Hello my dear readers!
Today I’m writing about a very commune topic, as you saw in the title, about SUGAR.
Everybody knows sugar is bad for us, but if you ask them why is so bad for our health people have just one answer: it makes us fat. Well it’s a little more than that…. So just pay a little attention and read 🙂
First of all what is sugar?
When we talk about sugar we are mainly referring to refined sugars. The well known, granulated white sugar comes mainly from sugar cane or sugar beet plant.
In its raw state, cane sugar is a dark coloured, thick syrup known as black molasses. It is this syrup which is refined to produce the clean looking granulated form we all know. So from plant to granular form involves several chemical processes. Going through this chemical process the final product, the table sugar, has NO NUTRIENTS, NO PROTEIN, NO HEALTHY FATS, NO ENZYMES, NO VITAMINS, NO MINERALS. Contains just some empty and quickly digested calories, which actually pull minerals from the body during digestion.
Here is a short list of why sugar is bad for you:
Sugar is Highly Addictive
Like abusive drugs, sugar causes a release of dopamine in the reward centre of the brain. The problem with sugar and many junk foods is that they can cause massive dopamine release… much more than we were ever exposed to from foods found in nature. The “everything in moderation” message may be a bad idea for people who are addicted to junk food, because the only thing that works for true addiction is abstinence.
Not the fat, BUT the SUGAR is that raises your cholesterol and gives you heart disease
For many decades, people have blamed saturated fat for heart disease, which is the #1 killer in the world. However new studies are showing that saturated fat is harmless. Studies show that large amounts of fructose can raise triglyceride and raise blood glucose and insulin levels and also increase abdominal obesity.
Sugar suppresses the immune system
When you eat a big dose of sugar, like a bottle of Coke or a candy bar, you temporarily tamp down your immune system’s ability to respond to challenges. The effect lasts for several hours, so if you eat sweets several times a day, your immune system may be perpetually operating at a distinct disadvantage
Sugar raises insulin levels
An influx of sugar into your body will have a fairly predictable result: Your blood sugar levels will rise up. Shortly after, your pancreas will release a bunch of insulin to help clear sugar from your blood into your cells. As blood sugar levels go down, insulin levels return to normal. But when you eat a lot of sugar, you’re constantly calling for insulin. Over time, it takes more and more insulin to get the job done. Eventually, your pancreas may just stop responding to the call. So you become an insulin-dependent diabetic. And along the way, exposing your cells and organs to chronically high insulin levels accelerates the ageing process
Sugar promotes inflammation
Eating sugar foods can fuel excessive, inappropriate inflammation that serves no useful purpose and actually promotes ageing and disease. Cutting back on sugary foods will help you avoid excess inflammation
Stresses the Liver
When we eat fructose, it goes to the liver. If liver glycogen is low, such as after a run, the fructose will be used to replenish it. However, most people aren’t consuming fructose after a long workout and their livers are already full of glycogen. When this happens, the liver turns the fructose into fat. Some of the fat gets shipped out, but part of it remains in the liver. The fat can build up over time and ultimately lead to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
Sugar contains no essential nutrients and is bad for your teeth
You’ve probably heard this a million times before, but it’s worth repeating.
Added sugars (like sucrose and high fructose corn syrup) contain lots of calories with NO essential nutrients.
For this reason, they are called “empty” calories.
When people eat up to 10-20% of calories as sugar, this can become a major problem and contribute to nutrient deficiencies.
Sugar is also very bad for the teeth, because it provides easily digestible energy for the bad bacteria in the mouth.
The list could go on and on…..
So, what the scientist recommend?
We all know it’s hard to totally cut out sugar. What they are recommending is to be aware of the amount of sugar you are putting into our body.
Eat real or whole foods, like vegetables, meat, seafood, fruit and nuts. This ensures there are no hidden sugars.
Minimize your intake of processed or fast foods.
If you have to buy processed foods, read the food label!!
Don’t forget!!!!! SUGAR is everywhere
- Bread
- Pastry
- Fruit juices
- Milk shakes
- Yoghurt
- Mayonnaise
- Peanut butter
- Ketchup
- Cereals
- Salad dressings and so on!
But it is not enough that there is sugar in everything, we also like to add sugar to our tea, coffee, top our fruit in sugar and cream, soups, pancakes etc.
Try to eliminate processed sugar from your diet, if not, than try to replace them with natural sweeteners, like natural raw honey, natural stevia, raw, black molasses or natural maple syrup.
Remember!!
When you consume sugar, your body has two options on how to deal with it:
- Burn it for energy
- Convert to fat and store it in your fat cells
Depending on your genetic predisposition, your body might be better equipped to process sugar as energy, or you might be more likely to store it as fat.
Hope I gave you some new information on this addictive sweet “substance” called SUGAR 🙂
Have a great night :*
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