Sugar, a Health Crisis (Sugar part I)

In my years as a Nutritional therapist I would have to say that the #1 health improvement that the average person needs to make is to eliminate sugar from the diet. There is overwhelming proof from research that has been coming in over the years that shows how devastating the affects of sugar are on your body's organs, chemical messengers (hormones), and overall health. The health decline we experience from eating sugar is so gradual over time that we don't realize it's life threatening effects until it's often to late. If you're interested in learning more about the scientific facts on this a great place to start is to go see the 2014 film "Fed Up".

There is an obvious link in sugar consumption to Type 2 diabetes and according to the American Diabetes association as many as 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes in 2050 if present trends continue! Almost everyone has a friend or family member who lives with this common disease but did you know that presently diabetes kills more Americans every year than AIDS and breast cancer combined? We are in a health crisis and one of the main reasons is sugar. Sugar comes in many forms. When the average person thinks of sugar and claims "I don't eat sugar" they're thinking of the white granulated stuff that you add to coffee and use for baking. But what the average person doesn't understand is that sugar is just a carbohydrate. So when we over consume ANY carbohydrate and especially if it's refined such as white rice or anything with white flour (bread, crackers, pastries, muffins, cereal) your body will react the same as if you ate the same number of calories in pure sugar. The damage is caused by the spike in blood sugar not how sweet the food is. So it doesn't have to taste sweet to cause a blood sugar spike and increase your chances of weight gain, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.

I will discuss these ideas in more detail and what you can do about it in future articles... stay tuned!