Contributed by Nancy Appleton, PhD
Author of the book Lick The Sugar Habit
In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences. The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.
- Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.
- Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
- Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.
- Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.
- Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.
- Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
- Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.
- Sugar can weaken eyesight.
- Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.
- Sugar can cause premature aging.
- Sugar can lead to alcoholism.
- Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.
- Sugar contributes to obesity.
- Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.
- Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections).
- Sugar can cause gallstones.
- Sugar can cause appendicitis.
- Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.
- Sugar can cause varicose veins.
- Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.
- Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
- Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.
- Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.
- Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.
- Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
- High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).
- Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.
- Sugar causes food allergies.
- Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
- Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.
- Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease
- Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.
- Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.
- Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.
- Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness
- Sugar can cause emphysema.
- High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.65
- Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.
- Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.
- Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.
- Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.
- Sugar can damage your pancreas.
- Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.
- Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.
- Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.
- Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.
- Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.
- Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.
- Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's ability to think clearly.
- Sugar can cause depression.
- Sugar can increase your risk of gout.
- Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.
- Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating , and decreasing growth hormone.
- Sugar can lead to dizziness.
- Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.
- High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.
- High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
- Sugar is an addictive substance.
- Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.
- Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.
- Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.
- Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.
- The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.
- Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.
- Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.
- Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.
- I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.
- Sugar increases your risk of polio.
- High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.
- Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.
- In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.
- Sugar may induce cell death.
- In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a percent drop in antisocial behavior.
- Sugar dehydrates newborns.
- Sugar can cause gum disease
Complete article, click here.
