What Sugar Does To Your Body
Raise your hand if you like sugar? If you are a dentist your hand just went up. And if you are like most Americans your hand went up, too. And thats a problem. A big one!
With the United States facing an obesity epidemic the consumption of refined sugar doesnt help. The average American eats about 175 pounds of sugar each year. Compare that to the 1915 average of about 15 pounds per year.
Wow! Thats pretty scary. But the major problem is that refined sugar can be found in pretty much all packaged food. Obviously there are some exceptions. But the majority of food you find in the supermarket has some sort of sugar in it. Especially the processed foods. Some of the more popular ways to sneak sugar in your food is with ingredients such as sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, glucose, and maltose. There are many more.
Refined sugar will fatten you up for sure if you eat enough. And it will keep you from achieving that dream body you want. Its simply empty calories. It contains no fiber, no protein, no vitamins, and no minerals. Nothing. Wait a minute that sounds like. Water! Ah, YES! But your body isnt made up of 75% sugar, now is it? When you eat refined sugar to your body it is seen as an Invader. Alien life forms come down to do harm to you.
You see when you eat refined sugar your body needs to take nutrients from other cells in the body in order to metabolize it because refined sugar lacks the ability to do so on its on. Minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium are taken from vital points of the body to make use of the sugar you just ingested. So vital things that require those minerals get done a lot slower, and a lot less efficient over time.
And obviously with the loss of calcium to help with the sugar onslaught, your bones will weaken. Thus, increasing the chances of osteoporosis, breaks, and fractures later on in life. Calcium loss also affects the teeth. Tooth decay. Dentists love sugar too. Dentists on average rake in about $50 billion worldwide. How much of that do you think is a direct result of refined sugar consumption?
Another common problem with eating a lot of sugar is the onset of diabetes. Sugar raises the blood sugar levels in your body very quickly and causes insulin to release from the pancreas. Your body will constantly be working throughout the day if you eat a lot of sugar. If you keep up your sugar eating ways your pancreas wont be able to perform its job and then youll have some big trouble with the onset of diabetes.
Who wants that? No one! Then we also have problems with energy. Did you ever get what is known as a sugar high? It doesnt last long does it? Your tired already, are craving sugar, eat sugar, feel good, little time passes, and then CRASH! You come back down off the high. You feel even more tired, hungrier, and have less energy. Do you like having no energy? You want your energy that will last a long time-- eat a sweet potato, not a Ding Dong.
So now its about time to kick your sugar addiction. Not so fast-- Getting off your sugar addiction is not as easy as you think it is. Sugar can very well be called a drug. Its addictive. People that try to get off their sugar diet experience much the same things as smokers, caffeine addicts, and narcotics users. They get headaches, anxiety, depression, mood swings, and more.
Its best to slowly wean yourself off of refined sugar. Dont do it all at once. Going from eating donuts and coffee, and McDonalds for lunch and dinner to eating oatmeal and steamed broccoli, chicken and egg whites is not going to work. Once a week try and eliminate something from your diet that contains refined sugar and replace it with something natural.
Last point is not to suppress your cravings completely. Simply feed it. But savor each bite and keep the portion small. Good luck!
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Please visit http://www.yunnutrition.com for more information.
Jason Yun, a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Sports Nutritionist, is the owner of Yun Strength and Fitness Systems, LLC and is a Columbus fitness bootcamp instructor and weight management teacher.
