HEALTH INFO
SUGAR

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down?

Not according to the research I have read extensively.

Did you know that due to our lifestyle, diet & hidden sugars that we now eat on average at least 20 times more sugar than we did 50 years ago?

Our bodies can only cope with about 2 teaspoons a day; but we overload & intoxicate it with a between 3 & 20 times more than this.

In fact, we shouldn't really eat raw cane sugar or corn syrup at all, but should opt for healthier options like honey, molasses or pure maple syrup instead. I recommend using these alternatives to wean you off the white stuff & gradually replace it all with fruit to get your natural sugar hit. Start checking all ingredients on everything you buy to check for hidden sugars; you as the consumer have purchase power. It only takes 4 people in 100 to put a product to the back of the shelves in the supermarkets & a few more to get rid of it completely!

•  Every time you consume sugar you can suppress your immune by up to 60% efficiency; knocking down your defences against infection & slowing recovery

•  Sugar is an anti-nutrient which can deplete calcium, magnesium, copper, vitamin E & chromium

•  Sugar can increase adrenaline production, causing hyperactivity (including ADHD), anxiety, difficulty concentrating, emotional instability, & irritable kids. In a juvenile rehab camp, there was a 44% drop in antisocial behaviour when they were put on a low sugar diet.

•  Sugar can raise cholesterol levels

•  Sugar can reduce tissue elasticity & function in your body

•  Sugar feeds some tumours & cancers. It increases free radicals in your body

•  Sugar can cause diabetes & irregular blood-sugar levels, especially if you are taking oral contraceptives. It damages your pancreas over time

•  Sugar can weaken your eyesight; causing cataracts & short sightedness

•  Sugar can upset your stomach & gut causing acid, indigestion, bowel disease, ulcerative colitis & Crohn's disease. It also stops your body digesting food so well

•  It can cause premature aging due to the changes it makes to collagen in your skin

•  It can lead to alcoholism, especially as so many drinks are loaded with it, & you become addicted to the sugar as much as the alcohol, so making it twice as hard to control

•  It can contribute to tooth decay & gum disease

•  It can cause obesity as excess amounts are turned to fat & stored in your body

•  It feeds Candida Albicans (yeast based infection)

•  It can cause gallstones

•  It can cause appendicitis

•  It can cause piles

•  It can cause varicose veins

•  It can contribute to osteoporosis

•  It can increase your systolic Blood pressure

•  Sugar slumps can cause drowsiness & decreased activity in children (what are they eating for school dinners?)

•  It can damage & interfere with absorption of protein into your body

•  It causes allergies

•  It can cause toxaemia during pregnancy

•  It can contribute to poor skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, acne, dermatitis etc

•  It can cause atherosclerosis & heart disease by compromising the lining of your arteries

•  It can impair the structure of your DNA

•  It can cause emphysema

•  It upsets the balance of many systems in our body

•  Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease

•  Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making the cells divide & storing excess fat

•  Sugar can increase kidney size & lead to kidney stones

•  It can cause fluid retention

•  It can cause constipation

•  It can make your tendons more brittle

•  It can cause headaches & migraines

•  It can affect learning capacity, affect exam grades & cause learning disorders & decrease clarity of thought

•  It can cause depression

•  It can cause auto-immune diseases like arthritis, gout, asthma & M.S.

•  It can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease

•  It can cause hormonal imbalances resulting in PMT, painful periods, worse menopausal symptoms, increasing oestrogen in men, as well as reducing the growth hormone

•  High sugar intake can lead to a shorter full term pregnancy increasing the risk of a smaller child

•  Sugar given to babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce

•  Sugar does not satisfy your appetite the way fat does which is one of the reasons you crave more 20-30minutes after you have had some, promoting overeating

•  It can slow down your adrenal glands function

•  It increases the risk of polio (ironic then that the inoculation was given on a sugar lump!)

•  It can cause epileptic seizures

•  Sugar dehydrates new-borns

•  Tobacco has been cured using sugar, which means you become more addicted & have a higher chance of getting lung cancer. In Japan where they didn't cure tobacco with sugar they have a much lower incidence of lung cancer.

•  SUGAR IS ADDICTIVE!

……And if this isn't enough to convince you, I strongly recommend reading the following books:

The Sugar Blues by William Dufty

Lick Sugar Habit by Nancy Appleton Ph.D

Get The Sugar Out…..501 simple ways to cut the Sugar out of any diet byAnne Louise Gittelman, M.S., C.N.S.

You Are What You Eat by Gillian McKeith

Feel free to come by & peruse our resources or book in for a chat with one of our therapists @ the L.M.C., Penventon Hotel, West End Redruth. Tel: 01209 203230

Email: nicolle@lifenlimb.co.uk

Sources of information: The Sugar Blues by William Dufty, 501 Ways to Lick the Sugar Habit by Nancy Appleton Ph.D, What Doctors Don't Tell You, www.mercola.com