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Sugar – The
Silent Killer STOP eating
or drinking it.
Weight loss is not
easy, especially since the delicious-tasting foods we eat are full of sugar.
But the truth is, there are more than 70 reasons why you should be afraid – very
afraid – of sugar. It is one of the most deadly substances you can eat, and yet
it tastes so good! None of us is perfect in our eating habits, but if we know
the truth about a food, we can make better choices about when we eat it and how
much we are willing to ingest.
Here is the bottom
line. Sugar turns into FAT and fat, when it surrounds our organs, is very
dangerous to many aspects of our health. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5
times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch (so that candy bar you
just ate is worse for you than a piece of bread – That is why I call
sugar the Silent Killer. We don’t know it is killing us until our weight is so
out of control that we start to get a variety of ailments.
Here are some of
the things that sugar can do to you. In general, it can:
·
suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.
· cause a
loss of tissue elasticity and function
· weaken
eyesight
· cause
premature aging
· lead to
alcoholism.
If that isn’t
enough, sugar contributes to:
· obesity,
tooth decay and periodontal disease,
· arthritis,
asthma, multiple sclerosis, gallstones,
·
appendicitis, hemorrhoids, yeast infections,
·
osteoporosis, lethargy in children, food allergies,
· skin
disease, cardiovascular disease, premature aging of skin,
· cataracts,
nearsightedness, emphysema, Parkinson’s disease,
· liver
disease, kidney stones, headaches and migraines,
·
depression, gout, Alzheimer’s, dizziness, polio risk,
· epileptic
seizures, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia
·
gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, lowered Vitamin E levels
· toxemia in
pregnancy
· ……and
worse, yet, sugar can actually impair the structure of your DNA and SUGAR IS
ADDICTIVE.
Is this enough
evidence of the danger in using too much sugar? No? Here is more on what sugar
can do to the normal functioning of your body. Sugar can:
· Limit your
body’s absorption of calcium and magnesium
· produce a
significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a
decrease in good cholesterol.
· change the
way proteins act in your body.
· impair the
physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.
· lower the
ability of enzymes to function, compromise the lining of your
capillaries and make your tendons more brittle.
· can affect
your ability to think clearly, cause hormonal imbalances and increase free
radicals and oxidative stress.
It’s bad enough what sugar can do to
YOUR body, but here is what it can do to your children:
·
Cause a rapid rise of adrenaline,
hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.
·
Given to premature babies, sugar can
affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce. Decrease in sugar
intake can increase emotional stability.
·
Sugar may induce cell death.
In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar
diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.
·
Sugar dehydrates newborns.
·
It can reduce the learning capacity,
adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.
·
In pregnant adolescents, sugar can
lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a
twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
·
Sugar can worsen the symptoms of
children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Killing Off the Silent Killer - What
You Can Do About Your Sugar Intake.
Now that you can see what sugar does to your body, doesn’t it make sense to
limit your intake?
The USDA
recommends limiting added sugars to 40 grams or 10 teaspoons a day for a 2,000
calorie diet.
Here are four steps to eliminating sugars from your Diet:
Step 1 – Dump those sodas:
A good start to get sugar out of your system is by getting rid of ALL sodas. If
you drink sodas, you might as well start drinking syrup. After all, soft drinks
have 40 grams of sugar per 12 ounces. Also don’t be fooled by the synonyms for
sugar like sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, fructose,
maltose, honey and molasses. They are all SUGAR. Drink water instead.
Step 2 - Read labels:
Sugar is ADDICTIVE and makes things taste better. Manufacturers put sugar in
anything and I mean ANYTHING! Would you put sugar in your soup? Or sugar on your
salad? Well look at the labels and you will find sugar in canned soups and salad
dressings. No wonder we can’t avoid sugar. It is everywhere in our foods.
Step 3 – Reduce your desserts:
I know, this one is hard, but once you do this, it will be easier to totally
eliminate all added sugars from your diet.
Step 4 – Watch
those fruit drinks: Be aware of fruit drinks or fruit juices you buy. Most of them
have almost no real juice in them - less than 5 % - so all you are actually
getting is flavored sugar water. Again, drink water or pure juices.
Note: Fruits
and Vegetables also have sugars in them, but those are not considered added free
sugars, so don’t worry about them. Most fruits have a lot of other beneficial
ingredients that will override the effects of the sugars in them. |
