It is very normal to call your loved ones ‘sugar’, but I am sure, a time will come when the term will be as repugnant and undesirable as what that very object does to your body. Yes, refined sugar is a deadly poison, which robs you off some of your physical and mental abilities, dries up your zest and enthusiasm by making you lethargic, makes you into a despicable bundle of lard and fat and torments your entire body with diseases such as diabetes before eventually killing you.
Most people are aware that sugar is not good for them, yet treat themselves to a good helping of it, in the form of chocolates or biscuits or bakery food or ice cream. It is addictive and the only good thing you can say about it is it tastes sweet. There are also many forms of refined sugar which are not so sweet but equally addictive; the most infamous of them being alcohol. Government or the health department which ban advertisements of cigarettes and liquor should take a closer look at the myriad ways refined sugar can be harmful to the body and insist on a leaving a warning insignia on any food product that contains refined sugar.
I shall now proceed to mention why refined sugar is dangerous to your health. Let’s start from where it all begins; the ingestion of sugar into your body. Refined sugar quickly increases the blood sugar levels, causing your pancreas to send insulin to bring the sugar level to normal. Insulin does so by pushing sugar into your cells, to be used as energy, but when more and more sugar enters your blood stream, more insulin is produced, which results in too much sugar being removed from your blood. This condition is called hypoglycemia, which eventually exhausts your pancreas, liver and adrenal glands as they have to work harder to keep your sugar levels in correct balance. Sooner or later, this leads to diabetes and a host of other problems associated with it.
One of the major causes of obesity has been linked to eating refined sugar. Excess dose of sugar always gets deposited in the fat cells. Over a period of time, coupled with an inactive life style, body starts to suffer from insulin insensitivity which makes even the smallest amount of sugar to be pushed into fat cells. This is one of the reasons why most people complain of getting fatter even though they do not overeat or over indulge in their favourite refined sugar or sweets.
Refined sugar also uses up your B- vitamins stores for digestion, in addition to calcium and magnesium. Lack of B- vitamins can be stressful on your nervous system and you may start to suffer from fatigue, anxiety, depression and tend to feel lethargic. Low on calcium and magnesium can lead to arthritis and osteoporosis.
Now, here is something all the women should worry about. It has been observed that women tend more to have a sweet tooth than men and more prone to this terrible side effect of refined sugar consumption. Glucose in your blood attaches to protein, causing rogue molecules called AGE [Advance Glycation End products]. The more sugar you eat, the more AGE you have and they tend to damage protein, especially the collagen and elastin fibres that keep your skin elastic and taut. The skin loses its elasticity and wrinkles are formed which are not reversible. Moreover, AGE also affects your antioxidant enzymes to reduce antioxidant levels and that, my friends, is a lot of damage.
Your body needs a high dose of vitamin C to build up defenses against diseases. Unfortunately, the glucose molecule which almost similar in structure, prevents the entry of vitamin C into the cells and needless to say, badly affects your immune system.
Here are some more reasons why refined sugar should be banned in your home.
1. It feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
2. It can cause auto-immune diseases such as arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.
3. It can increase the amount of liver fat.
4. It can produce problems in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.
5. Increases risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
6. It can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.
7. It upsets the mineral balances in your body causing chromium and copper deficiencies.
All parents who love their children and wish them good health should forgo the use of sugar in their houses and never let their children develop a craving for the same. Grown ups who have developed an affinity for the use of sugar may find it very difficult to give up the use of sugar as it is very addictive in nature. In women, it results in eating disorders as women tend to rely on refined sugar and such other food to elevate the mood causing a high level of dependency.
As you see, it is not so easy to wriggle free from the clutches of this “sugary” monster. A systematic, dedicated approach and a highly supportive group of family and friends are very important in freeing yourself from the talons of this addiction. Most who read this article may decide that they have to give up eating sugar, but give themselves a few more days to adjust themselves to the idea. Believe me, unless you take immediate action now, it will never happen. You have to start now to lower the levels of sugar intake from your dining table and slowly, but steadily let that habit permeate to other areas, such as the tea time in your office or social parties and other outings.
And yes, you may call your girl ‘Honey’, but do not ‘sugar’ her anymore. All those sugar may not be good for her and if anything, it is only going to make her look terrible and feeling wretched.
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