The Harmful Effects of Sugar

I’ve been reading much lately on the effects that sugar has on the body. I am a reactive hypoglycemic who’s been diagnosed as pre-diabetic (diabetes runs in my family) and so this is an area that is of great interest to me.

I grew up in a household where treats and anything containing the addictive taste of sugar was always at hand. I spent my childhood eating plenty of sweet-laden treats with no discipline on how much was enough; I spent my 20s surviving on coffee and sweets as a substitute for healthy food; I spent my 30s still doing some of the same, though by then, the accumulative effects of sugar were beginning to take a toll. I felt jittery and tired on most occasions.

Then the 40s came around and the body sent a dire signal: stop the consumption of sugar or pay for it dearly. When I started getting daily dizzy spells and feeling such an overall horrible sense of malaise I went to visit an endocrinologist who diagnosed me as a reactive hypoglycemic. So, I spent the better part of my 40s knowing that I now had a condition that I had to heed and take care of, yet all the while having an extremely difficult time letting go of that sweet craving. Sugar, like alcohol, is extremely addictive and the person who suffers from its addiction sometimes has a very hard time letting go, despite the health risk involved.

Then recently I began getting more involved in the business of health. The time finally came where I could no longer live ostrich-like and not face the possibility that a road to deteriorating health would soon await me if changes, drastic changes, were not implemented immediately. One of my key concerns was sugar because of the hypoglycemia and because of the way that I felt on most days – which I knew was related to diet.

So I became more conscious of the amount of sugar I consumed daily. I began reading labels and was mostly interested in the hidden sugars one gets through processed foods, any of those hidden ose/itol forms – fructose, dextrose, glucose, lactose, maltose, mannitol, sorbitol, sucrose, and xylitol . It was daunting. Every single processed food had hidden sugars. Unless one is a vegan or follows a macrobiotic diet, then this would be very easy - vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils (and not those in cans), and no processed anything. Okay, processed foods pretty much covers 80% of the supermarket – now what? And, now what is where I am.

I would love to follow a vegan lifestyle; oh, how I wish I could. Yet, every time I have tried I get extremely lethargic and weak from lack of sufficient protein. My body, because of the hypoglycemia, does not function well, unless I have sufficient amount of protein and fat with each meal. So, I have to look for the specific proteins – animal, nuts and cheese – that serves as my dietary guide. I have begun incorporating more vegetables into my meals, have eliminated sodas, have cut down considerably on sweets, and use protein to fill 1/3 of my plate, instead of the past usual half. I eat organic as much as I can.

But at the supermarket reading labels has been daunting. Yet, I know that once I get the hang of it, it will have been hours and frustrations well worth spent.

I recently began reading anything and everything that deals with health and nutrition. And I have found that sugar, that tasty substance that we are all addicted to, is so very, very bad for so many, many reasons. Below are 27 reasons why:

1. Sugar suppresses your immune system. Yes it does, folks.
2. Sugar increases adrenaline, causes hyperactivity and anxiety.
3. Sugar raises your total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and decreases your good cholesterol.
4. Sugar feeds cancer cells. You read it right. It feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of breast, ovary, prostate, rectum, pancreas, lung, gallbladder, and stomach cancers.
5. Sugar can cause reactive hypoglycemia. Well, I know this first hand.
6. Sugar can eventually lead to diabetes and damage your pancreas.
7. Sugar can cause indigestion, increase your risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.
8. Sugar promotes yeast infections.
9. Sugar can promote tooth decay and periodontal disease.
10. Sugar can also contribute to osteoporosis.
11. Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels
12. Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.
13. Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein.
14. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy. I did not know this.
15. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
16. Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention and increase your risk of gout.
17. Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.
18. Sugar can cause headaches and migraines; it can cause depression.
19. Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.
20. Sugar can imbalance your hormones and increase estrogen in men and worsen premenstrual syndrome in women.
21. Sugar can lead to dizziness. Oh, yeah, I know this for a fact.
22. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.
23. A decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.
24. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with ADHD. Parents, listen up.
25. Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function properly.
26. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.
27. Sugar can cause gum disease.

If you would like a complete listing of the harmful effects of sugar, click here. That being noted, I have been trying very diligently to decrease the amount of sugar I consume daily. And two things I have noticed immediately. The less sugar I eat, the fewer cravings for it I have. And, after staying off foods for a couple of days that have any ose substance in it, once I eat that food again, I notice how exceedingly sweet it really is! Our taste buds have become so desensitized to the taste of sugar that the more we consume it, the less sugary it tastes to us. And that is a scary, scary thing.

Is Our Food Killing Us?

Last week while I was browsing through Borders in search of a book that I had in mind and never did find, I came across Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, An Eater's Manifesto. I had read a brief article about the book recently and had it in the back of my mind to look into it. I scanned a few pages, it piqued my interest, I paid for it and walked out.

The book begins with these three extremely small, yet powerful sentences: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That's all I read, that's all I needed to read. I wanted to see what he had to say.

In his Introductory chapter, he starts by giving us some bare essential facts:

"...eating a little meat isn't going to kill you, though it might be better approached as a side dish than as a main."

I consider this a nugget of wisdom. Since reading this, I have incorporated this approach. The recommended serving size of meat should be 3 ounces or the size of a deck of cards. However, I rarely ate 3 ounces, going over the recommended allowance. I do not eat much red meat, but I do, however, eat much chicken. All of my life I've regarded meat as the foremost and essential portion of my daily nutritional needs. This was the way I was raised. But, unfortunately, today we are no longer living in the age of our parents where the meats that landed on their plates were not injected with the hormones and antibiotics they are today because of the mass production that exists. We can no longer be cavalier about the foods we eat because wholesome foods and wholesome raising of animals is no longer the norm. Today, we are more knowledgeable than a generation ago about the harmful effects of consuming too much meat, including how its fat content makes its way into our arteries in time producing heart-related problems. However, a shift is happening and Americans are once again taking their health into their own hands and questioning the conditions in which the food on their plates have come from, how much meat they wish to consume, if any, and the nutritional value of the abundance of empty calories (an oxymoron for sure) that proliferates supermarkets.

"Four of the top 10 causes of death today are chronic diseases with well-established links to diet: coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer."

This should not come as a shock. Americans like to do everything large. I rarely find a restaurant where I finish my entire meal. And the accruing years of too much food - too much sugar, salt, fat, processed foods, starches and meat - is not healthy. Moderation is not a word we heed often. And so it goes without saying that if we glutton our way through life, we will inevitably pay a price.

"...chronic diseases that now kill most of us can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food: the rise of highly processed foods and refined grains; the use of chemicals to raise plants and animals...the superabundance of cheap calories of sugar an fat...and the narrowing of the biological diversity of the human diet to a tiny handful of staple crops, notably wheat, corn and soy. These changes have given us the Western diet...lots of processed food and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything - except vegetables, fruits and whole grains ...wherever in the world people gave up their traditional way of eating and adopted a Western diet, there soon followed a predictable series of Western diseases, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer."

There you have it, black and white, which shuts the door to those who might want to argue different. All you have to do is rent Super Size Me, a documentary with director/writer, Morgan Spurlock, who decided to sustain himself on a MacDonald's diet for one month. One month of breakfast, lunch and dinner at McDonald's. Before embarking "he consulted three doctors - a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, and a general practitioner, all of whom said this experiment obviously wouldn't be GOOD for him, but that the damages would be minimal. Instead, the results were pretty shocking. Spurlock gained almost 30 pounds (over 10 in the first week), saw his cholesterol skyrocket, and experienced frequent nausea, chest pains, mood swings and loss of sex drive." The film is a learning experience into the world of those who frequent fast food and its correlation into the deterioration of your health.

So given that what you eat can healthily sustain you or cause you illness, what changes will you begin making today?