WHY SHOULD YOU QUIT SUGAR?
A few of the most compelling are:
- Sugar
creates an addictive cycle of hunger, fatigue and moodiness. It initially
spikes blood sugar, causing us to feel energized and happy. But since it's
devoid of real nutrition, blood sugar quickly plummets, leaving us tired,
hungry and moody.
- Sugar
causes excess storage of fat: It triggers the body to produce insulin,
which tells fat cells to store more.
- Sugar
causes inflammation.
This causes pain and is seen as a precursor to heart disease, diabetes
and cancer.
The good news is that it takes only five days to
dramatically reduce the body’s dependence on sugar, by eliminating refined
sugar from your diet. That includes most processed foods (because they contain
loads of added sugar), condiments, candy, baked goods and sweetened beverages,
including those with artificial sweetners. Also watch out not to overindulge in
fruit – aim for no more than 1 serving a day.
1. Sugar Slows You
Down
Eat more protein, as well as veggies and other fiber-rich
foods, your blood sugar will stay level all day. This will help you to resist
the urge to eat sugar and drink caffeine to get through the day because you will
already have enough energy.
2. Sugar Hampers
Mental Activity
Your memory will improve as you make this change to quitting
sugar. You will be able to focus better.
The increased mental-clarity is due to a number of factors. Most
obviously, when your blood-sugar levels are consistent and healthy, you don’t
feel sleepy all of the time and your brain works better because of it. Less
obvious is the fact that an overabundance of fructose such as that obtained
from foods containing high-fructose corn syrup (sodas were the main culprit in
my case) taxes your liver and pancreas. In short, these two organs have to work
harder to manage all of that bad sugar and get it out of the blood stream.
While doing so, they exhaust energy reserves which otherwise should have been
used for processes such as breaking down fat and converting it to usable energy,
as well as synthesizing hormones other than insulin. This results in an
unpredictable combination of moodiness, anxiety, exhaustion, heaviness or
bloating in the gut, a sluggish metabolism, and eventually a sick thyroid. In my case I quit drinking soda because I
found out not only that I had a fatty liver but that I also have gastritis, and
a hiatal hernia. I also have a history
of thyroid disease.
3. Sugar Is Expensive
Sugar comes with a lot of hidden fees. Consuming enough of it is a sure fire way to develop cavities and gum disease, so you can be sure that you’ll be seeing your dentist more frequently. Go ahead and add your family doctor to the equation because sugar causes a lot of other health problems which you may not realize are the result of your sweet addiction. Yes I have seen the doctor a lot because of sugar or let’s say my previous soda habit.
Furthermore, sugar-related illnesses like diabetes and
obesity have caused a steady rise in health insurance premiums. While you as an
individual may not see yourself as personally responsible for this trend,
purchasing and consuming sugar and sugar-filled products line the pockets of
processed food manufacturers. As long as these companies continue to profit
from it, they’ll keep pumping out the poison with zero regard to the health of
the world’s population.
As if the increased medical bills weren’t enough,
over-consumption of sugar also triggers the production of ghrelin – the hormone
which signals to your body that it’s hungry. You feel like you need to eat more
so you spend more money on food. Then you gain weight and have to buy new
clothes. Maybe you even get ambitious and sign up for a gym membership because
you know you need to lose weight. However, if you keep eating sugar, you
probably won’t have enough energy to really feel like working out. Instead you
turn to caffeine and expensive weight-loss supplements.
4. Sugar Makes You
Fat
As previously mentioned, a diet that includes sugar – high
levels of fructose in particular – makes you far more likely to overeat.
However, this isn’t the only reason that sugar causes weight-gain. Because
sugar stresses the pancreas by forcing it to produce elevated levels of
insulin, other hormones are neglected such as those which regulate weight,
stress, digestion, and metabolism. When these systems are unbalanced, we
experience fatigue and mood swings. Also, when the body is stressed, it
produces cortisol which signals the metabolism to go into conservation mode;
leading to an even further decrease in energy, metabolism, and ability to burn
fat stores.
5. Sugar Deactivates
Your Immune System
Eating or drinking too much sugar also deactivates T-cells,
the component in blood that fights bacterial infections. This effect can last
anywhere from a couple of hours to an entire day, depending on how much you
consume. If you find yourself getting sick a lot during cold and flu season,
take a look at your sugar-intake and remember: just one regular-sized can of
soda is enough to turn off your immune system for an hour or more.
6. Sugar Destroys
Your Liver
Another of the hidden risks is one that I’ve already briefly
mentioned: Sugar destroys the liver. High-fructose foods like juice, soda,
syrups, and other sweet liquids not only require the liver to work overtime to
process them, they also cause it to neglect its other functions. An over-worked
liver results in symptoms like fatigue, increase uric acid in the body, gout,
high blood pressure, and kidney stones. Eating too much sugar also causes the
liver to become fatty, leading to liver disease, insulin-resistance, and
possibly even organ failure. Which has
caused me to have a fatty liver.
7. Sugar Leads to
Cardiovascular Disease
Sugar doesn’t just increase fat around the waist and in the
liver. By unbalancing the metabolism and hormones (specifically insulin), sugar
also ramps up lipid levels in the blood stream. Over consumption of sugars is
also now known to be a bigger cause of high blood pressure than salt. Between
that and the increase in blood cholesterol and triglycerides, you’d better
believe that your poor heart is struggling.
8. Sugar Is A Primary
Cause of Diabetes
Which of us
hasn’t heard about the dangers of developing diabetes from eating too much
sugar?
Here it is then: Eating too much sugar over extended periods
of time leads to hypoglycemia and insulin resistance. Try to picture yourself
pricking your finger with a tiny needle to test your blood a few times per day.
Or maybe you’d like to have to self-administer syringes of insulin to yourself.
Needles are fun, right?
9. Sugar Disrupts
Kidney Function
Sugar disrupts kidney
function. Think of just how painful it must be to pass a kidney stone; or of
the itching, burning, and constant urge to urinate every fifteen minutes or so
that comes with a good old-fashioned urinary tract infection. (Who doesn’t love
a UTI?!?) Perhaps we could take it a step further to a full-blown bladder
infection, complete with abdominal pain, fever, and blood in the urine.
10. Sugar Makes You
Smell Bad
Due to the hormone imbalances, malfunctioning immune system,
increase in body fat, decrease in liver and kidney function, and poor
digestion; eating too much sugar actually makes you smell bad. Bacteria love sugar and that includes your
native buccal flora. When you eat sweets, they eat sweets. Then
they stick to your teeth via the plaque they produce and use the energy you’ve
given them to propagate more bacteria.
No comments:
Post a Comment