As I wrap up my series on sugar, I feel a little sad to be leaving the subject. There is so much to share and say, it almost doesn’t seem right. HA!! Health and fitness are so important in my life, and really health and fitness or nutrition and fitness need each other. Without fitness, we aren’t entirely healthy, and without nutrition our fitness and health can falter. No matter how much you workout, you can’t out work a bad diet!! (A wise man once said)
Sugar is that one ingredient that can make or break our diets and health, as well as our fitness. Eliminating sugar from your diet or simply limiting your intake, will improve your health and your fitness, I guarantee it. I hope you enjoyed this short series on sugar as much as I have. If you missed any of the posts you can read them at these links: Hidden Names of Sugar, Why to Ditch Sugar, Combat Sugar Cravings and Healthy Alternatives to Sugar.
To wrap up the series, I wanted to leave you with a few bullet points, simple one liners, related to how sugar can ruin your health. I won’t go into the science behind how sugar does this, but I do want to get you a little background and fast science, so you can better understand how sugar wrecks havoc on your body.
Our bodies only need 2 teaspoons of sugar daily to function properly. That’s roughly 8 grams. Basically you get 8 grams of sugar in a serving of plain Greek yogurt. It would be hard to ever be deficient in sugar. The minerals that are needed to help digest sugar, such as cobalt, copper, zinc, magnesium, chromium, and manganese, are stripped from sugar in the refining process, thus in order for the body to digest sugar it has to utilize it’s own mineral reserves to process the sugar. This in turn can create a deficiency in minerals, and thus ruin the bodies homeostasis. Minerals make sure there’s a balance between acidity and akalinity in the body, as well as perform a variety of functions. When they are depleted with high sugar consumption, our body becomes more acidic, causing inflammation and disease. (It’s important to note, that some minerals are dependent on other minerals, and need each other to function properly, so if one is deficient, then it ruins the functions of others)
So how does sugar ruin the body? Here’s a quick list that you can reference whenever you feel a sugar craving (it may help to quench those cravings):
- Sugar can cause kidney damage.
- Sugar can disturb our body’s mineral balance; deficiency in chromium and copper.
- Sugar suppresses the immune system.
- Sugar may cause hyperactivity in children, as well as anxiety, mood swings and concentration difficulties.
- Sugar may contribute to weight gain and obesity.
- Sugar can cause an acidic stomach.
- Sugar can cause colon cancer or lead to cancer in the breast, ovaries, prostate and rectum.
- Sugar interferes with the absorption of calcium and magnesium.
- Sugar can increase the aging process, causing wrinkles and grey hair.
- Sugar can weaken our eyesight and bones.
- Sugar may contribute to osteoporosis.
- Sugar can cause allergies and asthma.
- Sugar can cause headaches and migraines.
- Sugar can cause cavities.
- Sugar can impair structure of DNA.
- Sugar can hamper enzymes functions.
- Sugar can cause constipation.
- Sugar can cause depression and hormonal imbalances.
- Sugar can cause candidiasis (yeast infection).
- Sugar can cause heart disease and blood pressure problems.
- Sugar can lead to formation of kidney stones and gallstones.
- Sugar contributes to diabetes.
- Sugar can lead to toxemia in pregnancy.
- Sugar can cause eczema in children.
- Sugar can cause free radical formation (cancer causing agents).
This is just a few of the conditions sugar can cause or lead to. There’s nothing beneficial about sugar. Your body doesn’t need much sugar to survive, and by consuming fruits and vegetables, you will feed your body all the sugar it needs. You are doing your health and well being a favor by reducing sugar or ditching sugar.
Once you study the body and how sugar is processed and what it does to your health, you’ll begin to understand the severity of sugar. It’s interesting how so simple a product, can become so deadly.
Enough doom and gloom for today!!
Until Next Time Be Whole and Be Fit
**For more information read Lick the Sugar Habit by Nancy Appleton (whom I referenced throughout this post)
I really enjoyed this series Bry. I try and reduce our sugar intake simple because there are so many hidden sugars in food, especially with regard to my kids. There is always school parties, and holidays and every single one involves candy and sweets. It’s exhausting and completely annoying. One thing that I’d like to underscore is the tooth decay– sugary drinks rot kids soft teeth– putting aside the fact that it’s horrible for your health dental work is expensive! So many reasons to eliminate it!
Yes I know!! It’s frustrating to buy anything packages because of the sugar even if it’s organic it’s too much sugar. It makes it hard for me to ever let R eat packaged foods!! And yes tooth decay is a problem for sure!!