The Hidden Dangers Of Sugar

Written by Jennifer Smith, Natural Medicine Practitioner and Certified in Holistic Nutrition

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5 Reasons To Cut Sugar From Your Diet

There’s been a lot of talk in the media about the hidden dangers of sugar. Sugar is hidden in all sorts of foods including bread and salad dressing. Add to that our love for things like cookies and ice cream and it’s no wonder our sugar consumption is skyrocketing. Unfortunately, all this added sugar is doing a lot of damage to our health and it’s making us gain weight in record numbers. 

It’s time to cut added sugar from our diet. Here are five reasons why you should do a sugar detox and do what you can to avoid consuming sugar as much as possible. 


The Hidden Dangers of Sugar:
Consuming Sugar Spikes Your Insulin 

As soon as your body starts to digest sugar, your insulin spikes up. Insulin is the hormone that is in charge of keeping blood sugar levels from rising too high and converting extra sugar into fat for storage. 

It’s a delicate process and consuming sugar in large quantities will cause your insulin to spike and deal with more than it is designed to handle. Over time it becomes less and less effective this is when things start to negatively affect your health. 

Consuming Sugar Makes You Gain Weight

Sugar adds a lot of calories to food, it can make you gain weight and you don’t have to be eating a lot of candy and cakes for that to happen. 

Since the late seventies, when health authorities advised consumers to watch and lower their fat intake, the food industry has provided us with all sorts of low fat and fat free food options. To make these low fat foods taste ok, they had to add a lot of sugar.

Take a look at regular and low fat or fat free salad dressing. The lower fat options have a lot more carbs and in particular, sugar. You may not taste it, but it’s there. Since sugar is much more quickly digested than fat, you’re hungry sooner after consuming a low fat meal and you eat again. The end result is weight gain. 

Sugar Prevents You From Losing Weight

When you consume foods high in carbohydrates and sugar, your insulin will remain elevated for an extended period even after blood sugar levels have begun to lower. The result is elevated insulin through-out the day. 

In order for your body to enter the fat burning zone, you need to have both blood sugar and insulin at a lower state.  This cannot occur unless you are consuming a low carb and low sugar diet.  If you manage to lose weight without cutting sugar, this means you are losing water weight and many times you are also loosing muscle mass. Losing weight without cutting sugar is only a short term weight loss which will usually result in gaining the weight back.

Consuming Sugar Increases Your Risk For Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome

With all that increased sugar and weight gain comes a higher risk for diabetes and a condition called metabolic syndrome. Metabolic Syndrome is a group of symptoms and behaviors that put you at a much higher risk of developing heart disease and Type II diabetes. Thankfully both conditions are reversible and the first step toward better health is to cut out the sugar. 

Sugar Doesn’t Have A Lot of Nutritional Value And It Makes You Hungrier 

Last but not least, it's important to remember that aside from a little boost of energy, sugar doesn’t provide a lot of nutritional value to your body. If you want something sweet, you’re much better off grabbing a piece of fruit than a cookie. At least with a piece of fruit you’re getting some vitamins and fiber with your sugar fix. 

If you want or need to lose weight, the first thing you should cut out is sugar. It causes spikes in your blood sugar, that then make your body produce a large amount of insulin to pull the sugar out of your system (and convert it to body fat). The sad little side effect of that process is that your blood sugar goes on a roller coaster ride that will leave you hungry and craving more sugary treats. 

Written and Reviewed By:

Jennifer Smith, BA, NMP, CHN, FBCC

Jennifer Smith is a Natural Medicine Practitioner and Holistic Nutrition Practitioner. She has a Bachelor's degree in Christian Counseling. She has completed advanced training in Functional Nutrition, Functional Medicine, Natural Health Consultant diploma, Biblical natural medicine, and Biblical Eating and Clinical Nutrition. Jennifer has a Functional Medicine virtual clinic in Naples, FL called Fx Remedies Virtual Care. 

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