146 Reasons Why Sugar Ruins Your Health… Part 2

Yesterday, we started talking about something that’s appropriately called the “toxic threat”: white sugar. While years ago we consumed much less white sugar, today, it’s in a multitude of foods, especially processed, fast, and fake foods. From salad dressings and sauces to packaged baked goods and even to the “healthy” smoothies you get from fast food drive-thrus, sugar is almost everywhere around us. (Don’t worry: the smoothies we make at Goodness Me! are free of added sugar and artificial sweeteners!)  

In fact, as Janet Jacks states in Discover the Power of Food, “a can of soda pop contains nine to ten teaspoons of sugar, while a giant 64-ouncer you might find at the movie theater has 53 teaspoons. These shocking excesses play havoc not only with your blood sugar, but also with your metabolism that must process all that sugar.” Still want to drink that can of pop?  

You might think that kicking the sugar habit is difficult, since it is in so many packaged foods. The key here, though, is to enjoy natural, whole foods: produce, meats, raw cheeses, certain grains and legumes, beans, and other foods that you would find in their natural state–foods that even our great, great, great, great, great grandparents enjoyed. These foods are naturally free of refined white sugar, and will do our bodies a world of good.  

We’ll talk more about what happens in your body when you eat sugar, but for now, we’re going to continue our list of reasons why sugar ruins your health… in case the reasons from yesterday’s post weren’t quite convincing enough.  

31. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body.
32. Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.
33. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.
34. Sugar leads to chromium deficiency.
35. Sugar can lead to cancer of the ovaries.
36. Sugar causes copper deficiency.
37. Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
38. Sugar can weaken eyesight.
39. Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.
40. Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children.
41. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.
42. Sugar can cause tooth decay.
43. Sugar can cause gallstones.
44. Sugar can cause appendicitis.
45. Sugar can cause multiple sclerosis.
46. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.
47. Sugar can cause varicose veins.
48. Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity.
49. Sugar can increase cholesterol.
50. Sugar can cause emphysema.
51. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis.
52. Sugar can damage the pancreas.
53. Sugar can adversely affect school childrens’ grades and cause learning disorders.
54. Sugar can cause indigestion.
55. High-refined-sugar-diets reduce learning capacity.
56. Sugar can lead to the formation of kidney stones.
57. Sugar can lead to dizziness.
58. Diets high in sugar can cause free radicals and oxidative stress.
59. Sugar slows food’s travel time through the gastrointestinal tract.
60. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.  

Stay tuned next week for the continuation of this series! *Sugar stats from Kick the Sugar Habit by Nancy Appleton, PhD