White sugar tastes so good but it’s not good what it does to your body!

White sugar! So beautiful and sweet! But sometimes beautiful things can be bad for us. If you would start to count how many things you eat in a week containing this sweet deception, you would become more aware of the problems it can bring. The average American consumes 2 to 3 pounds of sugar each week. Much of it is sugar in candy, cakes, and cookies. This is not surprising considering that highly refined sugars in the forms of table sugar, corn sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup are found in many foods such as bread, cereals, mayonnaise, peanut butter, ketchup, and spaghetti sauce.

In 1890 the average person consumed 5 pounds of sugar a year. Today the average person consumes 135 pounds of it a year! Cardiovascular disease and cancer were virtually unknown in the early 1900’s.

My daughters are much more aware of the problems with sugar than I was when they were little. I have a little book the pediatrician gave me when my oldest was 5 months old. It said to start giving her coke! Now my daughters try so hard to keep the sweet things out of the house. They get plenty of cake and stuff at birthday parties and other events. So when they are home, they aren’t eating sweets all the time. I admire my girls for teaching them good eating habits while they’re young.

One problem with white sugar is that it raises the insulin level, which stops the release of growth hormones, which depresses the immune system. This prevents your body from being able to fight off disease.

The glycemic index is a measure of how a given food affects blood-glucose levels, with each food being assigned a numbered rating. The lower the rating, the slower the absorption and digestion process, which provides a more gradual, healthier infusion of sugars into the bloodstream. A high rating means that blood-glucose levels are increased quickly, which stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin to drop blood-sugar levels. These rapid fluctuations of blood-sugar levels are not healthy because of the stress they place on the body.

White sugar in the bloodstream upsets the body’s blood-sugar balance, triggering the release of insulin, which the body uses to keep blood-sugar at a constant and safe level. Insulin also promotes the storage of fat, so that when you eat sweets high in sucrose, you’re making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels. Both of these have been linked to cardiovascular disease.

When you eat white sugar, think of your immune system slowing way down. Whether the disease is heart disease, or osteoporosis, or cancer, the root is always going to be at the cellular and molecular level. And we need a strong immune system to keep our body free from disease. Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest and contain fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Examples are vegetables, whole grain breads, oatmeal, brown rice, legumes, and wheat pasta. These are healthier for you and don’t raise your blood-glucose level rapidly.

Simple carbohydrates are broken down and digested very quickly. Most simple carbs contain refined sugars and very few essential vitamins and mineral. Examples include white sugar, fruit juice, milk, yogurt, honey, molasses, maple syrup, and brown sugar. White sugar and other simple sugars have been known to aggravate asthma, produce mood swings, provoke personality changes, lead to mental illness, nervous disorders, diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis.

Here are just a few ways that white sugar and others sugars can affect your health:

• It can suppress the immune system

• It can overstress the pancreas, causing damage

• It can speed the aging process, causing wrinkles and grey hair

• It contributes to a weakened defense against bacterial infection

• It can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children

• It interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium

• It can reduce helpful high density cholesterol (HDL)

• It can promote and elevation of harmful cholesterol (LDL)

• It can produce a significant rise in triglycerides

• High intake of it increases the risk of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis

• It can contribute to diabetes

• It can contribute to osteoporosis

• It can cause cardiovascular disease

• It causes food allergies

• It can cause toxemia during pregnancy

• It can cause free radical formation in the bloodstream

• It can contribute to eczema in children

• It can contribute to hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, concentration difficulties, and crankiness in children

• It can cause kidney damage

• It can increase the risk of coronary heart disease

Source: www.nancyappleton.com
There are over 4 million people being treated for cancer in the U. S. today. Almost none are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy other than being told to “just eat good foods”. Many cancer patients would have major improvement in their conditions if they controlled the supply of cancer’s preferred fuel – glucose, which is simple sugar.

By slowing the cancer’s growth by not feeding it sugar, their immune system could catch up and fight the disease. Controlling their blood-glucose levels through diet, exercise, and supplements should be a big step in a cancer treatment program. When I think of a sweet dessert I would like to have, I just think about it feeding cancer. This helps me resist – most of the time! I try not to eat sweets at all. Then every once in a while I will see something I want and it's not so bad to eat it. My problem is that I want more and more sweet things when I start. It's just easier not to take the first bite!

Return to Home Page