NontoxicLifestyle: 22 reasons Why too little too much sugar is toxic for your health.

The seasons when sweets are shared most is just around the corner. The use of sweeteners in food has been a practice since ancient time but the addition of sugars in food by food manufacturers is on the rise. Added sugar assume many names like invert sugar, corn sugar, corn syrups, corn syrup solids, high fructose corn syrup, honey, sucrose, coconut sugar etc.

I promise i am going to fill your ear with sugar research studies, findings, and quote. However, there are Just a few things you should know about Refined Sugar.

Refined Sugar is empty calorie; Sweets are fun to eat but they aren't very nutritious.

Refined sugar eaten by a breast feeding mum can cause her infant child thrush--buttocks yeast infection, rash and skin inflammation. Sugar can exacerbate inflammation.

Sugar can make you fat.

Sugar can cause yeast infection. Even if you are vegetarian, if your meals are starchy and sugary you may have an excess glucose in your blood, and then yeast infection thrives.

Sugar can contribute to nutrient deficiencies only by displacing nutrients.

Before sugar enters the bloodstream from the digestive tract, it is broken down into two simple sugars… glucose and fructose.

· Glucose is found in every living cell on the planet. If we don’t get it from the diet, our bodies produce it.

· Fructose is different. Our bodies do not produce it in any significant amount and there is no physiological need for it. It can only be metabolized by the liver in small amounts. Excess sugar is turned into glycogen by the liver, if you eat more fructose than the liver can handle, fructose will be stored as fat. Is not the grease alone that makes one chunky fat but the excess consumption of sugary food and drinks? Then if you continue to eat more sugar, you may end up with a fatty liver, diabetics and all sort of metabolic disease that thrive in a sugary blood environment.

Sugar gotten from fruits consumption can be healthy, it is impossible to build too much fructose in the body by eating raw fruit and berries. Insulin is affected by blood sugar and it is a very important hormone in the body. It allows glucose (blood sugar) to enter cells from the bloodstream, signaling the cells to start burning glucose instead of fat. When you consume too much sugary meals, the body becomes resistant to insulin, and you may develop all sorts of problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, blindness, and many more.

After a meal, as blood glucose rises, special cells of the pancreas respond by secreting insulin into the blood. When cells become resistant to the effects of insulin, the beta cells in the pancreas makes more of it. As insulin resistance gets worse, the pancreas isn't keeping up with the demand of producing insulin to keep blood sugar level down. This results in blood sugar level shooting up and type 2 diabetes. Been skinny or vegetarian is not an immunity card against blood sugar spike, only a well-structured diet can stand a chance in balancing sugar levels.

Sugar affects glands linked to mood. Sugar releases dopamine in the brain which can cause addiction in a lot of people. Sugar gives us energy and a happy brain spark but down the road continuous consumption may lead to slow cognitive activity.

Sugar lowers the natural effect of ghrelin hormone that helps the body balance the feeling for more calorie. Weight gain increase because you crave more sugar and starchy food/drinks.

Saturated fat is quite bad for your heart and arteries but sugar is no exempt. Large consumption of fructose can raise dense LDL and Oxidized LDL, triglyerides and increase abdominal obesity.

Sugar can lead to tumor over growth and multiplication of cancerous cells because it affects the metabolic process of the body and has oxidative effect on the liver cells.

Sugar attached to protein can change a protein's shape and function; when they bind to lipids in a cell's membrane. Sugar alter the way cells function. Cancer cells coated with sugar molecules are able to sneak by the cells of the immune system.

Sugar is Sugar! You receive about the same amount of sweetness from an orange as table sugar but the quality and nutrition value makes the big difference. Empty calorie foods such as cookies, cakes, candy, bread, sodas, pies, cereals, canned vegetables and tomato sauce, Chinese soy sauce, processed foods contain lots of added sugar; these kind of food delivers energy but with few or no nutrient.

How often you eat sugar can increase or decrease your teeth problems. Bacteria produce acid for 20 to 30 minutes after each exposure. If a person eats three pieces of candy at one time, the teeth will be exposed to approximately 30 minutes of acid

destruction. But, if the person eats three pieces at half-hour intervals, the time of exposure increases to 90 minutes. Likewise, slowly sipping a sugary soft drink may be more harmful than drinking quickly and clearing the mouth of sugar. Refined sugar can cause teeth decay and plague by helping bacteria growth in the gum.

Some people believe that because honey is natural food, it is nutritious--or, at least, more nutritious than sugar. A look at their chemical structures reveals the truth. Honey is like table sugar, contains glucose and fructose. The primary difference is that table sugar has two monosaccharides which are bonded together as a disaccharide, whereas in honey some of them are free. Whether a person eats honey or table sugar, they end up in the body same way as glucose and fructose. The only key difference between honey and raw sugar is that Honey is less processed and does contain a few vitamins and minerals. Honey is denser than crystalline sugar, so it provides more energy per spoonful.

This is not to say that all sugar sources are alike, for some are more nutritious than others. Consider a fruit, say, an orange or a handful of date or fig fruit. The fruit may give you the same amount of fructose and glucose and same number of kcalories as a spoon of sugar or honey, but the quality is more valuable nutritionally. The sugar found in fruit, arrive in the body in a large volume of water, packaged in fiber, and mixed with valuable minerals, vitamins, and phytochemicals.
The significant difference between sugar sources are not but between how natural it is but in how concentrated or dilute a sweet is. You can suspect an exaggerated nutrition claim when someone claims that one sugary product is more nutritious than another because it contains honey.
If you trying to cut off sugar and find yourself dealing with sugar craving depression, for nutrition's sake, the appropriate attitude to take is not that sugar is "bad" and must be avoided, but that nutritious food must come first. If the nutritious foods like vegetable and fruits ends up overcrowding a piece of sugary pecan pie in your diet, that is fine--but not the other way around. But if I were asked to pick between refined sugar and honey; I would definitely pick honey, just because it offers a more natural taste along with some minerals and vitamins that may be helpful for the healthy body. It is okay to have a few cakes and pie every now and then but don't make it a habit. The choices we make when we are young comes to haunt us when we are aged, remember eating variety with moderation and balance in mind is the key. you can come up with a million excuses for not eating right, but your wallet and body is paying for it every single day.

Become a Mindful eater---go easy on the sweets, go wild on fruits, vegetables, lean protein!