Please consult your doctor or regular health physician before following suggestions found in any Sun Day health columns/stories.
We just completed a series on healthy fat loss and studied how detrimental sugars and grains are keeping us from attaining our goals. Starting this week, we will look at side effects experienced from consuming sugar, physical and mental ways it harms the body, and major illnesses often leading to disability and death.
200 years ago, the average American consumed 10 lbs. of sugar a year. Today, one-fourth of our calories come from sugar at about 160 lbs. per person per year or a 5 lb. bag per month. This is not just table sugar but baked goods, the hidden sugar found in hundreds of processed and packaged foods and drinks we consume. We need to stop reading labels and read the ingredients found on each package.
High fructose corn syrup is even worse. According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, zero pounds of high fructose corn syrup existed in the diets of most Americans in 1970. Today Americans consume about 68 lbs of HCFS per year on average. It is added to hundreds of processed foods. If one goes back to 2005 and looks at the curve for all of our major killers today, they all parallel corn syrup in the food chain.
As we talked about in our healthy fat loss series, when we eat carbohydrates and sugar, the pancreas produces insulin. The more sugar we consume, the more insulin is produced. Elevated blood insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) is a major cause of disease. The insulin takes care of the sugar, dropping our blood sugar level. This condition is known as hypoglycemia and responsible for the following conditions which keep us from being our best both physically and mentally:
Anxiety
Criminal behavior
Depression
Digestive problems
Dizziness
Drowsiness
Exhaustion
Feeling faint
Fits of temper
Forgetfulness
Headaches
Indecision
Insomnia
Irritability
Hyperactivity
Lack of concentration
Mental confusion
Mood swings
Muscle pains
Numbness
Nervousness
Sugar cravings
Look at the above list and see how many of them apply to you. Then journal the foods you eat that contain sugar. Compare these annoyances and see if they are related.
