From instant oatmeal to salad dressing, added sugar can be found in all sorts of products you may not expect. Many of us rely on processed foods for quick meals and snacks. The problem is that these products often contain high amounts of added sugar. Across the United States, added sugars account for as much as17% of the total calorie intake of adults and up to 14% for children according to the National Institute of Health.
Here are 10 reasons why sugar is bad for you:
- Negative Impact On Your Immune System – Consuming too much processed sugar reduces you body’s ability to kill germs. In fact it doesn’t take a lot of sugar to have this effect. Drinking just two sodas can inhibit the ability of your body to fight off that flu bug and lead to falling ill. When it comes to health, including dental health, avoiding added sugar can boost your immunity exponentially.
- Throw Off Mineral Balance – If you are having difficulty sleeping at night or experiencing constipation and other problems, this could be because there is in imbalance of minerals in your body. If you consume large amounts of sugar, you are likely depleting your magnesium stores to process all of it. In addition, you will lose more chromium through your urine if you are eating a lot of sugar.
- Behavior Problems In Children – Every parent on earth will tell you that sugar affects the behavior of their children. If a child is hungry and their blood sugar is low, they will be sleepy and grumpy. If a child has an overdose of sugar, they will become agitated and animated and practically start bouncing off the walls. The key to better behavior is better blood sugar balance.
- Empty Calories – Processed sugar has no health benefits whatsoever. Because of this, when you eat meals with a lot of sugar, you’re eating empty calories that lead to weight gain. The fact that in processed foods you often find that sugar is combined with fat and salt to make the effects even worse.
- Affects The Body’s Insulin Response – When your insulin response is healthy, your cells will release the right amount of insulin when sugar is present. However, if you regularly consume large amounts of sugar, your body will become confused about when to release insulin and when not to. This can eventually lead to Type 2 diabetes.
- Damages Cells and Tissues – The tissue in your eyes, kidneys, nerves and more seem to carry sugar a lot longer than other organs. This means that the body can suffer damage from that remaining sugar because it damages small blood vessels.
- Elevated Blood Triglyceride Levels – Consuming too much sugar leads to high blood triglyceride levels. The only way to know if your triglyceride levels is high is to get a blood test.
- Anxiety – Refined sugars tend to enter the blood stream extremely fast, and leave the blood stream just as fast. This process can lead to more anxiety overall. Even though often people who are addicted to sugar eat to suppress anxiety, this is just making the problem much worse. It’s best to avoid added sugars in the first place.
- Poor Concentration – The reason sugar may affect concentration is because of the speed in which processed sugar can enter blood cells and then leaves them. A person needs a balanced level of glucose to feed the brain, not short bursts of sugar such as in the form of soft drinks or cereal.
- Poor Digestion – Processed sugar is extremely acidic. Processed foods and sugars can cause inflammation in your stomach, decrease acid activity, and trigger acid reflux symptoms.
Keep in mind that each person is affected differently. It’s best to look at your own symptoms and health issues and if you have any of these problems, consult your physician and try eliminating processed sugars from your diet to see if you notice any changes in your health.
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