Fact: We eat too much sugar and it is ruining our health.
Americans consume an average of 18 to 26 teaspoons of sugar every day. That’s based on a daily consumption of 1,800 to 2,600 calories. Even at the lower end, 18 teaspoons is twice what a man should have and three times for a woman. Unfortunately manufacturers don’t make it easy to find the sources of sugar in our foods. You have to carefully read nutrition labels to find the hidden sugar in foods like ketchup, beef jerky, frozen dinners and bread.
Not only does all this sugar lead to weight gain and tooth decay, but it can cause a host of other diseases.
Diabetes
When you eat large amounts of sugar, your blood sugar spikes. The pancreas releases insulin to break it down and transport it to your cells for energy. But over time, it takes more and more insulin to break down the same amount of sugar. This is known as insulin resistance. Eventually your body reaches a point where your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin. The result…..Type 2 diabetes.
Suppressed Immune System
A report published in USA Today showed that table sugar and unsweetened orange juice taken by health volunteers suppressed the immune system by half for up to five hours at a time. So if you eat sugar at every meal, your immune system is protecting you from viruses, bacteria and parasites less than half the time.
Cancer
Your pancreas secretes the insulin your body needs to control blood sugar. Overwork your pancreas and you increase your risk of pancreatic cancer. Insulin plays a big part in helping control the multiplication of cells. If it is constantly overloaded trying to break down excessive sugar, it can’t protect you from uncontrolled cell multiplication, ie. cancer.
Heart Disease
Sugar may contribute to heart disease by causing scarring in the blood vessels. This can provide places for plaque to attach, eventually obstructing and restricting blood flow. In extreme cases it can result in heart attack and/or stroke.
Sugar also causes many of the conditions that lead to heart disease, namely obesity, increased triglycerides and “bad” cholesterol LDL. Excessive triglycerides can build up in the liver and cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a potentially fatal disease.
High Blood Pressure
For many years scientists thought excessive salt was the cause of high blood pressure. But recent studies now suggest that sugar may be the number one cause of hypertension and heart disease. It causes the heart rate to speed up and the blood pressure to rise.
Multiple studies have now reached the same conclusion. In fact, sugar is an independent risk factor for many of today’s all too common diseases. Consumption should be limited to no more than six teaspoons per day for women and nine for men. And yes, that includes all the sugars added to foods that you will have to start checking labels to find.
