Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
- Richard M. Sherman
Er, maybe that should read a spoonful of medicine helps the sugar go down?
Sweet memories
Think of your fondest memories as a child. Was it going for ice cream with Dad? Eating cotton candy at the ball game? Drinking Hershey chocolate syrup straight out of the bottle? (OK, maybe that was just me.) One of my favorite memories was eating cinnamon toast for breakfast. The warm bread mixed with butter, cinnamon and sugar made me feel good and loved.
But if we strip away all the emotional ties, what does sugar leave us with? A toxic substance that is as destructive to our body as any other drug.
I’ll post next time about “natural” sweeteners that are healthier alternatives. But in this article I’m talking about refined table sugar, the pure white stuff.
Sugar the anti-nutrient
Here’s a dirty little secret about white sugar: it is so processed and refined that it has absolutely no nutritional value.
Not only does this form of sugar have zero nutrients, but, when consumed, it actually robs nutrients from the body, particularly valuable minerals. This requires us to eat more nutrients than we would otherwise need.
In other words, sugar acts as an “anti-nutrient.”
Sugar’s affect starts in the mouth
Sugar affects every organ in our body, starting in the mouth.
Sugar causes excess bacteria growth which results in cavities and gum diseases. Weston A. Price, a brilliant dentist who studied nutrition and dental health, found a strong and predictable correlation between the typical “Western diet” (consisting of high amounts of processed foods and sugar) and tooth decay.
Just like mom said, sugar rots your teeth.
Moves to the stomach
Because sugar depletes excess minerals from our body, it leads to over acidity in the body. This affects our digestion and stomach acid production.
Our body, in its infinite wisdom, tries to compensate for the acidity by producing less Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) in our stomach. This causes a whole host of problems, as without HCL, we can end up with indigestion, acid reflux (which is actually cause from too little stomach acid), malabsorbtion (more about that later) and increased susceptibility to bugs and viruses such as E Coli & H. Pylori.
Next are our intestines
Thanks to sugar’s affect on the stomach, we’re left with food that isn’t broken down to its most usable form. As a result, our intestines can’t efficiently absorb all the nutrients in our diet.
Furthermore, sugar destroys the good bacteria in our gut lining while feeding bad bacteria like Candida. This is perhaps one of the most tragic results of sugar as it can set us up for a lifetime of health problems. Once we have more “bad guys” than “good guys” in our gut, it’s tough to reverse the trend. Our villi help us absorb various vitamins and minerals so we can see how this leads to further malabsorbtion.
That Hershey syrup suddenly doesn’t sound so good after all.
Our liver, adrenals and pancreas
To help assimilate the sugar we eat, our pancreas releases copious amounts of insulin to help keep our blood sugar stable. Our body’s homeostasis kicks in and the adrenals release cortisol to address the increased stress sugar puts on our body. (Cortisol is a hormone proven to cause weight gain.)
Sugar is first stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen) but its “storehouse” is limited and not equipped for the large quantities we eat in this country. As a result, the liver expands like a balloon, straining the organ’s vitality and resulting in a general weakening of function.
When the liver is maxed out, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are transported throughout the entire body but are stored in the most inactive parts of our body: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts and the thighs.
That spare tire around your middle? You can thank sugar.
Kidneys and heart
Once the fatty acids plump up our butts, boobs, and bellies, they confront our more active organs, such as the heart and kidneys. As a result of these fatty acids, the organs begin to slow down, degenerate and weaken, and ultimately turn to fat rather than muscle. Since the whole body is affected by the organs’ impaired state, we end up with abnormal blood pressure, kidney and bladder malfunctions, and irregular heart function.
Doesn’t sound so tasty, huh? It sure wasn’t for me.
If you want to learn more about the harmful affects of sugar, check out Dr. Mercola’s comprehensive list.
Are you considering breaking the sugar habit? I’ll share how I did it in the next post.
http://www.all-creatures.org/cb/a-sugar.html
http://www.mercola.com/article/sugar/dangers_of_sugar.htm
http://tuberose.com/Sugar.html
This is part three in a seven-part series.
This is a blog about triumph.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
One of my favorite memories of childhood was helping my father take hogs to market. At the market was a Pepsi machine that served ice-cold 10 oz. bottles for a quarter. On a hot day that cold pepsi was a rush!
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Ahhhh, childhood sugar memories… the sound of the ice cream man’s truck, buying penny candy at the corner store, the electric sugar rush of cotton candy at Great America…
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Positive associations with sugar abound! I think half the battle of getting off sweets is the fact that we celebrate nearly every occasion with some form of ice cream, cake, or sweet treat.
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We wnat to thak you for your valuable insights on what the consumption of sugar does to all of our vital body parts. It was a real eye-opener. I hope the information stays with us and the sweetness doesn’t make us forget.
Thanks for you efforts
Skip & Claudia
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