Sugar

Do you have a sweet tooth? 

There are many studies showing that you should break the sugar habit.  It is in your “health” best interest.  Sugar is a habit forming addictive substance .   Many negative conditions in your body thrive on sugar….the scariest of these….CANCER CELLS LOVE SUGAR.

Sugar comes in so many forms.  There is refined sugar, the white granules you buy in a 5 pound bag in the grocery store.  There is brown sugar, turbinado,  succanat, cane, palm, coconut, demerara and muscovado.  There are  many syrupy sweeteners such as molasses, agave nectar, yacon syrup, coconut syrup, and brown rice syrup.   To top the list of REALLY BAD sweeteners is high fructose corn syrup which is nasty stuff used in most processed foods.  It is cheap to make and from genetically modified corn.

The average sugar consumption per person in the United States and Canada is between 2 and 3 pounds per week.  That is so hard to imagine.  But…sugar is used in everything processed.  It is in breads, crackers, breakfast foods, beverages, condiments, pasta sauces, peanut butter, convenience foods etc.  You may think you are not consuming any sugar if you don’t have a sweet tooth but if you are not preparing your food from scratch with whole foods then you are pretty well guaranteed to be getting sugar in your foods.

The past 20 years has seen an increase in per person sugar consumption from 26 pounds a year to 135 pounds per person a year!  Records show that before the 19th century the average was a mere 5 pounds per person per year.  Is that not an unbelievable spread?  Cancer and heart disease were virtually unknown until the early 1900’s and they have come on with a vengeance. 

One of my favorite health advocates….Dr. Mercola shared an article listing the many ways sugar harms your health.  Below I picked out not even half of the conditions he listed.  But I think I have included enough to make you realize just how bad sugar is for your well being.

Sugar packs a mean punch to the human body.  It throws off your immune system and lessens your bodies ability to fight against infectious diseases.  It affects your cholesterol levels in that it raises your triglycerides and your LDL (bad) cholesterol and lowers your HDL (good) cholesterol.    

 We can see how sugar affects children after they have a blast of the sweet stuff.  It raises their adrenaline, hyperactivity and anxiety.  It dampers childrens ability to concentrate and tends to create mood swings.

Sugar feeds cancer and has been associated with cancer of the pancreas, lung, gallbladder, stomach, breast, ovary, prostate to name a few.  Sugar is connected to hypoglycemia.  Sugar interferes with the absorption of calcium and magnesium in your body and upsets mineral balance.  Sugar plays a role in many gastrointestinal tract issues such as Crohn’s Disease, Colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, indigestion, malabsorption and acid reflux.

Sugar contributes to tooth decay, obesity, gallstones, hemorrhoids, circulation problems, osteoporosis, blood pressure, diabetes,  food allergies, cardiovascular disease, Candida Albicans (yeast problems) and so much more.

Sugar wreaks havoc on your body functioning at it’s peak.  You can suffer migraines, digestive upset, fluid retention, eyesight problems such as cataracts,  depression, Sugar is linked to gout, increases your risk for Alzheimer’s and autoimmune diseases, upsets your hormone balance.

Sugar increases free radicals, contributes to kidney stones, worsens symptoms of ADHD, affects your adrenal glands AND SO MUCH MORE.  It is amazing how many things sugar can do to the human body. 

And….it is everywhere in the mainstream diet.  Check the labels on any ready made processed food product on your grocery store shelf and somewhere on the list you will find some form of sugar.  Sugar is a simple carbohydrate high on the glycemic index.

The following is a list of words used to describe a sugar in ready made foods:

Agave Nectar

Barley Malt Syrup

Corn Sweetener, Corn syrup, Corn syrup solid

Dehydrated Cane Juice

Dextrin

Dextrose

Fructose

Fruit Juice Concentrate

Glucose

High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Honey

Invert Sugar

Lactose

Maltodextrin

Malt Syrup

Maltose

Maple Syrup

Molasses

Raw Sugar

Rice Syrup

Saccharose

Sorghum or sorghum syrup

Sucrose

Syrup

Treacle

Turbinado Sugar

Xylose, Xylitol

Now you know how many different forms of sugar are disguised on the food ingredients labels.    It’s no wonder that people are consuming an average 135 pounds a year per person.  Scary, scary sugar!