Healthy Living
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
User Post: Sugar: 8 Shocking facts
user
In case you haven't
heard, sugar is quite the bad boy for a healthy diet. Part of
the reason for this is because the more sugar you consume, the more
you
crave
it. And while sugar is an ingredient that is
definitely worth indulging in once in awhile, over indulging can
cause many health problems, both in the short term and the long
term.
Why, however, has it become such a problem? In a recent
teleconference that we held, expert Allison
Reyna enlightened us on some very interesting factoids
about the sweet white stuff and why it has become such a topic of
concern in recent years:
- Today's Consumption: Today, an average
American consumes 2-3 pounds of sugar each
week. While at the end of the 19th century
(1887-1890), the average American consumed only 5 lbs.
per year.
- A Continual Rise: Over the
last 20 years, sugar consumption in the U.S. has increased 26
pounds to 135 lbs. of sugar per person per year.
- Hidden Culprits: Sugar consumption includes
highly refined sugars that are incorporated into many of the foods
we eat (bread, peanut butter, condiments, sauces, etc.). Some
of these are better known as sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (corn
sugar), and high-fructose corn syrup.
- 4 Classes: 4 classes of simple sugars
(Sucrose, fructose, honey, and malts) are deemed
"harmful" to optimal health when long-term consumption is
over 15% of carbohydrate calories ingested.
Hint...complex carbohydrates (veggies, beans, legumes, whole
grains) are the way to keep this number below 15%.
- Health Issues: Simple sugars have been
documented to contribute to and/or aggravate health problems,
including: asthma, mood disorders, mental illness, nervous
disorders, diabetes, heart disease, gallstones, hypertension, and
arthritis.
- Insulin Impacts: Sugar raises insulin levels,
inhibiting the release of growth hormones which depresses the
immune system. Further, too much insulin promotes the storage
of fat, so that when you eat foods that are high in sugar,
you're enabling rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride
levels, both of which have been linked to cardiovascular
disease.
- Degenerative Disease: Sugar has no real
nutritional value (minerals, vitamins and fiber) and as a result, has a
deteriorating effect on the endocrine system, causing sugar
consumption to be one of the 3 major causes of degenerative
disease.
- Cancer Culprits: Turns out that cancer's
preferred fuel is none other than glucose. Controlling one's
blood-glucose levels through diet, exercise, supplements,
meditation and prescription drugs - when necessary - can be
extremely important to a cancer treatment program.
So next time you think of having a lump of sugar in your coffee,
remember, a long time ago, people found a way to drink their coffee
without the sweet taste of sugar.
Do you avoid sugar? How much do you think you consume in a
day, week or year?
Related Topics:
Source: www.nancyappleton.com
Related: wellness, sugar substitutes, sugar, nutrition, healthy living, health, diet, aging, addictions
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Posted by Halle Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:20am PDT
omg...i reading this while drinking my light and sweet coffee......i can't look at it the same....
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Posted by yaya Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:08am PDT
I literally pour lots of sugar in my iced tea and my coffee, wow what a wake up call no more of that for me Im sticking to water!
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Posted by Lizbeth Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:37am PDT
About 3 to 5 teaspoons a day. I know. Decaf, black (as in no cream, no fat, no dairy) coffee and regular black tea.
I did Sweet N Low in high school, lots of it, and that was just awful.
I've tried stevia and stevia extracts and it tastes like the green powder that it is. Giving up the morning coffee is probably the next step.
You'll find me in the pasture, under a tree, nibbling bark and grasses; hopefully they too, have not been treated with chemicals, deadly toxins or coughed on by someone with swine flu. Hope I don't get bitten by a deer tick while I'm out there, cause you know what they say about deet. Sigh.
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Posted by Brett Blumenthal - Sheer Balance Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:50am PDT
Lizbeth...it is overwhelming isn't it. If we could only live like the Native Americans, maybe we wouldn't be going through all of this crappy expose of what is good for us and what isn't.
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Posted by Babbalou Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:32am PDT
I'm a real sugar addict who's been trying to kick the habit for the past year. I've completely changed my diet (no white carbs, lots of vegetables), ramped up the exercise and have lost 20 pounds - thought it's not always been easy. On a good day I can stick to my plan and go all day without anything sweeter than a piece of fruit, but after dinner it seems to crumble - I just have to have something sweet. Dark chocolate, while tasty, doesn't stop the craving. I've been going round and round about what's the best option. I'd given up artificial sweeteners and switched to a little honey in a cup of tea, but that doesn't always do the trick. Lately I've been using splenda - either eating a diet fudgesicle (or two) or having some sweetened tea or coffee. Sometimes I have a small handful of dried fruit (cranberries, which probably have sugar) or dried apricots. I'm trying to lower my triglyceride levels and keep the weight loss going. I'm puzzled by the recent news that diet soda can lead to weight gain - I don't understand what's going on in the body to make that happen. So here's a question - if you must have something sweet, is it better to have honey, dried fruit or a little artificial sweetner - Brett if you know, can you advise? Thanks!
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Posted by Doktor Eevol Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:47am PDT
Sugar is eevoler than I am. So I use aspartame. Yeah, I know, that's bad for me too. Oh well.
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Posted by Brett Blumenthal - Sheer Balance Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:07am PDT
Babbalou...ugh...I hear your pain. I actually have a piece of 72% Dark Chocolate after dinner, almost every night, I'm talking about a 1/4 of a serving...50 calories, but I need it. I just can't go without it! That said, my advice is this: stay away from unnatural sweeteners. There are SO many reasons to not have them. Not only are they potentially instigators for health issues, maybe even cancer, they screw up your metabolism and actually make you crave sugar more. Why? Because your brain doesn't know you are having something sweet..only your tastebuds do. As a result, you continue to crave the sugar. I would say to have the dried fruit. Honey is ok, but it is actually much sweeter and higher in calories than sugar. Dried fruit gives you multiple benefits: 1) it has fiber 2) it has vitamins and minerals and 3) it is sweet. Try to avoid sweetened dried fruit. Sometimes, you look at the ingredients on a package of dried fruit and bam, there is sugar or some derivative in the list. Hope that helps.
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Posted by Katie B Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:10pm PDT
I should post this up where I can see it... preferably on the soda machine in my office... that way it will make me think twice about getting my Dr. Pepper for the day... which I was drinking while reading this... :/
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Posted by Sensi Fri May 1, 2009 5:20am PDT
I'm addicted to sugar in a most major way. The only way I can stay away from it is to completely cut it out of my diet and then see any again. lol I'm a fan of a lower-carb diet (Just cutting out the bad carbs, most sugar, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and anything made with white flour) but it only takes a thought of a bottle of Pepsi to throw me off my eating plan. Do any of you have any idea how many things we eat that have HFCS in them? Practically everything! Check that loaf of healthy 12 grain bread. There are only a very few brands that don't load it with HFCS. It's ridiculously hard in this day and age to try to cut all the sugar out of your diet.
I read a long time ago that if sugar had been invented in the last twenty or thirty years it would be a controlled substance. I can see that. I also tend to believe that sugar and HFCS being added to everything is an evil plot to get us all addicted to it.
After a few weeks of cutting it all out you'll find out that things you normally don't consider sweet will taste so much sweeter like green peppers, for instance.
Dang evil sugar. :/
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