Health Benefits of Sugar

Sugar. Such a sweet name.

 

As children our fondest memories often drift to cherished birthday parties, Sunday dessert and penny candies.

 

Penny candies? Once upon a time when things were really cheap to buy, you could actually get 2 candies for a penny at your local five and dime. Sounds like science fiction I know. It really happened for some of us kids growing up in the 60’s…

 

How Did Sugar Become Such a Demon?

 

What began as an innocent love affair with our cherished sweetener has become the world’s biggest nightmare.

 

Sugar has become public enemy number one.

On the heels of the 70’s low fat craze,

 

ingenious food technologists created 1,000’s of dangerous food stuffs using chemicals and sugars to make them palatable and addictive. Chemicals that fool your taste buds and your brain.

Slowly and deceptively, television media seduced the mainstream with their clever scheme to hook the world using sugar in its many forms. Much like the tobacco industry and their Bernays’-inspired playbook that manipulated the masses using “authorities” to endorse their deadly products. Today’s industrial food industry spends billions annually to market junk food to children and their naïve parents in an attempt to gain their “stomach shares,” while padding the wallets of their shareholders.

 

The sugar of today is deceptively

hidden behind 61 different names.

 

You may know a few of them. Words like cane sugar, fruit juice, beet sugar, and maple syrup may sound familiar. You might be surprised to find that sugar can be found in virtually all processed foods; from spaghetti sauce to bread, yogurt, processed meats and many more.

 

What Does Excess Sugar Do to Your Body?

Excess sugar consumption is linked to a host of diseases. Most everyone agrees that too much sugar can make you fat and unhealthy. Research suggests it’s the root cause of metabolic syndrome. According to the National Institutes of Health, metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors that raise your risk for heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke.

 

Despite a study of more than 40,000 people published in

JAMA Internal Medicine

showing a high intake of added sugar increases the risk of cardiovascular mortality (death) and decades of scientific research, the medical establishment and policy makers continue to ignore the blatant reality, excessive consumption of sugar kills and is contributing to childhood obesity.

Sugar calories are deadly calories. Devoid of nutrition and what I call an “anti-nutrient.” Any food or drink substance with added sugar can create potential harm and wreak havoc on the body, eventually causing malnutrition and toxicity. This leads to illnesses such as cancer, heart attack, stroke, diabetes and liver failure.

 

Which Processed Foods Have Sugar?

Virtually all of them. Here’s what you can do:

 

#1. READ THE LABEL. It’s that simple. Processed foods have many ingredients. REAL food does not.

 

#2. If it has sugar or any ingredient you don’t understand or can’t pronounce, put it back on the shelf.

 

#3. Buy organic. LIVE food. Organic processed food isn’t healthy. It’s okay to eat once in a while, but it’s still processed and virtually devoid of nutrition.

 

#4. Watch our suggested videos. Peruse the recommended books.

 

Knowledge is power. You have the power to get and stay healthy.

As founder of the Institute of Responsible Nutrition, Dr. Robert Lustig states, “Most people think of sugar and junk food as empty calories, but they are way worse. Sugar turns into unhealthy fat in the body, and processed food, including supposedly healthy choices such as fruit-flavored yogurt, is loaded with added sugar.”

 

Robert Lustig’s campaign to prove sugar is fueling America’s healthcare crisis (and wherever the Standard American Diet is embraced) is challenging the industrial food industry. Definitive science has proven, sugar is toxic.

 

San Francisco, California has led the way as the first U.S. city to require health warnings on advertisements for soda and other sugar-laden drink products. This precedent has generated a ripple effect into the consciousness of Americans. Similar to the expose of the tobacco industry, public awareness around the health dangers of sugar are coming to light.

When we stop supporting the processed food industry and purchase healthy products we send a message that says, “We care about our health and that of our family.”

And what are the health benefits of Sugar? NONE.

 

 

Resouces:

 

SugarScience.org has reviewed 8,000 independent clinical research articles on sugar and its role in metabolic conditions that are some of the leading killers of those eating a Standard American Diet. Diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver disease.

 

Fructose Restriction and Metabolic Improvement in Children with Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome

Obesity Research Journal by Dr.Robert Lustig, et. al

 

What Is Metabolic Syndrome? 

by National Institutes of Health-U.S. Department of Health & Human Services  

 

Isocaloric fructose restriction and metabolic improvement in children with obesity and metabolic syndrome.

by US National Library of MedicineNational Institutes of Health

 

Childhood Obesity and Cardiovascular Dysfunction

by Journal American College of Cardiology