Top 5 Reasons to Avoid Refined Sugar
Sugar occurs naturally in all foods that contain carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, grains, and dairy. Consuming a small amount of whole foods that contain natural sugar is okay. Plant foods have high amounts of fiber, essential minerals, and antioxidants. Dairy foods contain protein and calcium. Since your body digests these foods slowly, the sugar in them offers a steady supply of energy to your cells.
Problems occur when you consume too much added sugar. Sugar that food manufacturers add to products to increase flavor or extend shelf life.
The top sources are soft drinks, fruit drinks, flavored yogurts, cereals, cookies, cakes, candy, and most procressed foods. But added sugar is also present in items that you may not think of as sweetened, like soups, bread, cured meats, and ketchup.
Here are five reasons to avoid sugar:
1. SUGAR CAUSES INSULIN RESISTANCE, DIABETES, AND WEIGHT GAIN
Insulin drives glucose into cells from the bloodstream. Elevated blood glucose is toxic. When excessive amounts of glucose cannot be used the pancreas begins to secrete insulin. Removing it from the bloodstream, leading the body to become insulin resistant. When the body becomes resistant to insulin, the pancreas stops doing its job properly, which is a contributing factor of type II diabetes. Insulin also signals the body to store fat, which leads to obesity.
2. SUGAR DAMAGES YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
Sugar lowers the efficiency of white blood cells for hours at a time. This compromises the immune system and hinders our ability to fight disease and infection.
3. CONSUMPTION OF SUGAR IS DETRIMENTAL TO THE LIVER
Refined sugar is half glucose and half fructose. The liver is the only organ that can metabolize fructose. When too much fructose enters the liver it gets turned into fat. That can build up over time and lead to disease like Non Alcoholic fatty liver disease.
4. SUGAR ROBS YOUR BODY OF ESSENTIAL MINERALS
Sugar has no value in nutrition and robs your body of essential minerals. Sugar causes essential minerals like sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium to be leached from the body. This can weaken the teeth and bones, causing tooth decay and diseases like osteoporosis.
5. SUGAR IS ADDICTIVE
Like drugs, sugar stimulates the release of dopamine, a “feel-good” chemical in the brain. As we consume sugar, our bodies crave more sugar. Resulting in a vicious cycle of sugar consumption.
Hiding in plain sight:
Added sugar comes in many forms – which is why it's so hard to find on the ingredients label.
There are at least 61 different names for sugar listed on food labels. These include common names, such as sucrose and high fructose corn syrup, as well as barley malt, dextrose, maltose and rice syrup, among others. See full list below.
· Agave nectar
· Barbados sugar
· Barley malt
· Barley malt syrup
· Beet sugar
· Brown sugar
· Buttered syrup
· Cane juice
· Cane juice crystals
· Cane sugar
· Caramel
· Carob syrup
· Castor sugar
· Coconut palm sugar
· Coconut sugar
· Confectioner's sugar
· Corn sweetener
· Corn syrup
· Corn syrup solids
· Date sugar
· Dehydrated cane juice
· Demerara sugar
· Dextrin
· Dextrose
· Evaporated cane juice
· Free-flowing brown sugars
· Fructose
· Fruit juice
· Fruit juice concentrate
· Glucose
· Glucose solids
· Golden sugar
· Golden syrup
· Grape sugar
· HFCS (High-Fructose Corn Syrup)
· Honey
· Icing sugar
· Invert sugar
· Malt syrup
· Maltodextrin
· Maltol
· Maltose
· Mannose
· Maple syrup
· Molasses
· Muscovado
· Palm sugar
· Panocha
· Powdered sugar
· Raw sugar
· Refiner's syrup
· Rice syrup
· Saccharose
· Sorghum Syrup
· Sucrose
· Sugar (granulated)
· Sweet Sorghum
· Syrup
· Treacle
· Turbinado sugar