Did you know some of the main ingredients in most of your pantry foods and refrigerated sauces contain sugar?
Usually sugar is added to foods in the forms of simple sugars such as glucose, fructose or sucrose, but often manufacturer will disguise the amount of sugar by listing it under several different names.
Some of them are :
- Barely malt
- Brown rice syrup
- Corn syrup
- Dextrin
- Dextrose
- Ethyl maltol
Have you ever wondered why processed sugar consumption is bad for you ?
Quitting sugar has a lot of benefits. Let's face it , very few people go for a day without consuming sugar.
However, not all of it is bad. For instance, sugar from milk products(lactose) is healthy. In addition to that, sugar from some fruit products (fructose) is also healthy. In other words it can only be healthy when it is consumed in its natural form and moderate amounts.
Unfortunately, most sugar that we consume is unhealthy, artificial, and slowly killing us. Although it helps to make your food sweet , the negative effects that it has on your body is more than the sweetness that you enjoy.
1. It increases the risk of obesity and heart diseases
2. It causes insulin resistance
3. It causes weight gain
4. It causes tooth decay
5. It accelerates aging
6. It causes cancer
7. It increases your craving for food
How much sugar is too much ?
If your daily caloric intake is 1,500 calories, your daily sugar intake should be limited to about 37.5 grams of added sugar.
If your daily caloric intake is 2,000 calories, those limits go up to about 50 grams of added sugar.
Eating and drinking too much sugar for long periods of time can lead to insulin resistance and eventually type 2 diabetes.
Sugar is carbohydrate without any other nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Metabolizing our food requires nutrients, so sugar uses up nutrients without providing any in return.
7 areas of your health affected by high sugar diet :
- Joint Pain : Sugar causes inflammation , which makes pain worse.
- Teeth : Sugar is a big contributor to cavity development.
- Liver : Too much sugar gets made into fat by the liver, but the liver has the better things to do (like detoxification). If the workload is too much , then some of that fat is deposited right into the liver, leading to fatty liver.
- Pancreas : Too much sugar over time will promote insulin resistance , which causes the pancreas to work harder.
- Kidneys : Sugar causes an increase in kidney disease risk factors, including diabetes and obesity.
- Heart : A high sugar and high fat diet can decrease the amount of blood that flows to and from your heart.
- Sexual health : If something is bad for your arteries, then it is also bad for your sexual health.
Signs that shows you have excess sugar in your body :
- Increase thirst
- Frequent urination
- Frequent hunger
- Malaise
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Blurred vision
- Hearing disorder
- Fruity-smelling breath
- Confusion
How to avoid excess sugar intake :
- Eat whole and unprocessed foods
- Check the label of any packaged food for different names of sugar
- Avoid sugary drinks and swap it out for herbal teas, water or unsweetened options
- Consume fruits with natural sugars and avoid foods with added sugars
- Replace any sugary snacks with homemade natural snacks such as peanut butter, cottage cheeses with flax seeds and cinnamon
- Avoid take away and prepare your own meals at home
- Do not add excessive amounts of sugar to tea or coffee
- Cut down the intake of sugar sweetened beverages
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