Effects of Sugar on the Human Body

Effects of Sugar on the Human BodySugar is one of the most common ingredients found in almost all of the ???foods??? found on grocery shelves in North America.?? The American public has been warned of the effects of sugar since the 50???s.?? Now, increasingly, doctors and nutritionists are changing their tune.?? Instead of cautioning people to moderate their sugar consumption, many of them are calling on people to eliminate this ???toxin??? from their diet and are comparing it to a drug.?? They point out that during the refining process, since sugar is stripped of all its??? original food value including its vitamins & minerals ??? it can no longer be classified as ???food???.?? It holds no value except for its carbohydrates ??? pure calories. It contains no vitamins, no minerals, no fats, no enzymes, no protein ??? nothing would classify itself as belonging to a true food group.?? Some claim that the effects of white sugar is so harmful, especially in the amounts consumed by the average North American as to warrant classification?? as a ???drug???.??

Dr. David Reuben, author of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nutrition, says, ???white refined sugar is not a food.?? It is a pure chemical extracted from plant sources, purer in fact than cocaine, which it resembles in many ways.?? Its true name is sucrose and its chemical formula is C12H22011.?? It has 12 carbon atoms, 22 hydrogen atoms, 11 oxygen atoms and absolutely nothing else to offer.?????? The chemical formula for cocaine is C17H21N04.?? For all practical purposes, the difference is that sugar is missing the ???N???, or nitrogen atom.

Let???s set aside the fact that on a chemical cellular level, sugar is one nitrogen atom, a few carbons and a little oxygen away from crack cocaine and look at the impact this substance has on our bodies.

1.?? Sugar wreaks havoc on your heart and circulatory system.
In a scientific study published in 2012 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, doctors found ???that sugar sweetened beverage consumption had a 20% increased risk of coronary heart disease even after adjustment for age, smoking, physical activity, alcohol, multivitamins, family history, diet quality, energy intake, body mass, pre-enrollment weight change an dieting were taken into account.???

2.?? It is toxic to your liver.
Table sugar is composed of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.?? Both are metabolized by your liver.?? Some experts estimate that our bodies can safely process between 2-4 teaspoons of sugar per day.?? The average can of cola contains over 11 teaspoons!?? When you take into account that even if you avoid sweets or sugary foods, sugar is still hidden in ketchup, tomato sauces, barbeque sauces, tonic water, most breads and crackers, cereals, spice mixes and almost all dressings ??? especially fat free ones,?? it is easy to see how we are consuming copious amounts of this substance.

3.?? It is making you fat.
Eating healthy fats in reasonable amounts doesn???t make you fat.?? Eating sugar and fructose is making our nation fat!?? When we consume sugar, our bodies produce insulin in response to the large amounts of glucose in the blood stream.?? Glucose is toxic to our bodies, so it???s the job of insulin to get the glucose out of the bloodstream and into our cells where it can be used for energy.?? Over time, large amounts of glucose regularly consumed cause our cells to become insulin resistant, triggering the pancreas to secrete larger and larger amounts to ensure cellular absorption. This leads to Type II Diabetes.?? However, insulin also performs other tasks.?? One is to send signals to fat cells telling them to collect the fat in the bloodstream and store it and NOT to burn the fat that they are currently storing.?? During times of elevated insulin levels, significant amounts of the energy from our food is directly deposited in fat cells and stored.?? Excessive levels of fructose consumption triggers high blood insulin levels and in turn, insulin resistance.?? It is when this happens that our bodies can???t access the fat stores, and then we start to feel hungry again. And we eat again.

Check your diet and make sure you aren’t eating too much sugar and improve your health.

About the Author: Alex K is an online Fitness Professional providing health and wellness to the world through his online workout program Cardio Blast. Members of www.Cardioblast.com receive new cardio workouts every week, strength training programs, 50 page meal plan, fitness tracking and personal training included with their membership.

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