Just one century ago, people consumed about 15 grams of sugar a day mostly from pure cane sugar. Today, the typical person consumes a whopping 73 grams of sugar a day mostly in foods sweetened using the cheaper corn fructose sugar. A more subtle source of “sugar” intake comes from whole, sprouted and refined grains in the Standard American Diet (SAD). Research continues to reveal the damage that sugar is having on our body. Most of the research is pointed at the impact of sugar on weight gain, diabetes, obesity, ADD/ADHD and cancer. However, more and more research is drawing a very direct relationship between sugar, especially fructose, and heart disease.
• Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.
• Sugar can cause hardening of the arteries and heart disease.
• Sugar can cause abnormal metabolic processes in normal, healthy individuals and thus promoten degenerative diseases.
• Fructose specifically, for example in fresh fruit juices, and processed soft drinks or sports drinks, has been shown to raise triglyceride levels, and increased risk for heart disease.
Excess deep belly or visceral fat, associated with obesity, is caused by consuming sugar and grains which break down quickly to glucose, elevating insulin levels, the hormone that tells the body to store fat. Visceral fat has been connected to the release of proteins and hormones in the body, which cause inflammation, in turn damaging arteries. So it comes down to this:
Sugar and grains are inflammatory foods which promote degeneration of our cellular structure which leads us to today’s most common reasons for death, all of which are degenerative diseases.
They are heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and now obesity. Interesting don’t you think, that just one hundred years ago, the top causes for death were upper respiratory infections like pneumonia, flu and tuberculosis? Could it be our lifestyles? Could it be what we eat, our stressful lives, our lack of sleep and lack of exercise? Choosing health means choosing a better lifestyle. Let us help you make those choices.