when the cinnamon bun has the dopamine and reward center lightning up like a Christmas tree from sugar and from the fluffiness of the bread and gluten. And everyone doesn't get a biochemical, physical, brain-based mental obsession for sugar from just one single bun, or from small particles of sugar, sweeteners or gluten. But many people do. Far more people than you would probably imagine.


Also, think of all the kids out there that are yet unaware that they have this sensitivity. Is the indulgence on cinnamon bun day a healthy thing, for them?


Isn't this day really just a profit-based, commercial stunt? It's no secret these days that the food industry (also called "Big Food") wants to keep us sick, fat and tired. They profit from us if we buy, and eat their fake food products and sugar bombs. As does the pharmaceutical industry ("Big Pharma"), when all the inflammatory or mental illnesses that stem from sugar and processed foods are "treated" with symptom-supressing medications.


Speaking of the children. I'd like to borrow the famous aphorism uttered by the American doctor and metabolic health professional, Robert Lustig:


Sugar is the alcohol of the child.

There are better options, that don't mean you need to abstain or be left out from the social gatherings around the fika-table. I myself am perfectly happy with delicious and hot, dark-roasted coffee, or a glass of ice-cold, fizzy water when joining a Swedish fika (connecting, to me, isn't necessarily about eating). When inviting friends or family over to my house, I will rather cook breakfast, brunch or dinner, because when it comes to pastries and sweet stuff, I really don't think we need them.


I'll have fried eggs or an omelette with lots of delicious sea salt, any given day. Here is by the way, an example of a perfect little breakfast, to me: eggs, onion, well-raised chicken, cold-pressed olive oil or butter, and salt. Easy-peasy to cook, and has the taste buds do a dance of joy.


If you're a normie, and feel like making a sugar-free option to the cinnamon bun, please find below my recipe on how to make delicious egg muffins, free from sugar and gluten. They are easy to whisk together and bakes quickly in the oven. Feel free to add more protein, butter, vegetables or berries in accordance with your own specific needs or personal taste. The recipe is from my book, KETO-licious. With love / Hanna



The recipe in the picture is in Swedish, but followed by an English translation below.


Egg muffins

8 muffins



INGREDIENTS

8 eggs

Coconut oil8 tbsp coconut cream (or full fat cream 40%)

1 package of bacon/turkey/ham (without preservatives or added sugar)

or 2 dl grated hard cheese/crumbled feta cheese/goat’s cheese



DO THIS

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees.

  2. Use butter or coconut oil to grease a muffins bake tray, or put 8 muffin tins on an oven tray. 

  3. Slice the bacon into smaller strips. 

  4. Whisk together the eggs and the cream, distribute the batter in the muffin tins and add some bacon into each tin. Or fry the bacon in a saucepan first, to add some extra crispiness, and place them in the muffins when almost fully baked. 

  5. Bake for 15-20 minutes in the oven until golden and puffy-shaped. 


Foody tip! You can bake the muffins au naturel (without bacon, turkey or ham) and serve them with shrimp or smoked salmon, full fat sour cream, or eat them just as they are. Or add berries as filling and bring a healthier bun to the fika, coffee break, or the Birthday celebration gathering.







Guidance: if you – or somebody you love – have a problem with sugar, or if you wish to learn more, you can visit THESE LINKS for sugar addiction science, guidance, treatment and much more.


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