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Sweet to the Taste, Sour to the Waist
Almost every processed food on grocery store shelves contains some amount of added sugar. As a result, your body craves it. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re addicted to it without realizing it. Why is it important to leave sugar on the store shelf? Keep reading to find out. Read >>
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Sweet to the Taste, Sour to the Waist
Sugar may taste good, but it’s doing harm to your body.
Sugar. It’s everywhere and oh, so hard to avoid. I’ve you’re successful at limiting the sweet stuff, you’re an example for the rest of the world to follow. If you’re not, take heart. While it’s not easy, it can be done!
Unfortunately, sugar isn’t just in cookies, cakes, and candies. Almost every processed food on grocery store shelves contains some amount of added sugar.
As a result, your body craves it. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re addicted to it without realizing it.
Why is it important to leave sugar on the store shelf? Keep reading to learn more about the potential harm sugar has on your body.
Weight Gain
The danger everyone associates with a high-sugar diet is weight gain. Rightly so. Sugar contains zero nutritional value, but it does come with calories. Useless calories. And as you know, too many calories is a recipe for weight gain.
How much sugar are you consuming? On average, men consume 384 calories of added sugar a day! For many, the main culprit of added sugar is sugar-sweetened beverages that are loaded with a simple sugar called fructose. Fructose is associated with increased appetite and accumulation of visceral fat around your abdomen.
Heart Disease
A high-sugar diet puts you at high risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death. It does it by increasing your risk of inflammation, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, atherosclerosis, weight gain, fatty liver disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. In other words, you’re upping your risk for heart disease with every sweet bite.
Type 2 Diabetes
One of the greatest risk factors for type 2 diabetes is obesity, a condition associated with a high-sugar diet. Over time, eating too much sugar contributes to insulin resistance. This causes your body to lose its ability to regulate its own blood sugar levels. Then blood sugar levels rise, and the end result is diabetes.
Fatigue
It’s easy to turn to sugar-filled foods for a quick boost in energy. But after a spike in blood sugar, you’re left feeling zapped. That’s because foods high in sugar are low in protein, fiber, and healthy fats, and your body needs these nutrients to keep your blood sugar stable and body full of energy.
Acne
Wonder why your skin keeps breaking out? It may be due to the refined carbs, processed foods, and added sugar you consume. Spikes in blood sugar cause a rise in insulin, an increase in inflammation. This then triggers oil production in your skin. Next thing you know, you’ve got acne again.
Cancer
Another risk of a high-sugar diet is cancer. Your chance of getting certain cancers increases as your weight goes up. Cancer is also associated with lots of inflammation in the body and insulin resistance. What causes these problems? Too much sugar.
Fatty Liver
When you consume fructose, a type of simple sugar, it goes to the liver. Once there, the liver converts fructose into glucose for usable energy. If too much fructose is processed by the liver, the liver may turn it into fat. This puts you at risk for fatty liver disease, the most common type of liver disease.
Depression
Your mental health depends on what you eat. Eat a lot of sugar? You’re more likely to deal with depression. An unhealthy diet that includes too much sugar can lead to highs and lows in blood sugar levels, inflammation, and an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain. This imbalance damages your brain’s ability to regulate your mood. So you’re left unhealthy and unhappy.
