Skip the Sugar – Live the Sweet Life

This is the argument I hear in consults with persons looking to improve their lives (while maintaining bad habits). We have to realise that the amount of booze, salts, meat, flour and sugar we throw at (or into) our bodies today in western societies is a thousand-fold percentage increase over the last 200 years .

And human evolution takes place over hundreds of years, not a handful of decades .

Today, sugar, sugar! Firstly, forget anything you heard about oil and fats and cholesterol for now. We want you to look entirely and only at sugar – of which the average Western diet includes 22 teaspoons daily. A study in JAMA Internal Medicine notes: “The American Heart Association_advises_that women consume no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar daily. This is about 100 calories. And men, no more than 9 teaspoons, or about 150 calories from sugar. (This does not include foods such as fruits and vegetables that naturally contain sugar.)” Current consumption gets as high as 500 calories a day from sugar or 31 teaspoons. Impossible? One regular local black ‘soft drink’ or ‘sweet drink’ (the small size) can contain as much as 14-30 teaspoons. One .

Consumption at this rate shows that these persons were twice as likely to die from heart disease as those who limited their sugar intake to 7 percent of their total calories. Added sugar chronically raises insulin levels, which activates the sympathetic nervous system, resulting in increasing blood pressure and heart rates which can put a strain on your heart. Yes, there is a link between sugar intake and heart disease .

So, how else is sugar harming and what can you expect from cutting back?

Skin issues and Inflammation One study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that when non-soda drinkers consumed just one 12oz can of soda every day for three weeks, their inflammation levels_increased by 87%!_Low to moderate consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) had effects on LDL particles, fasting glucose, and hs-CRP within just a three-week period in healthy young men. C-reactive protein_(CRP) is a blood test marker for inflammation in the body. Cutting back on those canned beverages and yes, juices to can save your skin and save you hundreds on beauty products too .

Better Mood, Better Sleep A Columbia University study found that women who eat a diet high in added sugars and refined grains are_more likely to experience_anxiety, irritability and mood swings! Note removing sugar, which has very similar markers to a drug in the body, can result in all of these but just at first – till the body’s dependence on it has passed .

Sugar, especially late at night via dessert, or hot chocolate or too much of any sweetened product also triggers cortisol, known as the stress hormone (when it really is just as important as any hormone in the body) but can interrupt sleep and reduce sleep efficacy .

Lose weight (not a limb!) Dumping sugar will help you shed pounds like nothing else can .

Weight management is closely linked to caloric intake as much as it is to a fitness regime, probably more so, so this one is pretty obvious. What also is obvious is that your risk for Type II diabetes (an outright plague now) would also plummet like those pounds on the scale! A study across 175 countries showed that eating 150 calories of added sugar is 11 times more likely to contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes, compared with 150 calories from protein or fat from say almonds .

If you take a casual trip to any hospital locally, start counting the number of amputees you see there – as much as you may see in a Veterans’ Hospital – except the only war they had to wage is the war on bad diets and sugar intakes. It’s a war we’re all losing .

Skip the sugar where you can; and kudos on the Ministry of Education’s moves to see the same in our nation’s schools.