5 Scary Things Sugar Does to Your Health

You don’t have to be on the internet or watch television for long to realize that we Americans eat way too much sugar.  The truth is, you may be eating way more sugar than you ever imagined.  

Try this test.  Walk down the inner aisles of your grocery store (this is where most of the junk food is found) and start looking at the ingredient lists of these aisles.  Do you know what you will find? SUGAR!!  SUGAR!! SUGAR!!  Food manufacturers discovered long ago that adding sugar to our foods makes us love them even more.

So you might be aware that a doughnut has a lot of sugar in it, but you might not be aware that your crackers or ketchup has a lot of sugar in it as well.

All this extra sugar has lead to some pretty scary health issues facing our country today.

#1 – Obesity
Obesity has become one of the biggest health problems in America.  It estimated that obesity costs American workers billions of dollars in lost productivity every year.  Over 1/3 of Americans are now considered obese and that number is expected to climb to nearly 50% in the next 25 years.

When you eat sugar (or many other carbs), your body releases the hormone insulin to transport the sugar out of your bloodstream.  That sugar gets stored in your liver and other bodily tissues.  If it isn’t burned as energy it gets stored as fat.

Over the course of time this continual weight gain leads to obesity and obesity leads to even more serious health issues.  If this is something that concerns you, your Algonquin, IL Chiropractor can be a great resource on effective strategies to lose weight.

#2. Type 2 Diabetes
Our bodies are amazing things.  No matter what we through at it, our bodies look to stay in a state of homeostasis, or balance.  The same is true when we eat too much sugar.

When we eat sugar, or bodies know there is sugar in the blood stream.  To remove the sugar from the blood stream, our bodies release a hormone called insulin.  It is insulin’s job to shuttle excess sugar out of the blood stream.  When insulin is released from the pancreas, it shuttles to sugar out of the bloodstream and stores it in the liver and other tissues of the body.

Over the course of time, the repeated cycle of eating too much sugar and then releasing insulin overwhelms the body and the pancreas is no longer able to produce enough insulin to pull the sugar out of the bloodstream and blood sugar levels begin to rise.  When the body can no longer remove the sugar from the blood on its own, external insulin will be needed.  This is considered Type II Diabetes (as opposed to Type I Diabetics who are born with this condition).

People who suffer from Diabetes are much more likely to suffer from things like kidney damage, nerve damage, strokes, bladder problems and heart disease.

#3. Heart Disease + Heart Attacks
Coronary disease is a condition where plaque builds up inside the walls of your coronary arteries restricting blood flow to your heart.  This can lead to blood clots, heart attacks and heart failure and is responsible for nearly 1 in 6 deaths in America.

For many years it was suspected that saturated fats were the primary cause of heart disease, but several recent studies, such as paper recently published in Open Heart suggest that eating too much sugar may be the primary cause of heart disease.

The findings of Open Heart’s paper are startling.  They show that people who get 25% or more of their calories from sugar are 300% more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those who get less than 10% of their calories from sugar.

#4. Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Fatty Liver Disease is the excess build up of fat in the cells of the liver.  At one point in our history, this was seen almost exclusively by people who abused alcohol for long periods of time, but now we are seeing it more and more in people who rarely consume alcohol.

In fact, a recent study conducted by the University of San Francisco estimated that more than 30% of American adults suffer from NAFLD.  The primary cause of NAFLD seems to be high fructose corn syurp (HFCS).  Unlike other sugars, HFCS is processed in the liver and when consumed in high amounts (can you say standard American Diet?) it appears to be toxic, just like alcohol.  

# 5. Cognitive Decline And Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s and dementia are an epidemic.  In recent years, there is a growing body of evidence that links elevated blood sugar levels to both of these conditions.

Studies show that those who consume a high sugar diet do significantly worse of cognitive tests.  A recent paper published by Neuorscience found that people who eat a diet high in sugar reduce the levels of an important protein called BDNF which may be associated with memory functions.

Just as alarming, Type 2 diabetes has been linked with a significantly higher risk of contracting Alzheimer’s disease.

Cut Sugar, Cut Your Risk
The evidence seems pretty clear, reduce the sugar in your diet and reduce the risk.

Not sure how to do that?

No worries!  We do.  We can create a customized eating plan that will help you reduce your sugar intake and still enjoy dozens and dozens of amazingly delicious foods.

To book your Nutrition Counseling appointment with us, click the blue button below.

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