Sugar and What It Does To Your Body

Who likes sugar? Your dentist does. But, unfortunately, so does most of America. Most people that eat sugar on a regular basis are addicted to it.  And that’s a big problem.

With the United States facing an obesity epidemic the consumption of refined sugar doesn’t help. The average American eats about 175 pounds of sugar each year.  Compare that to the 1915 average of about 15 pounds per year.

Wow! That’s pretty scary. But the problem is refined sugar can be found in almost all packaged food. Obviously there are some exceptions. But the majority of food you find in the supermarket has some sort of sugar in it. Especially the processed foods. Some of the more popular ways to sneak sugar in your food is with ingredients such as sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, glucose, and maltose. There are many more.

Refined sugar will fatten you up for sure if you eat enough. And it will keep you from achieving that dream body you want. It’s simply empty calories. It contains no fiber, no protein, no vitamins, and no minerals. Nothing. Wait a minute that sounds like…. Water! Ah, YES! But your body isn’t made up of 75% sugar, now is it? When you eat refined sugar to your body it is seen as an Invader. Alien life forms come down to do harm to you.

You see when you eat refined sugar your body needs to take nutrients from other cells in the body in order to metabolize it because refined sugar lacks the ability to do so on it’s on. Minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium are taken from vital points of the body to make use of the sugar you just ingested. So vital things that require those minerals get done a lot slower, and a lot less efficient over time.

And obviously with the loss of calcium to help with the sugar onslaught, your bones will weaken. Thus, increasing the chances of osteoporosis, breaks, and fractures later on in life. Calcium loss also affects the teeth. Tooth decay. I told you dentists also love sugar. Dentists on average rake in about $50 billion worldwide. How much of that do you think is a direct result of refined sugar consumption?

Another common problem with eating a lot of sugar is the onset of diabetes. Sugar raises the blood sugar levels in your body very quickly and causes insulin to release from the pancreas. If you constantly eat a lot of sugar throughout the day, your body is constantly working. Eventually the pancreas won’t be able to perform its duties and then you have a huge life-changing problem known as diabetes.

Who wants that? No one! Then we have those pesky energy problems. Have you ever felt that ‘sugar high’? It doesn’t last long does it? Your tired already, are craving sugar, eat sugar, feel good, little time passes, and then CRASH! You come back down off the ‘high’. You feel even more tired, hungrier, and have less energy. Do you like having no energy? You want energy that will last-- eat a bowl of oatmeal, not a Twinkie.

So now it’s about time to kick your sugar addiction. Not so fast—It’s not as easy as you might think. Sugar can very well be called a drug. It’s addictive. People that try to get off their sugar diet experience much the same things as smokers, caffeine addicts, and narcotics users. They get headaches, anxiety, depression, mood swings, and more.

It’s best to slowly wean yourself off of refined sugar. Don’t do it all at once. Going from eating donuts and coffee, and McDonalds for lunch and dinner to eating oatmeal and steamed broccoli, chicken and egg whites is not going to work. Once a week try and eliminate something from your diet that contains refined sugar and replace it with something natural.

Last point is not to suppress your cravings completely. Simply feed it. But keep the portion small and savor it. Good luck!