"Sugar could be the driving force behind some of this country's leading killers, including heart disease," said Dr. Robert Lustig in a 60 Minutes interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Lustig is a world-renowned pediatric endocrinologist, sugar crusader and YouTube phenom from his documentary Sugar: The Bitter Truth. He also said that we have a "public health crisis" with the over consumption of sugar. As a matter of fact, the average person in the US today consumes about 150 pounds per year-that's almost 1/2 pound of sugar per day - yikes! Consider that in 1820, the average American consumed only 20 pounds per year or just 1/10 of a pound of sugar per day. This is equivalent to drinking one can of soda. Most of us can agree that sugar does taste great. It makes us feel pretty good, too, as it causes our brain to produce our feel-good neurotransmitter, dopamine--just like cocaine.. Yup, brain scans have shown that sugar works exactly like cocaine. It gives you the "feel good" highs followed by the lows. Adults initially feel energized followed later by fatigue, hunger or irritability. In children, the initial high or spike in blood sugar can make them overactive (could this be mistaken for ADD??) followed by meltdowns after the blood sugar has taken a dive. Just like cocaine, sugar is addictive. The more we eat, the more we eventually need to satisfy our cravings leading to the overproduction of insulin. Why is it bad to produce too much insulin and why does it matter? When we ingest sugar, the pancreas is signaled to produce the hormone insulin. Insulin's main job is to escort sugar out of the bloodstream and into the cells where it can be used for energy. Insulin is meant to go to muscles for energy. However, many Americans get exercise only by moving their computer mouse! So that excess sugar leading to more insulin production, does not get used for energy as it should. Where does it go? The insulin takes the sugar to fat cells where it gets stored. This then can also build up as plaque and raise our LDL (the bad cholesterol) linking it to Heart Disease, hypertension and stroke. Keep in mind if something is sticky (like sugar), it will remain sticky inside your body, too. That stickiness creates layers of plaque, narrowing arteries, among other things. Even cancer is a well-known sugar feeder based on numerous studies. Cancer cells have insulin receptors which thrive on insulin causing them to grow. The more sugar it gets, the more it helps it grow. This is why standard cancer testing involves injecting a sugar solution into the body as cancer will attract sugar (hint: don't feed cancer sugar.). As I've said many times, avoid the low-fat diet hype. In fact, ever since the 70s when the low-fat craze came out, heart disease and diabetes have skyrocketed as fat in food products was replaced with sugar to make them taste better. You be the judge. Sugar is linked to the following:
- Obesity
- Heart Disease
- Hypertension
- High blood pressure
- Hypoglycemia
- Depression
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Nervous tension
- Aching limbs
- Diabetes
- Acne
- Stiffening of arteries
- ADD