How Sweet Are You?

Hi, my name is tori and I'm an addict....a sugar addict. I can go long periods of time without sugar and not have a problem with it. But, when special occasions roll around and pies and cakes are everywhere then I eat a piece, that sweet tooth comes back and I have a hard time getting it under control again. After a few days in a row of eating sugar, my face breaks out, I get headaches, and I start feeling really tired during the day. So, what exactly are the dangers of sugar? I don't think that we fully understand the impact that eating an excess of sugar does (and most Americans do eat an excess of sugar and don't even realize it). But, here are a few things that do we know.

  -Sugar and carbs(which turn into sugar) contribute more to heart disease than fats do.
  -Sugar feeds tumors and can make cancer worse.
  -Excess consumption of sugar has clearly been linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, among other diseases.
  -Sugar activates reward centers in your brain similar to drugs like cocaine, thereby making sugar addictive (which explains my crazy sugar cravings after eating a piece of cake!)

   Your body processes all sugars differently, but that would be a whole other post! They cause your blood sugar levels to rapidly spike and then fall.
                                         

  High corn fructose corn syrup is processed even differently than refined table sugar. Your body actually can't digest HFCS because it doesn't know how to process it, so it's more rapidly absorbed into your bloodstream. The fructose then goes straight to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol). This is why it's the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called "fatty liver" which affects 70 million people.
   The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin- our body's major fat storage hormone. Both these features of HFCS lead to increased metabolic disturbances that drive increases in appetite, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, and more.

  High doses of these free fructose have been proven to literally punch holes in the intestinal lining, allowing nasty bi-products of toxic gut bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your blood stream and trigger the inflammation that we know is the root of obesity, cancer, heart disease, dementia and accelerated aging.

  So, what are your alternatives to processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup? And, no, I'm not talking about sugar substitutes, like splenda! Those are worse than sugar! I mean the healthier alternatives.

                                                                          Honey

 

Agave Nectar

 

 

Coconut Palm Sugar

 

 

Maple Syrup

 

 

Date Sugar

 

Xylitol

 

 

 

If you would like help with cutting sugar out of your diet, or more information about the alternatives- email me at rodriguez_tori@yahoo.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Info in HFCS- DrHyman.com.